Alaska Voters Weigh In On Copper And Gold Mine

[justjohn]

Kai, What's your take on this ?



Pebble Mine: Alaska Voters Weigh In On Copper And Gold Mine
Pebble Mine



In this July 13, 2007 file photo, workers with the Pebble Mine project test drill in the Bristol Bay region of Alaska near the village of Iliamma, Alaska.


BECKY BOHRER 10/ 2/11 02:20 PM ET AP
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JUNEAU, Alaska — The battle over a copper and gold mine near one of the world's premier salmon fisheries is headed to the ballot in a vote next week that has turned a normally sleepy local election into a national environmental debate.

Voters in southwest Alaska's Lake and Peninsula Borough are deciding whether to ban large-scale resource extraction activity, including mining, that would destroy or degrade salmon habitat. The measure is aimed squarely at Pebble Mine, the massive gold-and-copper prospect near the headwaters of Bristol Bay.

The debate surrounding Pebble has attracted the attention of chefs, Robert Redford and big-name jewelers who have vowed not to sell any gold coming from the project

But Tuesday's vote will almost certainly not be the last word on how – or whether – the mine is built.

"Among other things, the question in front of the Lake and Peninsula voters is about changes to land use that the Alaska attorney general says is unenforceable as a matter of law," said Mike Heatwole, a spokesman for Pebble Limited Partnership, the group promoting the mine project.

Pebble Partnership sued to keep the "Save the Salmon" initiative off the ballot, arguing in part that the measure would improperly bypass the role of the local planning commission. State court Judge John Suddock denied that request, noting Alaska's Supreme Court has given deference to initiatives absent proof they would do something unlawful. He put the case on hold until Nov. 7, to allow for the vote and challenges.

The vote is the latest skirmish in the fight over a project that supporters say could create up to 1,000 long-term jobs in economically-depressed rural Alaska but that opponents fear could fundamentally change the landscape and disrupt, if not destroy, a way of life.

The mine is a joint venture of Canada-based Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd. and Anglo American plc of the United Kingdom.

The companies have spent hundreds of millions of dollars scoping out the deposit, which Northern Dynasty has described as the largest undeveloped deposit of its type in the world, with the potential of producing 53 billion pounds of copper, 50 million ounces of gold and 2.8 billion pounds of molybdenum over nearly 80 years.

The mine would be directly above Iliamna Lake, the largest producer of sockeye salmon in the world.

This year, the commercial harvest of salmon was valued at nearly $138 million, which doesn't include fish caught by Alaska Natives for subsistence. The Bristol Bay Native Corp., which has more than 8,000 shareholders with ties to the region, is opposed to the mine.

Jason Metrokin, Bristol Bay Native corp.'s chief executive, recently said in a statement that Pebble presents an "unacceptable risk to Bristol Bay salmon, which have supported our communities for thousands of years" while providing an important commercial, food and cultural resource.

Pebble Mine would be located 200 miles southwest of Anchorage and has been described as the potentially the world's largest man-made excavation. Though Heatwole said Pebble hasn't completed a pre-feasibility study or formally submitted a mine plan, critics say the potential footprint of the project could cover 15 square miles, with an open pit and network of roads and power lines.

"It's not a NIMBY thing so much as a survival thing," said Scott Kendall, an Anchorage attorney for the Save Our Salmon ballot group. He likened it to putting a nuclear plant next to an elementary school. "To these people, it's completely inappropriate and incompatible with the life they want to live."

The region around Bristol Bay is sparsely populated, dotted by small communities mostly cut off from the road system and generally accessible only by plane. About 1,600 people live in Lake and Peninsula Borough, which is roughly the size of West Virginia, covering about 23,780 square miles.

The landscape is pristine, stark, rugged, boasting wildlife like walrus, moose, bears and caribou. For a short period each summer, the area bustles with fishing activity, a leading sector of the local economy.

Over the last several years, there's been lobbying surrounding the project both sides. Ads, alternately touting the mine's economic potential or casting it as dangerous and wrong for Alaska, frequently appear on statewide TV.

For Greg Anelon, the vote is less about Pebble Mine than it is about land-use rights.

Anelon, a fisherman who works at the Iliamna Development Corp., a subsidiary of another Alaska Native corporation that is involved in a number of businesses, said he hasn't made his mind up about the proposed mine, and wants to first see a plan of development. Nevertheless, Anelon is working to defeat the initiative. He worries the measure is the wrong tack to take in fighting the mine, arguing that it could affect other activities, like gravel extraction, a claim that Kendall denies.

