EPA Makes the Right Move for Bristol Bay, Starts 404(c) Process on Pebble Mine

[ProSense]

EPA Makes the Right Move for Bristol Bay, Starts 404(c) Process on Pebble Mine

Today the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency took the first regulatory step toward securing a healthy future for Bristol Bay.



Responding to overwhelming public demand for the protection of Bristol Bay from the proposed Pebble Mine, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency invoked a rarely used process under the federal Clean Water Act to protect the Bristol Bay in southwest Alaska from the proposed project. Called section 404(c), the provision allows the agency to “prohibit, restrict, deny, or withdraw” an area at risk of “unacceptable adverse effects” on water, fisheries, wildlife, or recreation resources. EPA has used the process 13 times in the 40-year history of the Clean Water Act.

This puts EPA's eyes on the prize, and EPA should be loudly applauded for doing its job. Bristol Bay is the richest salmon habitat in the world, and we simply can't let Pebble Mine put that at risk. EPA has the tools to protect this national treasure for the people and wildlife that depend on it. In short, the science is sound, EPA’s legal authority is clear, and the people of Bristol Bay, by overwhelming numbers, have demanded protection.

In a letter issued to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, EPA Region 10 Administrator Dennis McLerran informed the Corps that “the Agency is taking this step because it has reason to believe that porphyry copper mining of the scale contemplated at the Pebble deposit would result in significant and unacceptable adverse effects to important fishery areas in the watershed.”

The agency continued:

The issues before us in this review focus on the fact that the streams, rivers, wetlands, lakes and other waters in the area of the Pebble deposit comprise one of the most productive, pristine, valuable and vulnerable ecosystems remaining in North America today. Based on information provided by Pebble Limited Partnership and Northern Dynasty Minerals, mining the Pebble deposit will involve excavation of the largest open pit ever constructed in North America, completely destroying an area as large as 18 square kilometers and as deep as 1.24 kilometers. Disposal of waste material will require construction of up to three waste impoundments covering an additional 50 square kilometers.

This action comes at the request four years ago of nine federally-recognized tribes from the Bristol Bay region, commercial fishermen, and others seeking the agency’s intervention to protect the wild salmon fisheries and the communities that depend on them from large-scale mining like the Pebble Mine...EPA responded to the petitions by undertaking a three-year comprehensive scientific study of the effects of such a mine on the natural reosurces and people of the region. EPA completed that study last month and found that Pebble Mine would have “significant” and potentially “catastrophic” impacts on the watershed and its famed salmon runs – and the $1.5 billion annual commercial fishery, 14,000 jobs, subsistence fishing, sports fishing, communities, and wildlife that the salmon support. This is more than enough information to meet the regulatory threshold for starting the 404(c) process.

- more -

http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/jreynolds/epa_makes_the_right_move_for_b.html

[ProSense]

1. Kick! n/t

[ProSense]

2. Another

for ignore everything good the administration does.

[proverbialwisdom]

5. Praise filled PRESS RELEASES by NRDC and Earthjustice. Shockingly, the NYT reports on this, agrees.

http://www.nrdc.org/media/2014/140228a.asp

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

EPA Takes Next Step Necessary to Protect Bristol Bay

NRDC: Action "puts EPA's eyes on the prize . . . to protect this national treasure."

WASHINGTON (February 28, 2014) - Responding to public demand to protect Bristol Bay in southwest Alaska from the proposed Pebble Mine, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said today it is taking the first step in a process under the federal Clean Water Act to protect Bristol Bay from large-scale mining in the region. Called section 404(c), the provision allows the agency to “prohibit, restrict, or withdraw” an area at risk of “unacceptable adverse effects” on water, fisheries, wildlife, or recreation resources.

Joel Reynolds, Western Director of the Natural Resources Defense Council, made the following statement:

“This puts EPA's eyes on the prize. Bristol Bay is the richest salmon habitat in the world. We can't let Pebble Mine put that at risk. EPA has the tools to protect this national treasure for the people and wildlife that depend on it.

“The science is sound, EPA’s legal authority is clear, and the people of Bristol Bay have demanded protection. It’s time to say no to Pebble Mine.”

