Mining a significant risk to Bristol Bay salmon fishery, EPA says

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http://www.adn.com/2014/01/15/3274653/mining-could-devastate-alaskas.html



Upper Talarik Creek flows into Lake Iliamna in the Bristol Bay watershed. Braided wetlands and tundra are typical of the watershed landscape.

Mining a significant risk to Bristol Bay salmon fishery, EPA says
By BECKY BOHRER
Associated PressJ
anuary 15, 2014 Updated 13 hours ago

JUNEAU -- A government report indicates a large-scale copper and gold mine in Alaska's Bristol Bay region could have devastating effects on the world's largest sockeye salmon fishery and adversely affect Alaska Natives whose culture is built around salmon.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday released its final assessment of the impact of mining in the Bristol Bay region. Its findings are similar to those of an earlier draft report, concluding that, depending on the size of the mine, up to 94 miles of streams would be destroyed in the mere build-out of the project, including losses of between 5 and 22 miles of streams known to provide salmon spawning and rearing habitat. Up to 5,350 acres of wetlands, ponds and lakes also would be lost due to the mine footprint.

The report concludes that "large-scale mining in the Bristol Bay watershed poses significant near- and long-term risk to salmon, wildlife and Native Alaska cultures," EPA regional administrator Dennis McLerran said in a conference call with reporters.

The battle over the proposed Pebble Mine has been waged for years and extended beyond Alaska's borders, with environmental activists like actor Robert Redford opposing development. Multinational jewelers have said they won't use minerals mined from the Alaska prospect, and pension fund managers from California and New York City last year asked London-based Rio Tinto, a shareholder of mine owner Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd., to divest, a request Rio Tinto said it planned to consider.