The initiative would ban any work covering more than one-square mile and impacting waters significant for salmon. Kendall said there's never been another project of that size in the borough.

Lisa Reimers, chief executive of the Iliamna Development Corp., said the measure is poorly worded. If it passes, she said people will read it how they want to read it, leading to possible litigation over housing and other projects.

"They make it sound like all fish will die if you don't support the initiative," she said. Reimers' group has contracts with Pebble Partnership but she said that is not the reason that it got involved.

The ballot group claims polling it has done has shown an overwhelming majority in favor of the initiative but elections depend on turnout. About 380 of the 1,190 registered voters in the borough voted in the last municipal election. Elections are conducted by mail. They must be postmarked by Tuesday but results aren't expected until the canvass board meets Oct. 17.

Heatwole declined to speculate on what impact the vote may have on Pebble's plans.

Save Our Salmon spokesman Art Hackney said the measure "is clearly aimed at making Pebble Mine confront what they've promised: that they won't kill salmon streams. If they can engineer it so it does not destroy salmon streams, by all means they can develop it." He added: "Our contention is simply that this is trying to cast in concrete what Pebble Partnership has been saying all along, they won't hurt salmon."

The proposed mine has attracted worldwide attention. Actor and director Robert Redford has blogged about it, and spoke out against the mine in an ad in the New York Times.

More than 200 chefs from around the country have sent a letter to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency protesting the mine.

And some of the nation's leading jewelers, including Zale Corp., Tiffany & Co., Helzberg Diamonds and Ben Bridge, have pledged to support the "No Dirty Gold" campaign and not purchase precious minerals from Pebble Mine.

[kaima]

Tomorrow (Tuesday, Oct 4, 2011, is the day everyone votes. They were saying it will be a few weeks before the ballots are counted and certified. If there is a good article about the troubles of so few people voting over such a large and scattered area, I will post it here.

[justjohn]

Oct 4, 2011 0:32:30 GMT -7 kaima said:

Tomorrow (Tuesday, Oct 4, 2011, is the day everyone votes. They were saying it will be a few weeks before the ballots are counted and certified. If there is a good article about the troubles of so few people voting over such a large and scattered area, I will post it here.

Alaska voters say no to gold, copper mine

APBy BECKY BOHRER - Associated Press | AP – Tue, Oct 18, 2011


JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — Voters of a small southwest Alaska borough late Monday narrowly passed a measure blocking a proposed gold and copper mine that critics say would have threatened one of the world's premier wild salmon fisheries in a local election that gained national attention, pitting environmentalists against business interests in a bitter feud.

The vote bans large-scale resource extraction, including mining, that would destroy or degrade salmon habitat. The measure was aimed squarely at Pebble Mine, a massive gold and copper prospect near the headwaters of Bristol Bay.

The debate surrounding Pebble has attracted the attention of chefs, actor-director Robert Redford and big-name jewelers who have vowed not to sell any gold coming from the operation. Their concerns support local opponents who fear the mine would fundamentally change the area's landscape and disrupt, if not destroy, a way of life.

Supporters of the Pebble project, which has been described as potentially the world's largest man-made excavation, have said that it could create up to 1,000 long-term jobs in economically-depressed rural Alaska and that the project can be "done safely to co-exist with clean water, healthy fisheries and traditional ways of life."

Unofficial results, released by the Lake and Peninsula Borough clerk late Monday, showed 280 in favor of the measure and 246 against.

The proposal was the subject of an intense public fight, and the vote is unlikely to be the last word on whether, or how, the mine is built — a court challenge has already been filed.

Pebble Limited Partnership has argued, in part, that the measure would improperly bypass the role of the local planning commission. The office of Alaska's attorney general has said the initiative would enact an ordinance that is "unenforceable as a matter of law."

A judge has put the case on hold until Nov. 7.

Pebble spokesman Mike Heatwole said the company would press ahead with its plans, in spite of the vote and passage of what he said company officials believe to be an illegal law.

Voters were "subjected to a prolonged advertising campaign of fear-mongering and misinformation about the Pebble project," he said in a statement. "We believe this has done a disservice to the people of Southwest Alaska and we will continue our efforts to share our perspective that Pebble can be done safely to co-exist with clean water, healthy fisheries and traditional ways of life, while generating decades of economic and social benefits for the people of the region."

