Home Forums Fishing Saltwater EPA vs. Bristol Bay

The EPA is reported to have cleared the way for the Alaska Pebble Mine. Bristol Bay isn't just the most important sockeye salmon fishery, it's also commercially the most important fishery of any kind in the world. And the mining company is Canadian, so they can conceivably be able to walk away from any environmental damage, sticking us with a superfund site. It's time for Sarah and Todd Palin to raise hell!

The Pebble Mine is opposed broadly in Alaska. It is one of the few things which people of nearly any stripe agree on. I don't think it is a foregone conclusion, but I reckon maybe the 'alternative energy' crowd might get their way and push it through. The State does need to be funded somehow, and the traditional modern funding source (oil) leaves something to be desired in the public eye.

Same possible chitshow with Keystone XL.

I recently read there was a new deep light oil strike up north.

Well it reminds me of the Sacramento River fishery.

Many here side with the farmers because they have bought into the notion that it is a bunch of whacko enviros who oppose all the Sacramento water being shipped south..in reality it is a lot of conservative fisherman in the state concerned with the King Salmon fishery.
Ya I know, it's a cheap shot to use the endangered smelt as the tool, but in reality the water wars is about the giant salmon industry against a handful of valley farmers with a good lobby. There is just no denying it, ship more water to the valley, the salmon stocks go down

Not in the same way at all... and Pebble is a very long way from being a done deal. All they did was agree to allow them to file an application. The application is not likely to be accepted. But to give you an idea of the automatic consequences; they already have a permit to dewater upper and lower Talarik Creeks and upper Kanaskat Creek... two World-Class rainbow trout fisheries...

Look at the mining dams history to see the probability of a major problem... then look at the number of pipelines criss-crossing the US. Yeah, some pipelines cause problems but it is rare compared to mines.

Are you referencing the 2014 BC disaster?

There are plenty to choose from, did not intend to specify the BC issue, but it should work for an example.

Last Sunday's Minneapolis Star Tribune had an article about the Polymet copper/nickel mine proposed near the Boundary Waters Canoe Area. One of those cited was a mining engineer who inspected that BC spill. Based on BC, he estimated the financial assurance for cleanup of the proposed MN mine not be about $332 million Polymet offered, but $934 million. Polymet is also a small Canadian mining company with backing from a large European company.

Thank NAFTA for putting US mining companies with higher insurance requirements out of business in the US in favor of Canadian companies...