{"id":13102,"date":"2016-10-04T19:29:59","date_gmt":"2016-10-04T23:29:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alexprudhomme.com\/?p=13102"},"modified":"2016-10-04T19:29:59","modified_gmt":"2016-10-04T23:29:59","slug":"politics-environment-bristol-bay-alaska","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alexprudhomme.com\/2016\/10\/04\/politics-environment-bristol-bay-alaska\/","title":{"rendered":"Politics and the Environment in Bristol Bay, Alaska"},"content":{"rendered":"

Virtually untouched, Alaska\u2019s Bristol Bay is one of America\u2019s last great wild places. Now, a proposed multibillion-dollar mine promises to provide an economic lifeline for locals, but environmentalists warn that it could destroy one of the world\u2019s richest salmon fisheries. Alex Prud\u2019homme reports.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

THE WAR OVER ALASKA’S SOUL<\/h4>\n

\"Michael

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Michael Melford<\/h6>\n

The fishing industry provides 75 percent of the jobs in the remote and largely unmapped Bristol Bay region. Serious anglers fly into the bay’s luxury lodges to hook five varieties of salmon as well as trophy-size trout.<\/span>
<\/p><\/div>
\nLike much of the Alaskan bush<\/strong>, the landscape surrounding the austere, pewter-colored expanse of Bristol Bay is unlike anything you\u2019ll see in the Lower 48 (a place locals refer to as \u201cAmerica\u201d). This tableau of clear rivers, craggy peaks, bright glaciers, and endless tundra supports an exceptional abundance of wildlife, including 15 species of whale (two of them endangered); four migratory flyways that bring birds from Africa, Asia, the Pacific, and the Americas; and the last pristine sockeye salmon fishery in the world.
\nBristol Bay is too remote to attract tourists on a large scale, although luxury lodges here cater to a small group of serious anglers who fly in to hook some of the world\u2019s largest salmon and trout. The land around the bay, however, has caught the attention of an international mining consortium called the Pebble Limited Partnership (PLP), which has been exploring a 180-square-mile claim here since 2007. PLP is an alliance between Anglo American, a global mining giant based in London, and Northern Dynasty, headquartered in Vancouver and partly owned by another London-\u00adbased giant, Rio Tinto. (The Japanese firm Mitsubishi bowed out of the alliance last year.) The focus of PLP\u2019s interest is the Pebble deposit\u2014the nation\u2019s single richest lode of copper, gold, and molybdenum (used in steel production), estimated to be worth $200 billion to $500 billion, and perhaps more.
\nThe Pebble deposit sits at the headwaters of two of the region\u2019s most important salmon spawning streams, the Kvichak (KWEE-jack<\/em>) and Nushagak rivers. If Pebble is excavated, it will become the largest mine in North America and one of the largest in the world, with a toxic lagoon that could contain ten billion tons of hazardous waste. Those opposed to the mine fear that an accidental toxic spill of the poisons used in the mining process\u2014such as cyanide and selenium (which allegedly caused two-headed trout near an Idaho mine)\u2014could wipe out Bristol Bay\u2019s salmon fishery, a carefully managed resource that employs more than 11,000 people and generates more than $200 million in revenue a year.
\n\u201cWhen I first heard about the mine in 2004, I thought: \u2018Great, it\u2019ll bring jobs to the region,\u2019\u2009\u201d recalls Brian Kraft, co-owner of the Alaska Sportsman\u2019s Lodge, which sits on the Kvichak, just a few miles from the proposed mine site. \u201cBut the more questions I asked about Pebble, the more uncomfortable I got.\u201d When he asked PLP to name an open-pit mine that hadn\u2019t polluted the water, he says, \u201cthey couldn\u2019t.\u201d
\nEager to show me what is at stake, Kraft ushered me aboard his Cessna 206 floatplane. With a roar, we lifted off the Kvichak and were quickly soaring over Lake Iliamna. At 1,150 square miles, it is Alaska\u2019s largest lake and home to the only freshwater seals in the United States, billions of salmon fingerlings, the occasional endangered beluga whale, and countless other creatures, as well as native villages that have thrived on a subsistence diet for thousands of years.
\n\u201cThis is ground zero,\u201d Kraft said, as we flew 15 miles north of the aquamarine lake. \u201cPebble.\u201d
\n\"alaska-bristol-bay-eco-system\"<\/p>\n