The mine is a joint venture of Canada-based Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd. and Anglo American plc of the United Kingdom.

The companies have spent hundreds of millions of dollars scoping out the deposit, which Northern Dynasty has described as the largest undeveloped deposit of its type in the world, with the potential of producing 53 billion pounds (24 billion kilograms) of copper, 50 million ounces (1.4 billion grams) of gold and 2.8 billion pounds (1.27 billion kilograms) of molybdenum over nearly 80 years.

The mine would be directly above Iliamna Lake, the largest producer of sockeye salmon in the world.

This year, the commercial harvest of Bristol Bay salmon was valued at nearly $138 million, which doesn't include fish caught by Alaska Natives for subsistence. The Bristol Bay Native Corp., which has more than 8,000 shareholders with ties to the region, also is opposed to the mine, which would be located 200 miles southwest of Anchorage.

Critics say the potential footprint of the project could cover 15 square miles, with an open pit and network of roads and power lines. But project officials counter that neither a pre-feasibility study nor a formal mine plan have been completed.

Jackie Hobson, a supporter of the so-called Save Our Salmon Initiative, said the results "prove once and for all that Native Alaskans will not allow important salmon habitat to be destroyed for the sake of enriching foreign corporations."

The proposed mine has attracted worldwide attention. Redford has blogged about it, and spoke out against the mine in an ad in the New York Times.

More than 200 chefs from around the country have sent a letter to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency protesting the mine.

And some of the nation's leading jewelers, including Zale Corp., Tiffany & Co., Helzberg Diamonds and Ben Bridge, have pledged to support the "No Dirty Gold" campaign and not purchase precious minerals from Pebble Mine.

The election was conducted by mail, with ballots having to be postmarked by Oct. 4. Officials in the borough of about 1,600 people counted them by hand Monday.

Note:

_{I support an armed intervention here by the citizenry as the illegal operation is going to continue. Maybe targeting the corporate bigwigs is the way to challenge their greed inspired lust.}

[karl]

J.J.

It will be quite interesting to hear from Kai in this matter. For this is his front yard.

My self? I do not have the right to an opinion, other then a simple reply.

I think perhaps though, there are various many factors of concern in the question of such an enterprise. It is easy to consider vary strongly, the economic benefits for the Alaskans in both avenues of use of local talent and expected use of import {out of state}employees. For most all employees will add to the local and regional economy through consumption.

What though in the matter of down stream effects is another matter. For one, the solids includent of water soluble materials is a different matter. For it is one thing in use of settling ponds to remove solids in water suspension and another with water soluble borne chemicals that are destined to be washed down stream. With gold and silver, is lead and with this, arsenic both in natural form and man made for material separation of specific mined metals.

The next in line of concern to down stream effects, is silting. For rain and snow melt is a natural effect with nature, in as so, this is all destined to run down hill. The next vector is wind blown. What is not wash, will be gathered by prevailing winds and redistributed as dust fall out over which ever direction of prevailing winds. This may be compared to the old nuclear fall out pattern scenarios, for natural distribution of solids and water soluble materials in relationship to prevailing wind patterns.

Fish are very sensitive to water quality in as of water temperature. Any change in above, will have a direct impact upon prevailing fish stocks.

For one, silt contamination is a leading factor of gill damage. Both solids and in water solution of both lead, arsenic and related chemical compounds, are absorbed by what ever fish stocks are prevalent population in the respective environment.

The Norwegian fisheries experience in this matter in as well to large scale fish farming is very well documented for local and regional environmental impact studies.

It needs be of consideration of the food chain. Humans are at the top, and what ever is absorbed by fish, is then consumed by people. The longer the life span of a fish, the more undesirable metals are absorbed and kept in the related organs of the fish as known by sword fish and mercury compounds.

Karl

[kaima]

JJ, You and Karl seem to have a pretty good grip on it, so I will add to rather than repeat.

I also tend to oppose the mine. Looking at mining results around the world, the BEST practices seem not enough to keep our salmon areas safe from pollution by the mine. One additional example directly applicable is the Red Dog lead mine up near Kotzebue, Alaska. Developed by a well experienced Canadian company and the local Native Corporation, they have done their best to preserve the environment, and have had a few struggles and defeats in doing so - though also a lot of successes.

