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18191 |
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Date: August 28, 2022 at 09:30:00
From: akira, [DNS_Address]
Subject: Pebble mine project &potential destruction of Bristol Bay's ecosystems |
URL: https://www.nature.org/en-us/about-us/where-we-work/united-states/alaska/stories-in-alaska/pebble-mine-environmental-impact/ |
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and livelihoods...
From the beginning, when a group of inspired ecologists founded The
Nature Conservancy 65 years ago, we’ve relied on the best available science
to guide us. And when the best-available isn’t good enough, we roll up our
sleeves and get to work.
Recently in Alaska’s Bristol Bay, we sought to answer urgent questions about
tailings dam safety that went overlooked by regulatory agencies.
In partnership with a commercial fishing trade group, the Bristol Bay
Regional Seafood Development Association, we turned to the best tech tools
available to assess the risk of developing the proposed large-scale Pebble
mine in Alaska’s Bristol Bay—home to the largest runs of wild salmon on the
planet. The rivers of Bristol Bay have supported a sustainable commercial
salmon fishery for four generations—and a local salmon harvest tradition
known to date back thousands of years.
TNC expertise is helping our industry understand the risk of tailings dam
failure in Bristol Bay when the agencies that should be asking the hard
questions have simply fallen short.
ANDY WINK
Executive Director, Bristol Bay Regional Seafood Development Assoc.
Our recent research assesses risk of large-scale mining in Bristol Bay, a the
place where clean and free-flowing rivers have long provided a remarkably
valuable wild and sustainable fisheries resource. Specifically, we’ve
thoroughly reviewed the likelihood of a tailings dam failure in the Bristol Bay
headwaters. Among pressing concerns is the possibility of an accidental
spill at a massive earthen dam standing more than three times the height of
the Statue of Liberty.
This remote region in Alaska is prone to earthquakes and receives 25
percent more annual precipitation than Seattle—these are among the factors
compounding the difficulty of developing a large-scale mine and operating
safely. In sum, the computer model findings at the core of our investigation
show the likelihood of a spill in this location is too risky to be ignored and
deserves thorough official review.
Animation of Tailings Dam Failure
TAILINGS DAM FAILURE Animation of tailings dam failure created by our
computer model.
“As a scientific organization, we’re committed to continually asking
questions and testing assumptions,” says Adrianna Muir, TNC’s Director of
Conservation in Alaska. “We were pleased to help commercial fishermen
address some of their pressing questions about the long-term outlook for
headwaters salmon habitat.”
Key results indicate that spilled tailings—consisting largely of rock, mud,
water and concentrations of heavy metals—from a dam breach accident
could:
travel more than 50 miles downstream and likely reach the Nushagak River,
which accounts for about a quarter of the planet’s wild sockeye salmon
production;
spread more than two miles wide across the river valley;
fill valley bottoms and spread tailings over salmon nursery habitat;
send mudflows through 150 miles of mapped salmon habitat and more than
400 potential salmon streams;
continue to flow as far as Bristol Bay, given the fine-grained nature of the
spill material, and settle out in the Nushagak River estuary at the fishing port
of Dillingham, Alaska.
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Responses:
[18192] |
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18192 |
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Date: August 28, 2022 at 09:31:49
From: akira, [DNS_Address]
Subject: time's running out...Stop Pebble Mine |
URL: https://stoppebbleminenow.org/the-truth-about-pebble-mine/ |
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The proposed Pebble Mine project is a massive open pit mine intended to
extract copper, gold, and molybdenum at the headwaters of pristine Bristol
Bay. If fully built, the mine would produce up to 10.2 billion tons of toxic
waste that would remain on the site forever. Because of its size,
geochemistry, and location, those toxins threaten the entire watershed,
including one of the largest wild sockeye salmon runs on Earth.
The EPA resumed work to establish permanent protections for the Bristol
Bay watershed and reopen the 404(c) “veto” process. While this brings the
region one step closer to stopping Pebble Mine from poisoning the
watershed, work remains to ensure the job gets finished and the lands and
waters are protected for good.
The Pebble Mine would cause irreparable damage to one of the last great
wild places on Earth
The project would include a massive pit that’s at least a quarter-mile deep
and more than a mile long, a nearly 200 mile-long natural gas pipeline, and a
power plant large enough to light up a mid-sized city. A footprint this size
would pollute ground and surface water and scar the pristine landscape
forever.
illustration of a bag of money crossed out
The Pebble Mine’s finances don’t pencil out
Under their current proposal, economists estimate the value of the Pebble
Mine at negative $3 billion. To be profitable, a mine of much greater
magnitude would be developed, and the devastating environmental impacts
would be even worse than what was originally proposed.
illustration of a fishing boat crossed out
The Pebble Mine would destroy far more jobs than it creates
At its peak, the Pebble Mine would support fewer than 2,000 jobs, but risks
destroying 15,000 fishing and seafood jobs and thousands of recreation and
tourism industry jobs.
illustration of a salmon crossed out
The Pebble Mine threatens the Alaskan way of life
The infrastructure developed for the Pebble Mine would open the door to a
massive expansion of mining operations in this ecologically and culturally
important region. This means more toxic mining waste, more salmon habitat
destruction, and more harm to the Yup’ik, Dena’ina, and Alutiuq peoples of
the region and all Alaskans who depend on Bristol Bay.
Stand With the People of Bristol Bay
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