Lindsay Layland
Lindsay Layland is deputy director of the United Tribes of Bristol Bay, which represents 15 tribes of the Bristol Bay region and 80 percent of the population who live in the region year-round.
The people who live in Bristol Bay continue to oppose the Pebble project.
“Pebble has been an issue long enough that memories start to get hazy as to how all of this got started,” Layland said. “I have quite literally grown up with the threat of Pebble mine.”
The people living in Bristol Bay have opposed this project from the beginning. This opposition is not rooted in any disagreement with mining, resource extraction or economic development in general, she added, but the people oppose the mine because of its location to the wetlands, streams and ground waters that are responsible for Bristol Bay salmon.
“This was the issue that brought the people of Bristol Bay to action,” she said.
Bristol Bay is defined by its fish and pristine habitat. Fish play a critical role in the way of life to the Bristol Bay people. Referencing the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, Layland said residents harvest between 150 to 500 pounds of salmon each year for subsistence.
Dewatering streams and filling in wetlands changes the way water moves throughout the system, on the surface and through the ground.
“I am 27 years old, am a small business owner and have invested a lot in my commercial fishing business,” Layland said. “I grew up in Bristol Bay and call it home. The science and history surrounding this issue have let me to a resolute opposition to this project.”
Norman Van Vactor
Norman Van Vactor is president and CEO of the Bristol Bay Economic Development Corp., representing 17 coastal communities in the Bristol Bay region.
Bristol Bay is about salmon, and is one of the last remaining fisheries of its kind, Van Vactor said. Bristol Bay has one of the most valuable salmon fisheries in the world, supplying about half of the world’s sockeye supply.
This fishery supports a valuable, important economic engine in the region. Government regulatory bodies should work to protect these important resources.
Van Vactor noted his past experience as the chair of the governor’s fisheries transition team, which resulted in the message of encouraging the state to promote “fish first” messaging. Nothing has happened yet on that front. That lack of action has prompted efforts such as ballot initiatives and other measures to drive the conversation.
“The people who call Bristol Bay home have one common element: our lives and our economic focus is salmon,” Van Vactor said. “But the economic importance of the fishery extends well beyond Bristol Bay and Alaska. We touch the Pacific Northwest and by extension the entire country and the world.”
The fishery generates more than 14,000 jobs, and 2,300 small-business owners, and revenues of $1.6 billion annually. What does it cost to support that revenue? About $2 million of the ADFG’s annual budget, Van Vactor said. “Where else can the state see that type of ROI?”
Salmon sustains the Bristol Bay economy in terms of commercial, sport and subsistence fisheries.
“We could use more jobs, just not Pebble mine jobs,” he said. “We can’t afford the risk to build it.”
Even with the modified footprint of the mine, the type of resource to be mined – copper and gold – it is clear this mine cannot coexist safely with salmon. “Fish and fishing communities lose when toxic tailings are involved.”
There is a legitimate national interest in protecting clean water that has for centuries supported the people and the economy of our region. Even the new administration of the EPA acknowledged the value of the Bristol Bay resources.
“The people of Bristol Bay have our own set of challenges, but at the end of the day we’re like-minded when it comes to protecting the resources and the way of life that has served and sustained our region for hundreds of years,” he said. “Bristol Bay will continue to sustain our way of life if we all do our part.”
Nanci Morris-Lyon
Nanci Morris-Lyon, with her husband, Heath, owns and operates Bear Trail Lodge.
Morris-Lyon has lived and worked in Bristol Bay since the 1980s. Bristol Bay is known as the birth place of fly-out fishing.
“Movie stars, sports stars, dignitaries and even presidents come to Bristol Bay to fish,” she said. “This world-wide recognition has established sportsfishing as an incredibly important part of the local and statewide economy.”
Because of its pristine environment, Bristol Bay has grown to become a national treasure for Alaskans. Tourism is a beam of sunlight in the economy, and Bristol Bay draws thousands of visitors each year.
“I hear a lot of talk about the salmon and the effects that mining could have on the runs and returns but it’s also important to recognize that we spend at least two months of our season – which is very short – guiding guests who focus on fish other than salmon.”
Grayling, Dolly Varden and Arctic Char, and more notably Rainbow Trout, are some of the largest and most prolific fish in the watershed.
Pebble’s current plan includes transportation corridors that would cross two of Bristol Bay’s most famous fishing rivers: Talarik Creek and Gibraltar Creek (River).