Pebble will be tremendously bigger and different, and have those huge tailing ponds and piles exposed where poisons will leach out. Then all we need is one of our spectacular earthquakes to bust the best of their earthen dams, and we can start importing fish from Delaware.

I would like to see some new ideas, and perhaps an impossible requirement placed upon the mine, a limit on the size of the exposed tailings and tailiings pond, and a requirement to process, drain and cover a tailings pond before opening up a new one to continue gold mining, making this a rotating environmental restoration. This is done on other open pit mining, and while I am not aware of it being done yet at gold and copper mines, it seems a prudent way to proceed rather than leave exposed poisonous muck pits behind for thousands of years. DO not forget we have 3 of the earths 10 top earthquakes in Alaska!

On the other hand I am for mineral extraction and feel the nation has bound itself so tightly with environmental restrictions on natural areas that we are also suffering from a lack of exploration and development. That is long and complicated and the hundreds in Congress have been fighting with it for centuries, so I won't try to furnish a 30 second solution to the problem.



The photo you show is typical of the area, short of what has been referred to as Canadian Arctic Barrens, but pretty barren at that! Open grassy, tundra type terraine with some brush. I have flown over and worked in the neighborhood a number of times at the old radar communication site at Big Mountain. The flight through the mountains from Anchorage is spectacular, the salmon fishing at Iliamna is picture perfect before you even leave there to go out to the neighboring villages or fish camps or $5000+ a week fishing resorts. It is world class, best in the world, spectacular, the superlatives are not an exaggeration.

for map lovers, here is a closeup of how they estimate it will be arranged:


I will fill my coffee cup and add a post about the local politics, another story entirely.

[kaima]

Can ten voters out of a thin population of 1,823 stop a corporation and world class mine? Not likely in my opinion, not with corporate power in this world.

That is totally separate from discussing the morality of having a vote of 10 people of 240 or so voters stop a world asset from being developed... should ten people have such power? (well, should 9 on the Supreme Court appoint a president instead of slapping hands and telling Florida politicians to back off, stop the noise and take as long as they need for an hones count?)

Some of the background:

Lake and Peninsula Borough is a borough located in the state of Alaska, United States. As of the 2000 census, the population was 1,823. The borough seat of King Salmon is actually located in neighboring Bristol Bay Borough, although is not the seat of that borough; this is a unique arrangement within the United States. The most populous community that actually lies within the borough is the city of Nondalton. With an average of 0.0296 inhabitants/km² (0.0767/sq mi), the Lake and Peninsula Borough is the second least densely populated organized county-equivalent in the United States; only the Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area, which is unorganized, has a lower density.

The borough has a total area of 30,907 square miles (80,048.8 km2), of which 23,782 square miles (61,595.1 km2) is land and 7,125 square miles (18,453.7 km2) (23.05%) is water. Its land area is ... almost as large as the state of West Virginia.

Imagine West Virginia with 1,823 people!

THe land area of the Borough is very close to the size of Austria or the Czech Republic, almost 1/3 the size of Poland, and bigger than
Belgium + Netherlands which cover about 72,000 sq km.
As of the census of 2000, there were 1,823 people, 588 households, and 418 families residing in the borough.

Welcome to our Alaskan reality.

What does the gold mine endanger? The Bristol Bay fishery (of which Sarah Palin is ostensibly a fisherman, one hwo could not remember the Supreme Court ruling against Alaska fishermen 3 months before she was asked to name a decision she didn't like!)

Bristol Bay accounts for 40 percent of the nation’s catch of salmon. In Bristol Bay alone, 2008 harvest of all salmon species was approximately 29.3 million fish, and the preliminary exvesse (at port, far less than we pay in the stores) l value of the 2008 commercial catch was approximately $113.3 million.

ourbristolbay.com/commercial-fisheries.html




I would say let us move slowly on this development. The gold is going no where. The only urgency is private profit and sustained public danger.

[Jaga]

Kai,

great pictures. I did not have time yet to read all the info but the maps you added are just wonderful.

[kaima]

State sues over Pebble mine initiative

By BECKY BOHRER
Associated Press

Published: October 28th, 2011 06:06 PM
Last Modified: October 29th, 2011 01:00 AM

JUNEAU -- The state of Alaska on Friday sued to invalidate the results of a voter initiative that could stop a massive gold and copper mine near one of the world's premier salmon fisheries.