Bristol Bay\u2019s salmon industry generates more than $200 million in revenue annually. But the value of the fish extends well beyond the economy. Click on the image above to learn more about the area’s delicate eco-system.<\/h5>\n

Parts of the region are so remote, wet, and difficult to navigate that no one has bothered to map them. But this site has been meticulously measured and probed by mining companies for more than 20 years. Helicopters chattered nearby, and the brown and green tundra below buzzed with industry: Small red shacks stood next to metal towers, and white hoses spewed drilling mud onto the land or into collection ponds. Since 2002, PLP has spent $400 million conducting soil and seismic tests around Pebble, monitoring groundwater, and drilling more than 800 exploratory boreholes up to a mile deep.
\n\u201cThis is a watershed,\u201d Kraft explained. \u201cAll the water on this side of the hill flows down the Koktuli and Mulchatna rivers to the Nushagak. All the water on that side flows down Upper Talarik to Lake Iliamna and then into the Kvichak. Either way, it all flows from here down to Bristol Bay.\u201d In other words, if ever there is a toxic spill in this labyrinthine water system at the headwaters of two of the region\u2019s most important spawning streams, the results could be cataclysmic for the salmon and those who depend on them.
\nPebble also represents a metaphorical watershed: The question of whether to allow a mine here is a momentous one for Alaska, and has implications for people around the world. The mine\u2019s backers say that Pebble will be operated with the utmost environmental sensitivity and will be good for Alaska: It will bring jobs to an impoverished corner of the state, will generate significant tax revenues, and will provide valuable resources at a time when metal reserves are running low and prices are high. This is a potent message, and many support the mine, among them former Governor Sarah Palin, Alaskan politicians who call the deposit a \u201cstrategic national resource,\u201d industry groups, the Native American actor Wes Studi (who has toured Alaskan villages promoting Pebble), and even my Anchorage taxi driver, who said the mine represents \u201ca golden opportunity.\u201d
\nBut critics say the golden promises are too good to be true: The Pebble deposit is in a seismically active zone, the mine won\u2019t provide that many jobs, and the best jobs won\u2019t go to native Alaskans. Unlike the salmon that return every year, the riches will be gone forever once they\u2019ve been scooped out of the earth, leaving behind nothing but industrial waste.
\n\"fyi-workers-miners-wide\"
\nThe debate over Pebble has created deep schisms, split families and native tribes, and been framed as a war for the soul of Alaska. At its heart, the battle over Pebble is a resource war. Alaska has some of the world\u2019s most valuable fishing grounds: The state\u2019s $2 billion commercial fishery accounts for 62 percent of all U.S. seafood, and it sends tons of halibut, black cod, and king crab to the global market annually; its 2011 salmon catch was valued at $603 million, making it the third-richest in state history (1988\u2019s catch of $725 million holds the record). Bristol Bay is Alaska\u2019s richest commercial fishery, and all five species of Pacific salmon (pink, chum, sockeye, coho, and king) spawn in the bay\u2019s watershed. The bay enjoys a great genetic diversity in its salmon, which accounts for the species\u2019 resilience and the region\u2019s fecundity. PLP aims for a \u201cno net loss\u201d of salmon, but critics fear that if the mine destroys the existing stocks and replaces them with other salmon\u2014as if all salmon were created equal\u2014the system\u2019s stability will be weakened or crushed.
\nFlanked by well-protected, ecologically sensitive preserves, the Pebble deposit sits on a chunk of state land with minimal environmental protections. To the east is Lake Clark National Park and Preserve; to the south is Katmai National Park and Preserve; to the west are Wood-Tikchik State Park and the Togiak National Wildlife Refuge. If PLP is permitted to mine, critics say, other prospectors will rush to make claims nearby, and a modern gold rush will radically transform this primordial wilderness into an industrial landscape. The Federal Bureau of Land Management has already recommended opening a million acres around Bristol Bay to prospectors.
