Tag Archives: Bristol Bay Watershed

New analysis shows seismic risks related to Pebble Mine

New analysis commissioned by Bristol Bay fishermen contends that plans for the Pebble mine project and environmental review do not adequately account for seismic risks on the proposed mine site, putting the fishery and regional communities and cultures as risk for devastation. With the U.S Army Corps of Engineers expected to release its record of decision on a critical permit application for the mine in mid-July, concerns remain with fishermen and others opposed to the mine abutting the Bristol Bay watershed over seismic and other risks outlined in the report produced by Lynker Technologies, in Boulder, Colo. >click to read< 18:06

The impossible journey of the juvenile coho

As a Ph.D. student with the University of Washington’s Alaska Salmon Program, Jonny Armstrong — now assistant professor at Oregon State University’s Fish and Wildlife Department — snorkeled the Wood River in the Bristol Bay watershed. He soon encountered a mystery: juvenile coho as much as a mile from the nearest sockeye spawning ground had sockeye eggs in their stomachs. Sockeye lay their eggs in cold water, where there’s lots of oxygen. A juvenile coho, however, doesn’t best digest sockeye eggs in that water — cold slows its digestion, meaning if it stayed there, it might need a week to process just one meal. >click to read<22:38

Salmon Vs. Gold Splits Alaska GOP

There’s gold in them thar…. swamps. A lot of gold, in fact—up to $120 billion of it, lying within the Bristol Bay watershed in Alaska. Which is why a Canadian company, Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd., wants to dig one of the world’s largest open-pit mines to get it. Naturally, there’s a fight. Mines are messy, and this one—the —could threaten delicate salmon spawning grounds. But this fight is different—because there are Republicans on both sides. Read the rest here 09:26

EPA Releases Final Assessment of Bristol Bay Watershed

The EPA’s Region 10 office published the final assessment online Wednesday, but the agency declined to issue any regulatory decisions at this time. – The report concludes, in no uncertain terms, that “large-scale mining poses risks to salmon and the tribal communities that have depended on them for thousands of years.”  Read the document here.   Read more@kdlg  16:51

New evidence points to former EPA official pushing pre-emptive Pebble Mine veto

When it comes to a controversial proposed copper and gold mine near Alaska’s Bristol Bay, the Environmental Protection Agency long has insisted that it is assessing, not regulating. At least not yet. The EPA has repeatedly said it has no plan to pre-emptively veto the mine proposal via a regulatory hydrogen bomb at its disposal in the Clean Water Act — certainly not while the agency is working over its much-disputed assessment of a theoretical large-scale mine’s impact on the Bristol Bay Watershed. more@washingtonexaminer07:37:00