Residents of Lake and Peninsula Borough recently voted 280-246 to ban large-scale resource extraction, including mining, that would "destroy or degrade" salmon habitat. The measure was aimed at the Pebble Mine prospect located near the headwaters of Bristol Bay.

But the state, in its lawsuit against the borough, claims the initiative is trumped by Alaska law and the state's authority to govern the management and development of mineral resources. It is asking a judge to keep the borough from enforcing the measure.

"This case is not about state support for or against a Pebble Mine project," Attorney General John Burns said in a statement. "It is about upholding the state's constitutional authority and responsibility to evaluate whether, on balance, development of Alaska's resources is beneficial to all Alaskans.

"This administration has consistently maintained that the state will not sacrifice one resource for another. In the case of Pebble, we haven't yet even considered the pros and cons of any development that may be proposed," he said. "But the Alaska Constitution requires the state, not the borough, to fairly and completely conduct this evaluation."

Burns' office said in a news release that a "small majority of voters" in a local community cannot usurp "the more comprehensive state authority and eliminate the entire state permitting process."

The state supported Pebble Limited Partnership, the group promoting the mine project, in its losing effort to keep the initiative off the Oct. 4 ballot, claiming the measure would enact an ordinance that's unenforceable as a matter of law.

The mine is a joint venture of Canada-based Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd. and Anglo American PLC of the United Kingdom.

[kaima]

I had a new thought on the Pebble Mine, one taking more of a long term look at the mineral deposits. As an engineer I believe the technology is not present to protect the environment and the fisheries, technology that MUST exist to safely extract the minerals. Simply, there has been no talk of and there are no examples in the world of where restoration is executed on a quick enough, rotating basis that the minerals can be extracted. Picture a one time rotation of crops, with the final rotation resulting in the restoration of the lands and water sheds to original condition, without leaching poisons.

My main concern is that Mother Earthquake can defeat ANY dam that we humans can build to retain the waste liquids full of toxins. We have to have methodology / technology to recycle these toxins into harmless forms and not store them for extended periods. That is the technology that no one possesses - yet.

Looking at it like a native who has been here 10,000 years, what is the hurry? The minerals have always been there, they will stay there like money in the bank. In the meantime we still have the constantly renewed, world's best salmon fishery in the world.

Let s wait until technology is developed that can etract these minerals safely.

The only argument to extract today is that we have this concept of "private property" and capitalism and profit. Let us not take this public resource and hurry to convert it to private profits and risk our future. the time to extract is not yet. What is 300 years to wait? Nothing....

Let's sit down to a salmon dinner and think about it...

[Bob S]

With all the land area that Alaska has, you would think that there would be other places to mine. The fish population cannot find other places to populate. Ore mines come and go , populations of people and game don't.

[karl]

How well to understand the stance of one to the other. For although, the private sector is for profit, whilst on the other hand, it is to the common good of mineral extraction as kai would say....

It is understandable, there is no common ground between what safe guards are in placed into what nature will on occasion deal out as a devastating blow in disaster...

In this matter, there must be a throw away in the light of the blue print for progress.

Man as a specious, will survive, for primarily the reason of: He {generic term for humanity}, has the spirit of aggression, and with this, thinks/reasons/and dreams. For what man will dream, man will build. Even if it is the tower of babel..

Whilst on the other side of the Roman coin: Man has dominance of the sea/land and air. For of this, will go the responsibility of his actions.

In the matter of the Salmon species of fish, will go this responsibility.

If push becomes shove, then of course the mine operation will succeed and become a reality in operations. In this manner, then goes preparations of fail safe operations.

In the case of all will go wrong, then what will be the fall back plan of retentions of the fish stocks of Salmon, or in worse case scenario, replenishment of new fish stocks in new location?

I have noticed of the maps as so kindly provided, of movement of sea currants in various locations. These are very important in as they are the conduits of sea water exchange and vector points for fish travel as they mature from juvenile to adult to migratory and return as breeding stocks.

In as of my credentials in the manner of fishery management, well to be up front, very thin. For it has been much many years since my time in the stern trawler days at sea. And then, my credentials were of wheel house management with hydraulic systems and marine propulsion.