\nJohn Shively, PLP\u2019s CEO, maintains that the mine will be state-of-the-art and that the company has gone \u201cbeyond the state\u2019s environmental guidelines\u201d to maintain a light footprint: Instead of etching new roads into the fragile tundra with bulldozers, PLP ferries in most of its equipment by helicopter; groundwater is monitored; the partnership has spent more than $132 million assessing the mine\u2019s potential environmental and sociological impacts, and has issued a stream of reassuring scientific reports about air, soil, and water quality. But critics say those reports were written by consultants and are not peer-reviewed. After refusing to make its data available, PLP finally released 27,000 pages of information and analysis of its mining claim in February, an overwhelming data dump that mine opponents say was intended to confuse regulators.
\nShively brushes away any criticism. \u201cI believe we can mine Pebble safely and continue fishing for salmon in Bristol Bay,\u201d he told me. \u201cIf we become convinced that we can\u2019t do that, we won\u2019t do the mine. We\u2019ve said that from the start. But I\u2019m concerned that people want to stop the project even before we have a mining plan in place.\u201d
\nOriginally from New York, Shively came to Alaska in 1965 with the anti-poverty program Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA). He worked with native groups to create jobs, and in the 1980s negotiated the permitting of Red Dog, the world\u2019s largest zinc mine, which employs many natives. He sees Red Dog as a model for Pebble: \u201cTo me, these projects are about improving people\u2019s lives.\u201d Red Dog has been fined for environmental pollution, but Shively says that \u201cit is safe now, and there are fish in Red Dog Creek.\u201d
\nShively has put an emphasis on \u201csocial license\u201d\u2014industry jargon for obtaining permission from the native community to drill in their backyard. He says that Pebble would provide at least 2,000 construction jobs and more than 800 operating jobs, and that more than half of the operating positions will go to people who live around Bristol Bay. The mine will have a \u201chalo\u201d effect for support businesses\u2014air taxis, hotels, tugboats, trucks, food purveyors, electricians, and the like\u2014and will generate tax revenues and mining royalties for local and state agencies.
\nMining Pebble will not be a delicate operation. To extract copper, gold, and \u201cmoly,\u201d at least 10 billion tons of rock will be crushed in giant mills, only 0.4 percent of which will be useful ore. The remaining 99.6 percent\u2014the \u201ctailings,\u201d or waste rock\u2014will be deposited in enormous impoundments, covered with water, and contained behind massive dams, including one of the tallest in the United States (at 754 feet) and the world\u2019s tallest earthen dam (at 740 feet), both of which are taller than Hoover Dam (at 726 feet). The mine could operate for up to 100 years. Once the mine is closed, PLP has promised to maintain the earthen dams and water treatment plant \u201cin perpetuity\u201d\u2014an Ozymandian promise that strains credulity. PLP will have to post a bond covering some of those costs and be granted 67 state and local permits. If all goes according to plan, the permitting process should take about three years, and it will take PLP another three years to build the mine and its infrastructure. With this timeline, production would not begin until 2018.
\nWhile he remains upbeat about Pebble\u2019s chance of regulatory approval, Shively cautions that the mine will be extremely expensive to build and operate: \u201cFor us to move ahead, it has to make economic sense.\u201d He refuses to divulge what the magic numbers are for Pebble to be worthwhile, but insists, \u201cIt works. Otherwise I wouldn\u2019t be here.\u201d Despite such reassuring words, public resistance to Pebble has grown, and a collection of unlikely allies has emerged.
\n\"pebble-alaska-map\"<\/p>\n