“Placing these corridors on or even near these fisheries will eliminate the reason many visitors join us year after year,” she said. “Without a pristine and relaxing place to visit a large percentage of our fishermen will choose not to return. Thirty-five round-trip dump truck loads barreling by each day, blasting taking place over the hill, and an entire infrastructure required for the mine will eliminate what many of our visitors crave”
Pebble’s current plan and future expansions fundamentally changes the landscape. People don’t come to Bristol Bay to fish among noise.
Morris-Lyon became the lead instructor of the Bristol Bay Guide Academy, with a goal of helping the region’s guides provide a full accounting of the region and its valuable prospects.
“I felt that if we could get the residents of the area involved in guiding and sports fishing, they could show my guests a way to experience the area through a whole new set of eyes and values,” she said. “To me, it was a sure-fire way to know that visitors received a whole picture of Bristol Bay’s traditions and it would help them understand why she is so special.”
She went on to describe a student of the academy who she taught, and later hired who became a quality guide for her lodge’s visitors.
“Bristol Bay can and is creating a positive future for itself that does not involve terrifying hazards and risks beyond measure. It does not involved or need a landscape that is so vastly changed that is displaces and collapses an established industry.”
She suggested that we let safety be the first priority. The minerals aren’t going anywhere.
“Perhaps there will come a day when it will be safe to remove them from their resting place,” she said. “Perhaps when technology allows it to be done without dangerous chemicals and ravaged landscapes. Not now.”
David Chambers
David Chambers is president of the Center for Science in Public Participation, a nonprofit organization that provides technical assistance on mining and water quality based in Bozeman, Montana.
Chambers presented lawmakers with a somewhat technical presentation. First, he discussed presentation materials Northern Dynasty Minerals has given its investors over the years regarding the Pebble mine prospect. The most recent presentation was in September 2017, when the company told investors of measured and inferred resources totaling 10.8 billion tonnes.
“The number that they quoted to you (lawmakers) for their small project last week was 1.1 billion tonnes,” he said. “A company cannot go out and promote something that it doesn’t have. To do so is fraud. They continue to put this out there, and in fact, they’d be hard-pressed to retract it.”
He showed illustrations of the proposed mine pit, along with outlines where the waste rock, tailings storage and other infrastructure would be located. These illustrations represented comparisons for two proposed scenarios: from 2012, when Pebble proposed mining 2 billion tonnes over a 25-year operation, and the 2017 proposal for 1.2 billion tonnes over 20 years.
Lastly, a slide showed other potential mining operations in the region, including Big Chuck, Humble and others.
“It all has a footprint,” he said. “I’d like to leave you with the message that size is important because size not only relates to habitat that is directly impacted, but it also relates to the size of these waste piles and the open pit often associated with the contamination. A lot of that contamination takes years to manifest itself.”
Rep. Birch asked if Chambers saw any potential for mine and fish habitat safely. Chambers noted this mine has the greatest potential for disaster.
“This particular type of mine has a very poor record of performance,” he said. “Virtually every mine of this size developing a copper ore body has had water quality issues ranging from sulfate to acid mine drainage.”
He then mentioned the mine failure in Canada’s Mount Polley, a 2014 breach in the copper and gold mine tailings pond that released 24 million cubic metres of mining waste into Polley Lake.
Researchers at that time said we need to try to balance between economic environmental and social risks. “Unfortunately, the way things are done today we tend to place more emphasis on economics,” Chambers said. “The question is socially, how do we level that playing field and make those considerations equal?”
Daniel Schindler
Daniel Schindler is a professor in the School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences at the University of Washington
Schindler started his presentation with a note: Alaska’s fisheries are the envy of the world, as is the fisheries management.
He showed a chart of sockeye returns to Bristol Bay, with 50 million or so fish returning most years.
“The Nushugak fishing district alone last year caught a million sockeye salmon in one day,” he said. “There’s no enhancement there. No hatcheries. That is watersheds functioning the way they should.”
Why is this important? It’s part of the culture. Sustainable fisheries are part of the Alaska Constitution, and the state Department of Fish and Game does a good job of overseeing it. More important, he said, is that the habitat is intact.
