The Last Pebble Mine Story You’ll Read
If news fatigue regarding Pebble Mine stories has set in, you’re likely not alone. By now, the saga pitting private interests and local economic drivers against conservation groups, commercial fisherman, and recreationalists on The Last Frontier needs no introduction, and it seems as if a major development regarding the proposed project has broken every few months for the past 5 years. We hope the issue hasn’t taken too much of a back burner for you, but if it has, tune back in now because this will be the last Pebble Mine story you’ll ever need to read.
On January 30th, the EPA released a Final Declaration stating that waste from the Pebble Mine project cannot be discharged into the watersheds where the proposed mining is slated to occur. With no way for Pebble Mine to discard of fill and dredge material that invariably is produced by mining operations, the project cannot feasibly happen. By barring a critical step in the mining process, the EPA has effectively driven the project to it’s deathbed and safeguarded the critical spawning and rearing habitat in Bristol Bay that supports returns of over 40 million sockeye salmon annually.
The EPA based their Declaration on the Clean Water Act, a piece of federal legislation passed in 1972 that provides a framework for controlling releases of pollutants into our national waterways. Specifically, the EPA utilized Section 404 of the Act, which regulates the discharge of dredged or fill material into waters of the United States. This decision does not mark a sudden turning point where regulations pertaining to Section 404 were suddenly invoked on the proposed project. 13 years ago, back in 2010, Trout Unlimited, in cooperation with commercial fisherman and Alaskan tribal groups, petitioned the EPA to use the Section to stop the Pebble Mine project. In 2014, after a multi-year assessment of the project the EPA released a Proposed Determination under Section 404 that identified many of the same issues as the recently signed Final Declaration. Following release of the Proposed Determination nearly a decade of litigation and political maneuvering under the Obama, Trump, and Biden administrations ensued. Only after a protracted battle with paper, pencil, courts, federal agencies, and public outcry, including a high-profile lawsuit brought against the EPA by Trout Unlimited in 2019, did we reach the landmark Final Declaration.
And what does the Pebble Partnership, the company behind the proposed mine, have to say about all this? In a statement on their website, the corporation states that “the EPA's preemptive action against Pebble is not supported legally, technically, or environmentally. As such, the next step will likely be to take legal action to fight this injustice.” A decision of this size by the EPA has few precedents, none of which have been overturned, so it’s unclear what legal basis the Pebble Partnership could leverage to reverse the decision. The Declaration adds to a growing list of obstacles that the Pebble Partnership would need to overcome, including funding and land acquisition issues, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Permit Denials, and lack of public and political support. They will undoubtably fight the decision, but at this point its incredibly unlikely that the project will ever occur.
May salmon continue to swim free in Bristol Bay.