The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) is an international nonprofit environmental organization with more than 1.4 million members and online activists. Since 1970, our lawyers, scientists, and other environmental specialists have worked to protect the world's natural resources, public health, and the environment. NRDC has offices in New York City, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Bozeman, MT, and Beijing. Visit us at www.nrdc.org and follow us on Twitter @NRDC.

http://earthjustice.org/news/press/2014/earthjustice-statement-on-epa-clean-water-act-enforcement-to-protect-bristol-bay-from-pebble-mine-project

Earthjustice Statement on EPA Clean Water Act Enforcement to Protect Bristol Bay from Pebble Mine Project

Careful examination of impacts to world’s largest salmon “factory” may halt huge copper mine project

FEBRUARY 28, 2014

JUNEAU, AK — Citing potential irreversible impacts to Bristol Bay associated with a proposed massive copper and gold mine, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced today that it would begin a 404(c) Clean Water Act process that could result in a decision to halt the mine.

The Pebble Mine, which would be the largest open-pit mine in North America, is proposed to be constructed in the Bristol Bay watershed in Alaska, an area rich with salmon, wildlife and salmon-based Alaska Native cultures, and home to the largest sockeye salmon run in the world.

Earthjustice attorney Tom Waldo has this statement:

“We applaud EPA’s measured decision to begin the 404(c) process on the Pebble Mine. The global significance of this pristine region, which hosts the most productive salmon habitat in the world, warrants strong EPA action to halt a huge open-pit copper mine. The Native communities have understood the importance of Bristol Bay for 4000 years, deriving sustenance from the land and salmon-filled streams. To allow the Pebble Mine to move forward and damage a way of life, while threatening a world-class, billion-dollar salmon fishery, would be unacceptable.”

In January 2014, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency released its final Bristol Bay Assessment describing potential impacts to salmon and ecological resources from proposed large-scale copper and gold mining in Bristol Bay, Alaska. The report, titled An Assessment of Potential Mining Impacts on Salmon Ecosystems of Bristol Bay, Alaska, details the grave risks facing Bristol Bay’s natural resources, Native peoples, commercial fishing jobs and industry, and tremendous recreational opportunities if a mine is allowed to proceed.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/03/opinion/a-reprieve-for-bristol-bay.html?_r=0

A Reprieve for Bristol Bay
By THE EDITORIAL BOARD

MARCH 2, 2014

The Obama administration announced on Friday that it was putting the brakes on a massive gold and copper mine proposed for the headwaters of Alaska’s Bristol Bay while it decides whether to prohibit it permanently. This sounds like the death knell for a project, known as the Pebble Mine, that by any measure is an environmental disaster waiting to happen. The mine would gravely threaten one of the richest salmon fisheries in the world and disrupt a delicate marine environment prized by conservationists, native tribes and commercial fishing interests alike.

The administration has not made a final decision, and will take comment over the next few months. But construction cannot begin until it issues a permit. And judging by the announcement from Gina McCarthy, administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, it would be astonishing if it allowed the project to go forward. “Extensive scientific study,” she said, “has given us ample reason to believe that the Pebble Mine would likely have significant and irreversible negative impacts on the Bristol Bay watershed and its abundant salmon fisheries.”

The project was designed by a Canadian-British mining consortium (the British partner has since pulled out). It claimed that the mine would add 1,000 permanent jobs to Alaska’s struggling economy while unearthing $300 billion worth of copper, gold and molybdenum. The project came close to defeat in a 2008 referendum until a push by Gov. Sarah Palin turned the tide in the mine’s favor.

Over time, the scientific evidence has turned decisively against the project. In two studies, including an assessment in January, the E.P.A. determined that even a carefully designed mining operation would exact a heavy toll on wildlife during construction, destroying more than 80 miles of spawning streams and extensive wetlands. The mine would also generate huge amounts of highly acidic wastes that, in the event of an accident, would pollute streams and wetlands and greatly harm Bristol Bay.

Given the science, this is not the hardest environmental decision the administration has faced or will face. It has yet to devise a legally sound plan to protect endangered salmon runs in the Columbia-Snake River Basin. And it must adjudicate between the needs of the endangered sage grouse and the oil industry, which occupy the same lands in the West. But on Bristol Bay, it is headed in just the right direction.

[TheMightyFavog]

3. I'd love to see the EPA do the same for the Penokee Hills here in Wisconisn...

But, it won't happen.

[ProSense]

4. Had to read up on that, and

found a great resource:

Iron Mining: An Issue of Environmental Justice
http://www.wnpj.org/node/6091

Scroll down for lots of links to more information.