It is of still some what mystery of for why the American University of Idaho were to notify for a paper of my writing of: Fish farming versus wild stocks

Perhaps my paper was not to meet with expectations of welcome or not so. Is not the question. But, the question is: How do we prepare the food chain of the sea to meet the demand of human consumption?

For we are the gate keepers of the vault of the sea.

The following url is of Norwegian. Some prevailing conditions of their lands is paramount to that of Alaska, whilst otherwise, is not so. It is to each of opinion as personal and/or financial.

The following paper as written by Herr Hannesson is close in aspect of that of my own. I think perhaps though, he {Hannesson} is much closer to target then as presented of my own.

www.fao.org/docrep/003/T0049E/T0049E01.htm#ch1.1.2

Karl

[JustJohn or JJ]

Dec 5, 2011 16:13:27 GMT -7 karl said:

How well to understand the stance of one to the other. For although, the private sector is for profit, whilst on the other hand, it is to the common good of mineral extraction as kai would say....

It is understandable, there is no common ground between what safe guards are in placed into what nature will on occasion deal out as a devastating blow in disaster...

In this matter, there must be a throw away in the light of the blue print for progress.

Man as a specious, will survive, for primarily the reason of: He {generic term for humanity}, has the spirit of aggression, and with this, thinks/reasons/and dreams. For what man will dream, man will build. Even if it is the tower of babel..

Whilst on the other side of the Roman coin: Man has dominance of the sea/land and air. For of this, will go the responsibility of his actions.

In the matter of the Salmon species of fish, will go this responsibility.

If push becomes shove, then of course the mine operation will succeed and become a reality in operations. In this manner, then goes preparations of fail safe operations.

In the case of all will go wrong, then what will be the fall back plan of retentions of the fish stocks of Salmon, or in worse case scenario, replenishment of new fish stocks in new location?

I have noticed of the maps as so kindly provided, of movement of sea currants in various locations. These are very important in as they are the conduits of sea water exchange and vector points for fish travel as they mature from juvenile to adult to migratory and return as breeding stocks.

In as of my credentials in the manner of fishery management, well to be up front, very thin. For it has been much many years since my time in the stern trawler days at sea. And then, my credentials were of wheel house management with hydraulic systems and marine propulsion.

It is of still some what mystery of for why the American University of Idaho were to notify for a paper of my writing of: Fish farming versus wild stocks

Perhaps my paper was not to meet with expectations of welcome or not so. Is not the question. But, the question is: How do we prepare the food chain of the sea to meet the demand of human consumption?

For we are the gate keepers of the vault of the sea.

The following url is of Norwegian. Some prevailing conditions of their lands is paramount to that of Alaska, whilst otherwise, is not so. It is to each of opinion as personal and/or financial.

The following paper as written by Herr Hannesson is close in aspect of that of my own. I think perhaps though, he {Hannesson} is much closer to target then as presented of my own.

www.fao.org/docrep/003/T0049E/T0049E01.htm#ch1.1.2

Karl

The bitter battle over Alaska's salmon
By Stephen Sackur BBC News, Alaska

23 July 2013


Alaska's fishing community and mining industry are engaged in a bitter battle, with fishermen arguing that a planned gold mine risks poisoning the waters where Pacific salmon spawn. The debate has forced Alaskans to consider what kind of future they want for their wild and sparsely-populated state.

In summer camps across America youngsters hike, swim and toast marshmallows by the fire. But they play by different rules in south west Alaska.

In Dillingham, a small town at the mouth of the Ishugak river, children as young as six go to camp to learn how to gut and bone a sockeye salmon.

Youngsters who show promise with the filleting knife are introduced to the joys of the smokehouse. Nobody goes home without a strip of dried salmon to chew on.

Kim Williams, mother of six, camp leader, subsistence fisherwoman and stalwart of the Yupik tribe, says it is vital to pass on practical skills to the next generation.

"Our people have lived off fishing for thousands of years," she tells me, as a rich aroma of woodsmoke and singed salmon meat hangs in the air. "It's our past and our future."

Kim and her family catch salmon the old-fashioned way. They string up a net close to the bank of the Ishugak and haul it in when they see fish thrashing in the mesh.
Map of Alaska

It is a satisfyingly simple art, and it works.

But the salmon harvest is also a billion-dollar business. Commercial fishermen from Seattle and beyond haul in tens of millions of fish between June and September.

The catch is sliced, diced, canned, frozen, smoked and salted with relentless efficiency in processing plants along the Kvichak estuary. Then it is shipped all over the world.