Though the Pebble Limited Partnership has yet to make its final mining plan public, a report by the Wild Salmon Center and Trout Unlimited, based on preliminary plans, gives an indication of just how mass the Pebble mine could be.<\/h5>\n

STRANGE BEDFELLOWS<\/h4>\n

Salmon\u2014along with berries, moose, caribou, bear, ptarmigan, and still more salmon\u2014has been the centerpiece of native Alaskans\u2019 subsistence diet for 3,000 to 10,000 years. The Yupik tribe around Bristol Bay are, in essence, salmon people. PLP\u2019s Shively says that he wants the mine to help natives, but many of those I interviewed told me that they feel caught in a crossfire they don\u2019t understand. They know little about mining or its environmental impact. Some are in favor of Pebble because of the economic opportunity it affords, but others are deeply worried.
\n\u201cSalmon are a renewable resource\u2014forever,\u201d said Robin Samuelsen, a Yupik native, who is also president and CEO of the Bristol Bay Economic Development Corporation, which runs a range of businesses on behalf of the tribe. \u201cOnce the gold and copper are taken out of Pebble, they will be gone\u2014forever.\u201d Samuelsen swung open the doors of his three enormous freezers, each overflowing with salmon fillets, moose, pike, rhubarb, and berries. \u201cNo white man food in here!\u201d he said with a wry laugh.
\nAnother revered native, Bella Hammond, widow of Alaska\u2019s famous \u201cBush Rat Governor,\u201d Jay Hammond, said, \u201cI couldn\u2019t think of a worse place to put a mine\u2014other than right here in my own kitchen.\u201d But some native Alaskans, such as Lisa Reimers, note that Pebble represents the future. Bemoaning the cost of milk in Bristol Bay\u2014$11 a gallon\u2014Reimers embraces the mine as a savior. \u201cThere\u2019s no living off the land anymore,\u201d she said. \u201cFishing is not sustaining our community.\u201d
\nA native of Iliamna, a town of 102 people on the shore of Lake Iliamna, Reimers is one of the few locals who have attended college. She is on the board of the Iliamna Development Corporation, which provides catering, shuttle service, and housecleaning for PLP. Many of her family and friends also work for the mining operation, some as roughnecks and others in management. \u201cThe people fighting this mine, putting fear into the locals, don\u2019t live here. They can go live off the land by themselves and leave us alone. This is about the future of our community. If we don\u2019t have an economy, we can\u2019t live here.\u201d
\nFor the majority of the locals, however, Pebble is clearly unwelcome: In a 2007 poll by the Cracium research group, 71 percent of Bristol Bay households opposed the mine; in a June 2011 poll, that number had increased to 86.2 percent. In 2010, when Anglo American brought villagers from one of its mining towns in Africa to meet native Alaskans, many locals were unimpressed. One native Alaskan recounted, \u201cI told an African lady, \u2018Take all the Anglo money you can get, because you aren\u2019t going to have any clean water.\u2019 She said she was ready to move her entire village here, where the air and water are clean.\u201d
\nAnglo American\u2019s CEO, Cynthia Carroll, says the community\u2019s opposition is premature. \u201cIt is far too early to make judgments about a potential mining project for which a mine plan has not been formally proposed. Until that time, public sentiment is based on mere speculation and, frankly, fearmongering.\u201d
\nA number of boldfaced names, including Robert Redford and celebrity chefs Tom Colicchio and Rick Moonen, have spoken out publicly against the mine, and Tiffany & Co., along with 57 other jewelers, has signed the Bristol Bay Pledge, vowing never to use metals from Pebble. Michael Kowalski, Tiffany\u2019s chairman and CEO, has visited the region numerous times and says that his position is morally responsible and good business: \u201cBristol Bay is a special place. Sourcing our precious metals in a socially and environmentally conscientious way is implicit in the Tiffany brand promise. It\u2019s what our customers expect.\u201d
\n\"fyi-salmon-ore-value-240\"<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n
\nBut perhaps the most unexpected, and unpredictable, Pebble opponent is Bob Gillam, an arch-conservative money manager, said to be Alaska\u2019s only billionaire (a label he denies, though he won\u2019t elaborate), who dresses all in black, owns a fleet of airplanes, and believes it is \u201cstupid not to drill\u201d for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Gillam likes to say, \u201cOnly two things matter in life\u2014getting rich and catching fish.\u201d When I met him in his Anchorage office (he also maintains a trading desk in New York City), he barked, \u201cI am not a green!\u201d Yet he has been Pebble\u2019s single most powerful opponent, pouring millions of his own dollars into the fight.
