Federal environmental officials are moving to restrict the use of certain waters in the Bristol Bay watershed as disposal sites, according to an announcement from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
Casey Sixkiller, the Region 10 regional administrator for the EPA, recommended prohibiting and restricting the disposal of certain dredged or fill materials associated with developing the Pebble Deposit into the Bristol Bay watershed. The EPA determined that these discharges would likely result in unacceptable adverse effects on salmon habitat in the South Fork Koktuli River, North Fork Koktuli River and Upper Talarik Creek watersheds of Bristol Bay.
“EPA Region 10’s action represents the third step in EPA’s four-step Clean Water Act Section 404(c) review process,” Sixkiller said in the Dec. 1 announcement. “If affirmed by EPA’s Office of Water during the fourth and final step, this action would help protect salmon fishery areas that support world-class commercial and recreational fisheries, and that have sustained Alaska Native communities for thousands of years, supporting a subsistence-based way of life for one of the last intact wild salmon-based cultures in the world.”
The EPA’s Office of Water will now review the Recommended Determination and administrative record supporting Region 10’s decision, as well as any information provided by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), the owners of record, and the applicant about their intent to take corrective action to prevent unacceptable adverse effects before issuing a final determination affirming, modifying or rescinding the Recommended Determination.
John Shively, CEO of the Pebble Limited Partnership (PLP) — which would develop the mine site in Southwest Alaska — called the EPA’s action political and without legal, environmental or technical merit. The PLP, with offices in Anchorage, is a subsidiary of Hunter Dickinson — a diversified, global mining group with headquarters in Vancouver, Canada.
“Those who think we can build a green energy economy in this country and stop mining at the same time are living in a fantasy world,” Shively said. “The EPA has made wildly speculative claims about possible adverse impacts from Pebble’s development that are not supported by any defensible data and are in direct contradiction to the facts validated in the USACE’s Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) for the Pebble Project.”
Shively asserted that the FEIS “clearly states” that the Pebble Project can be developed without harming the Bristol Bay fishery.
“Congress did not give the EPA broad authority to act as it has in the Pebble case,” he said. “This is clearly a massive regulatory overreach by the EPA and well outside what Congress intended for the agency when it passed the Clean Water Act.”
Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy said finalizing such action would set a dangerous precedent, vetoing a permit that has not been issued and imposing a blanket prohibition on development over 309 square miles of land owned by the state.
“The state of Alaska has the duty, under our constitution, to develop its resources to the maximum in order to provide for itself and its people, so it’s important that any and all opportunities be explored in furtherance of this idea,” Dunleavy said.
The governor noted that the state was joined by Arkansas, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Montana, Nebraska, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, West Virginia and Wyoming in a letter of opposition filed concurrently with his own.
Alannah Hurley, the executive director for United Tribes of Bristol Bay, welcomed the EPA’s announcement last week.
“After 20 years of Pebble hanging over our heads, the Biden Administration has the opportunity to follow through on its commitments by finalizing comprehensive, durable protections for our region as soon as possible,” Hurley said. “We look forward to reviewing the EPA’s Recommended Determination in greater detail to ensure it achieves the goal of protecting our people and region from the threat of the Pebble Mine.”
Bristol Bay tribes first requested Clean Water Act protections in 2010, but have been pursuing permanent, durable protections for nearly twenty years. The EPA started considering proposed protections in 2014, following a three-year study of the Bristol Bay watershed and fisheries. After legal challenges, the Clean Water Act process was re-initiated in late 2021.
“EPA did the right thing today,” said Chris Wood, president and CEO of Trout Unlimited. “Bristol Bay is the world’s finest salmon fishery. The vast majority of local Alaska Native villages and sportsmen and women across America want to see it protected. Thanks to EPA for applying common sense to a common problem for the common good.”
Former Alaska State Senate President Rick Halford — an avid outdoorsman who has spent many years working to protect the Bristol Bay watershed — said “this is one good big piece,” but that the EPA’s announcement may still lead to future extension and litigation.
“It’s a big step in the right direction and long overdue,” Halford said. “But it’s not over yet.”
The Bristol Bay Native Corporation (BBNC) also celebrated in the EPA’s announcement to protect the watershed from potential adverse impacts to salmon habitat from development of the mine, and urged a Final Determination as soon as possible.
“For the last 13 years, BBNC has joined the overwhelming majority of our shareholders in standing against the proposed Pebble mine,” said Jason Metrokin, president and CEO of the corporation. “We are glad to be one step closer to ending this long chapter in our region’s history, and, looking forward, we will never be complacent in fighting for Bristol Bay, its people, its fish, and our Native way of life.”