The indigenous fishermen, the commercial fleet and even the sports anglers who breeze into Dillingham in their private planes all abide by the strict rules imposed by Alaska's fish management team. pg

If the numbers of salmon reaching the spawning grounds are down, then fishing permits are suspended. First priority is always given to the long term sustainability of the world's greatest wild salmon run.

But for how much longer can that be guaranteed?

A cloud of uncertainty hangs over this corner of Alaska.

It comes in the form of a plan to dig one of the world's biggest copper and gold mines in the upper reaches of the Bristol Bay catchment area.

The Pebble mining company - part owned by the British minerals giant Anglo American - wants to extract billions of tons of copper ore from a hole in the ground at least two miles wide and half a mile deep.

The mine could be worth up to half a trillion dollars.

Pebble's boss John Shively invites me into his helicopter to tour the site. We swoop over an intricate tapestry of lakes, hills and narrow streams.

An empty land where bears, caribou and wolves have no need to fear human predators.

"The pit will be over there" he says pointing along a shallow valley. "And the waste will be held in reservoirs over there."
news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/68918000/jpg/_68918777_sackur_salmon_464.jpg

John Shively believes a giant copper mine generating billions of tons of potentially toxic waste is exactly what this wilderness needs.

"If I thought this mine would poison the water, and harm the fishery do you think I'd be here?" he asks.

"This mine will give the local tribes what they really need. Jobs and the chance of a better life."

That is not the way the fishing folk of Bristol Bay see it.

They have heard independent scientists question the wisdom of storing billions of tons of dangerous waste in vast reservoirs close to a geological fault line.

And they worry about the leaching of copper compounds and sulphuric acid into the river network.


Outside her smokehouse on the Ishugak river Kim Williams puts it simply: "The salmon is our source of life. We cannot put it at risk."

She has even been to London to tell Anglo American's board to dump its interest in Pebble mine.

The battle between fishing community and mining industry has divided opinion. Even the dominant Republican Party is hopelessly split.

Rick Halford, a former president of the state senate and architect of a raft of pro-mining legal reforms has had a change of heart.

"I never met a mine I didn't like" he tells me ruefully, "until now".

He invites me to enjoy the magnificent view from his lakeside home outside Dillingham.

"I'm no tree-hugger," he says "but Pebble is the wrong mine, in the wrong place".

A proud and sustainable fishing community locked in a conflict with a mining industry promising a once in a lifetime opportunity bonanza.

Alaska has a choice to make, which will do much to define the future of America's last frontier.

Stephen Sackur travelled to Alaska for HARDtalk on the Road. Watch part one on climate change on Thursday 25 July 2013 at 10:35 BST on BBC Two, and part two which looks at salmon and mining on Tuesday 30 July 2013 at 10:35 BST on BBC Two.

[karl]

J.J.

I see this is another devil that has come back to roost in conflict. It would appear that as time evolves, both sides of this conflict will bring to light new evidence to support each resepective side. Who is correct, and who is wrong will be decided by subsequent events that will evolve.

One thing that is self evident, modern industry and economic facters do weigh heavily in favour of the mining industry. What is presently not indicated is: The fears and concerns of those opposing this mining operation, are presupposing events that have not occured. With new technology in mining wast disposal and associated management techniques are followed, the loss through leaching out of tailings and waste should be minimal of toxic amounts of arsenic.

There is a situation not mentioned in the use of settling ponds using both clay or plastic sheet liners. Is the insect population with growth and breading in the still settling ponds,,if used.. For then there is the situation of arsenic retention retained in the insect bodies to then be ingested by both fish and fowl. This then to be inturn to be passed to people consuming the flesh of game birds and fish.

There are as we speak, various schools of thought concerning the question of arsenic contamination into our food stock, in this ase, game fish/birds. One is that arsenic as being a very common element born from stone and dirt, for as being water soluable. This then in self would be by natural means, to be flushed out of the body through the urinary tract. Other schools of thought will say: nay nay, this is not entirely so, for some arsenic is not flushed out, but is retained into the body tissue to then accumilated until a toxic level is reached to the dismay of that person effected.

It is a problem of public health concerns that should not be decided by any courts, for what do they know out side the legel profession. It should be to the side of technolgers to work out the manner of making safe the issue of arsenic.