\nGillam\u2019s detractors say that his opposition stems from the enormous house he built on Keyes Point, on Lake Clark (Senator Ted Stevens was a frequent guest). They accuse him of spending some $3 million a year to assemble an army of attorneys, lobbyists, pollsters, scientists, and PR experts to build a case against the mine. Gillam vehemently denies that he\u2019s fighting to protect his personal playground. \u201cIt\u2019s about the right thing to do. If your neighbor\u2019s house is on fire, you help him put it out. Bristol Bay is in many ways the greatest place in America. I\u2019m defending the brilliant people and unique wildlife that live there. I\u2019m not the villain here, I am Robin Hood.\u201d
\nGillam has been fishing around Bristol Bay since 1974 and first heard about the Pebble mine in 2004. Inspecting the site from one of his planes, he decided to fund a nonprofit organization called the Renewable Resources Coalition, which runs anti-Pebble print and TV ads. Yet Gillam\u2019s investment management firm, McKinley Capital Management, reportedly holds more than $1 billion in mining stocks, including Anglo American stock. He refused to discuss McKinley and insists that his fight is a personal issue. In 2008, Gillam pushed Measure 4\u2014a public referendum to disallow any new large metal mine from releasing chemicals that would damage salmonoid fish. The measure was narrowly defeated, perhaps due to an intense publicity campaign by PLP\u2014and Governor Sarah Palin\u2019s controversial endorsement of the mine just days before she was named Senator John McCain\u2019s running mate.
\nAnchorage is a small town, and at times the animus between Gillam and PLP\u2019s Shively is palpable. One of Gillam\u2019s ads featured a photo of Shively as a werewolf, which the Pebble CEO growled was \u201cover the top.\u201d Gillam\u2019s response? \u201cI don\u2019t care what Shively thinks. My media beat their media. But PLP feels free to perpetuate lies about me. They say that my Save Our Salmon initiative threatens subsistence fishing and hunting\u2014a lie. I am going to make sure they don\u2019t get a permit for this mine. This isn\u2019t a nice little game anymore. This is war.
\nHIGH STAKES<\/strong>
\nGillam, the Bristol Bay Native Corporation, and environmental groups have filed numerous lawsuits to stop or at least delay the mine. But the most significant threat to Pebble comes from federal regulators at the EPA. Dennis McLerran, the EPA\u2019s regional administrator, has said that \u201cthis is going to be a huge decision for the agency\u201d and that he is unaware of any other resource conflict with such high stakes.
\nIn 2011, a group of influential investors led by Trillium Asset Management\u2014whose members represent $170 billion in assets and own 13 million shares of Anglo American stock\u2014grew alarmed by Pebble and urged the EPA to assess the impact of the mine on the Bristol Bay watershed. If the EPA deems Pebble a threat to water supplies, it could authorize a review under Section 404(c) of the Clean Water Act, which could block the mine once and for all. A decision is due this spring, and it is the opposition\u2019s best hope. But John Shively remains sanguine and says PLP might argue that the EPA does not have the authority to make such a ruling.
\nMuch could depend on the upcoming presidential election: President Obama is under pressure to provide jobs and develop resources, while hewing to his promise to strengthen environmental protections. At the same time, the EPA is being demonized by right-wing candidates as a \u201cjob-killing agency.\u201d Conventional wisdom holds that Obama is more likely to stop Pebble than a Republican. But nothing is certain: Obama has given the green light to oil exploration off the Alaskan coast and in the Gulf of Mexico, and has retreated on greenhouse gas limits. For Bristol Bay, the stakes couldn\u2019t be higher.
\nFor now, fishing on the Kvichak remains prodigious. When I was casting there last September, the salmon season was over but the rainbow trout, graylings, and arctic char were hungry. In front of Kraft\u2019s Alaska Sportsman\u2019s Lodge, my rod bent violently and I set the hook. My reel whined and an enormous rainbow suddenly cartwheeled out of the water, its flank spangling like quicksilver in the sunlight. I managed to look into its wild, dark eye for a thrilling instant. Then the trout spat out the hook, plunged back into the clear blue stream, and disappeared.\b
\nThis article originally appeared in Conde Nast Traveller<\/a>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n
<\/section>\n<\/section>\n<\/article>\n