Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Alaska Pebble Mine

Listened to a presentation yesterday on opposition to this mining operation near Bristol Bay.

The presenter currently works for TU, but I'd like to hear some input from those familiar with that area of AK and the proposed mining. Thanks.

Opinions from the region are running near 90% in opposition to the mine and the commercial fishing fleet is virtually all opposed.
If it happens it will dramatically effect the entire region with them majority of profits going overseas and the resulting mess left for the locals to deal with.

I don't think profits leaving the state is as big as an issue as what it would do to the environment. If profits was a big issue, then maybe we should regulate the fishing fleet since most are from WA and the money is leaving the state anyway.

That is true but I was trying to stay somewhat neutral as I am not ready to argue yet this morning

I'm not neutral. I think thy should axe the whole thing and walk away. I understand both sides, but this world is losing wild land at a very fast pace. We gotta keep what we can. Am mine of this size would destroy the area.

I like to think that I am generally cautiously pro-development. However, I have had, except for a very brief time, a very tough time getting excited about a mine as big as Pebble located in the headwaters of a watershed the size of this. Perhaps if the company would promote the successful results they have had with large mining operations in other parts of the world under similar conditions, it would be easier to swallow. The potential to screw up a lot of things even beyond the Bristol Bay area seems tremendous in this instance.

I have worked for mines here in Alaska, including on one of the last running dredges, and can attest that mining is a destructive endeavor as far as the environment is concerned. I will admit that we need it but sometimes there are places more valuable than simply how much money can be extracted from them.

A Cree Indian in the late 19th century summed it up best when he said;

" Only when the last tree has died and the last river has been poisoned and the last fish has been caught will we realize that we can not eat money"

while im not an Alaskan and i am very pro mining in general from everything ive seen the negatives FAR out weight the positives with this mine......it shouldnt be allowed to happen......

When you look at it on a world scale, some of those super-fund sites in Montana are but small examples of what happens after the money has evaporated. Imagine that happening at the headwaters of the largest run of wild Salmon in the world!

I am totally opposed to this mine, and would be even if it was totally US-development. Given that we will make very little out of the total effort, it's totally wrong.

Hard to believe anyone would be in favor of developing the mine, but some are. Very few, but still some.

Dennis

As a long time Alaskan, I am bitterly opposed to the proposed Pebble mine and the sleazy campaign to overpower the will of the people of that region, by both state and corporate interests. Must all the most pristine and beautiful places on Earth be sacrificed for corporate wealth? The world market is awash in copper ... and there are far less risky areas for a copper mine.

I'm not a "tree hugger", but there are places that should remain as they were created. And Bristol Bay and it's headwaters are one of those places.

The Earth doesn't belong to us; we belong to the Earth. That's not a religious or spiritual statement, it's a fact. We are merely the stewards of the Earth for our children, grandchildren and future generations.

The Pebble Project is a no-brainer NO.

I hunted Upper Togiak Lake last fall and it is breathtaking country. If there's anything we can do, a petition we can sign, congressmen/women we can write let me know.

I have no problem with the mine. I support it or at least I support the process that'll decide one way or another on whether it'll get developed or not.

It's mostly DSMFs in the ocean-raping commercial fishing industry that's against it.

Well, if you go by the letters (for and against)in ADN, we in opposition are in the minority, almost to the vanishing point..

Write some short, polite, thoughtful letters and see if they get published.

"Besides, we should all wait for the permit applications" and "state of the art" and people advocating against Pebble at this point are just plain wrong (according to the Attorney General) Significantly, he did not denigrate in a similar fashion those pushing for the fiasco before the permitting comes up..

The fix is in, boys...

According to the presentation and accompanying materials, national TU/Alaska TU are drumming up support from conservation orgs in other states, to oppose this mining operation.

Most of the emphasis was on preserving the local watershed, primarily as it pertains to salmon and other critters.

We're having our own major dust up here in PA over deep natural gas drilling vs the environment, so our org is fairly well up to speed on habitat conservation vs resource exploration haggles.

Thanks for the inputs. Wanted to get more local info, rather than just rely on the opinions of a travelin' peddler.

X2

biz is risk vs. reward when it's summed up.

there's always risk in business


sometimes the potential reward is worth it


this time I don't think it is from what I can glean


if they could prove that we could double the world's reserves of gold by opening Pebble mine, I still believe the potential risk outweighs the potential reward.


for my money salmon migration is one of the true mysteries left in our world, best not to F with it imo

I suspect that 50 years of salmon generated in that watershed and worth far more in profits than a one shot run at gold extraction.

Selfishly, (not that I actually look at it that way), I could care less about the specific area or the fish that come back there. My bigger concern is how 'a problem' there could affect the fisheries farther north. Even if you only view this from a very self-interested angle, there's lot of reasons to be concerned. As salmon are concerned, it is similar to high seas drift net issues. There's a lot we don't know and can't or haven't proven about how 'we' can screw things up. What isn't so mysterious is the fact that 'we' have managed to do that, where salmon are concerned, more than a few times.,

I am not from Alaska but have fished the area several times since the early 1970's. I did grow up in the Appalachian Mountains and have unfortunate knowledge of the long term effects of mining on an area, of the disregard for the land by the miners, and of the shady dealings of the government agencies.

I would hope that people would look real hard at the long term negative effects of the proposed mine and ask whether a short term profit outweighs them.

I would be very surprised if it does.