Karl

[kaima]

Court rules against Pebble for buying inside information about mine foes

Published: July 30, 2013

by LISA DEMER — [e-mail]

Developers of the proposed Pebble mine don't deserve special protections for buying insider documents about the financial workings of project opponents and then using the records to pursue a case against those opponents with the Alaska Public Offices Commission, a California appeals court panel ruled Tuesday.

The ruling allows a California lawsuit filed in March 2011 by the Renewable Resources Coalition, an Anchorage-based anti-Pebble advocacy group, to go forward against Pebble Limited Partnership, the related Pebble Mines Corp. and their lawyers. The former fundraiser for the anti-Pebble forces, Los Angeles-based Robert Kaplan, also is a defendant in the suit but wasn't part of the issue under appeal.

The case ties back to Kaplan's work during the 2008 Clean Water ballot initiative intended to stop the Pebble mine. Voters rejected the measure, Kaplan was fired, and he later sold internal emails, donor lists, bank records and other information to Pebble for $50,000, according to the ruling and to decisions in related cases. An arbitrator in 2012 determined that Kaplan had "unclean hands" for selling the documents, was untruthful and must pay more than $3 million to the coalition and more than $5 million to political consultant Art Hackney but Kaplan has filed for bankruptcy.

The ruling Tuesday opens the way for claims against Pebble and its law firm, Jermain, Dunnagan & Owens. Pebble acknowledges it used the information its lawyer bought from Kaplan as the framework for a complaint to APOC alleging that prominent mine opponent Bob Gillam secretly funneled nearly $2 million into the 2008 initiative.

The Renewable Resources Coalition, Gillam and the Alaskans for Clean Water ballot group settled the APOC complaint for $100,000. The coalition lost donors and "just limped along" as a result of the high profile investigation, executive director Anders Gustafson, who also heads a sister educational foundation, said Tuesday.

"It almost neutralized the coalition arm," he said. Tuesday's ruling should "breathe some life back into the coalition" and make it stronger, he said. He was in Ninilchik preparing for the Salmonstock music festival, which starts Friday as a celebration of salmon and as a venue to fight Pebble.

The Pebble prospect is one of the world's biggest deposits of gold, copper and other minerals. It is being fiercely protested because it straddles the headwaters of two rivers in the Bristol Bay watershed, home to the world's biggest run of sockeye salmon.

Pebble and its lawyers had earlier won a ruling by a Los Angeles Superior Court judge that threw out the Renewable Resources Coalition claims. Judge Terry Green found they were pursuing the APOC case as a public interest issue and were justified in bringing it forward with the purchased documents. Pebble called the coalition's claim a "strategic lawsuit against public participation," or SLAPP suit, intended to stifle its effort to bring campaign irregularities to light.

But the three-justice panel of the California Court of Appeal disagreed. The panel found that the central element of the lawsuit was the coalition's assertion that Pebble wrongly bought confidential documents.

"You can't pay money to your opponents' consultant to get your opponents' stuff," Stephen Cusick, lawyer for the Renewable Resources Coalition, said Tuesday. "They took our documents. They ginned all this stuff up so they could smear these guys, make them look bad, and take out the organized opposition to the mine."

Pebble maintains the APOC case needed to be brought forward, spokesman Mike Heatwole said Tuesday.

The lawsuit now goes back to the Los Angeles Superior Court Judge.

"The ruling today essentially leaves the plaintiff at the starting gate, not the finish line," Heatwole said in an email. " It means that the plaintiff must now try to prove its case. We will vigorously contest the case and expect to prove it is without merit."

Pebble is considering an appeal to the California Supreme Court.

Meanwhile, the anti-Pebble forces are working on a new initiative that would require a big mine in the Bristol Bay area to be approved by the Legislature.

They are aiming for the 2014 ballot.

Read more here: www.adn.com/2013/07/30/3000077/california-appeals-court-rules.html#storylink=cpy

[JustJohn or JJ]

An immaculate canvas

All that the American West once was, Alaska still is. Abounding with natural marvels and largely untouched by human ambition, it is a land of endless prospect. The heart of this beautiful expanse is pristine Bristol Bay, home to the world's largest sockeye salmon runs, when a flood of fish swim back to their freshwater origins. (Michael Melford/National Geographic Stock)


www.bbc.com/travel/slideshow/20130805-an-alaskan-paradise-in-peril