What’s at Risk

A foreign mining conglomerate is asking hard working fishermen and Alaska Native people to take a risk on a massive open-pit mine that would sit at the headwaters of the world’s most productive wild sockeye salmon fishery. If the Pebble Mine is built, the Pebble Limited Partnership would send gold, copper and other metals to places like China, and leave behind up to 10 billion tons of waste rock that will require thousands of years of clean up. According to the company’s own documents, the mine’s waste could create a giant lake of contaminated waste contained only by a series of earthen dams, situated in an area prone to seismic activity.

The early findings of an exhaustive scientific study – the Bristol Bay Watershed Assessment – back up what Alaskans have known for nearly a decade: The Pebble Mine and Alaska’s fishing industry simply cannot coexist. The best-case scenario is that the Pebble Mine could destroy 90 miles of streams and up to 4,800 acres of wetlands. The worst-case scenario is that up to 10 billion tons of waste rock leaks acid into the salmon streams for generations to come. No mine of this size has ever been built without such a leak.

Fortunately, the Clean Water Act provides the Obama Administration with the power to ensure that this mine will not wreak havoc on Bristol Bay, America’s salmon industry, and the more than 14,000 jobs it supports. Bristol Bay United calls on federal officials to listen to the clear science, save our jobs, and protect our way of life.