“This is no fluke,” he told lawmakers. “You go to the Lower 48 and many of our fisheries, particularly our salmon fisheries are in a total state of disarray. And that can be traced to the fact that we were arrogant about how important habitat is to sustain habitat fisheries. The habitat is still on the table in Alaska.”
The University of Washington’s Fisheries Research Institute, where he works, has studied Alaska salmon since 1946, when state officials came to the group asking for advice on how to sustain the fisheries.
He discussed the lifecycle of a salmon, how it is born, swims out into the ocean for a few years, then returns to the place of birth to spawn and die. Although the exact science is unclear, researchers believe fish essentially smell their way back to their birthplace. That is why it is important to consider carefully the issue of mining in Bristol Bay and the effects of mining on the ecosystem, Schindler said.
Bristol Bay is unique geologically and biologically. The region is a complex habitat, with porous gravel left from melting glaciers, and on top of that is a lot of water that falls through rain and snow, which flows into the rivers and streams. That, in turn, creates a rich, productive habitat for salmon.
What makes it so good for salmon makes it so difficult to contain mining problems, he said. Climate change most likely will make the area wetter, and that will exacerbate the concerns.
Schindler went on to discuss some scientific studies looking at where salmon come from at a given time. His research has shown that in one year, a river may be prolific while a tributary a few miles away is sparse with fish. The next year, the formerly empty waters will roil with fish, while the rest in the area are bare. The ecosystem varies year to year, but over time – centuries – tends to level out to a consistently valuable fishery.
Alaska’s salmon fishery is resilient because of its complex system, he said. Historic volcanic eruptions probably smothered some tributaries and the generation salmon of the time, while the same events boosted others by effectively fertilizing the waters.
In Bristol Bay, the habitat is about complexity and variation, and subtle effects created through infrastructure that occurs with mines – buildings, roads, mine pits – simplifies the habitat and hurts nature’s ability to sustain the stable salmon populations.
He presented a short list of risks to the fish that included:
- acid mine drainage
- toxic effects of copper, which impedes salmon’s ability to smell
- dewatering of streams and wetlands
- erosion
“These are facts, these are not hypotheticals,” Schindler said. “The actual magnitude of these impacts is going to depend on a lot of things, such as the location, how the mine actually operates. But these issues are facts.”
And the effects may be subtle and it may take years, even decades, before we notice the effects.
As one example, Schindler showed a satellite image of the Chena River near Fairbanks. A road runs just off the main river body. However, the meandering offshoots of the river – the horseshoes – have changed, and seem to be flowing less from the main river. That impacts salmon habitat, Schindler said.
Rick Halford, former Alaska state senator, and current consultant for United Tribes of Bristol Bay, Trout Unlimited Alaska and SalmonState
http://www.akleg.gov/basis/get_documents.asp?session=30&docid=40477
“I certainly am not an anti-mining person,” Halford said. “I don’t think I ever ran for office without the support of the Alaska miners.”
However, the Pebble mine in his view, doesn’t work. “Most of them do work, and this one could have worked if it was in a different place,” he said. “The location is the most critical you could ever find. The type of ore body and the size are beyond imagination.”
Several mine companies, leaders in the industry, have rejected this prospect since the 1990s, he said. Including Cominco, Rio Tinto and others.
“This is not something that just has environmental problems, or support problems, it has huge economic problems because it’s a very low-grade ore body,” he said.
Tom Tilden, Chief of the Curyung Tribal Council and councilman and Mayor of Dillingham.
He’s a commercial fisherman, but before fishing for money, he ensures he has fish put away to keep his fed through the winter.
He hunts and fishes year-round. “Subsistence lifestyle is a full-time job, and water sustains that lifestyle.”
“Water is sacred to us. Our rivers need your protection as all rivers in Alaska need your protection,” he said. “Article 8 of the Constitution says that the resources belong to all of us. Protect it for all of us. When we fought for statehood that was one of the driving forces. That we would be able to manage our own resources. It didn’t say, ‘Manage it until Pebble comes along or some other mining comes along.’ It said we would protect those resources.”
The people in the region said they want to protect the resources, confirmed in a two-year study.
He also discussed observations from the people in some of the villages surrounding the mine where some of the moose and caribou migrations have changed since the mine exploration started. Newhalen hunters, for example, don’t see moose like they used to. Residents there think it’s because of the noise from the exploration operations, Tilden said.
“I think it’s time for us to take a hard look at what they say and what they’re doing,” he said of the Pebble operation.”