No Pebble Mine (Ketchikan, Kenai, Red Dog Mine: environment, wages, jobs)

[User 2]

A foreign company wants to create the largest open pit mine in the world, with the largest dam in the world, in the headwaters supporting the largest salmon run in the world.

The project represents short term profits for a foreign company at the expense of lost habitat and loss of renewable resources.

Once profits were taken, the foreign company would then leave their resultant mess behind for Alaskan's to clean up.

Those who would rather forego short term profits for a foreign company, in favor of protecting our habitat, and the renewable resources that rely on our maintaining that habitat, are opposed to Pebble Mine.

The trade-offs aren't worth it. There is no compelling need to trade our habitat and renewable resources for someone else's short term profits.

The history of mining operations prove that all the promises mine owners make are just that, promises and nothing more. With every promise that has been made, those promises have proven to be not only nothing but promises, the results of allowing development to proceed on the basis of promises has resulted in exactly the kind of pollution and loss that the promises were supposed to guarantee couldn't happen.

Until Alaska fixes it's permitting process to ensure protections for Alaska's water, habitat and resources, no project like Pebble should ever be considered.

You can join with other Alaskans, help protect our land, our water, and the renewable resources we all rely on, by lending your support to efforts to create and sustain public policy that protects our future.

The Alaska that is threatened by inadequate controls on development belongs to all Americans, not just Alaska residents. I would urge everyone to commit to doing something to help protect our heritage and join with others who want to leave a truly productive legacy for those who come after us.

Contact Alaska state and federal officials, or members of your own congressional delegation if you're not an Alaskan, and demand they oppose the mine right now and publicly. Please write, call or fax your congressional reps and also Governor Palin, Ted Stevens, Don Young, Lisa Murkowski, and or members of the Alaska State Legislature.

Addresses of the Alaska State Legislature can be found at:

http://w3.legis.state.ak.us/home.htm

Another way to help is to join the Alaska Renewable Resources Coalition.

Renewable Resources Coalition - Membership

Your small membership fee will help fund efforts to protect Alaska.

More links for more information.

Stop Pebble Mine | Pebble Mine Opposition Group from Bristol Bay

Report Proves Pebble Mine Would Destroy Salmon Spawning Areas. - Free Online Library

Site of the Proposed Pebble Mine: A Photoessay by Erin McKittrick

Pebble Mine Facts

NPR: Alaskan Kids Say No to a Gold Mine
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[Metlakatla]

Oh...I cannot and will not discuss the particulars, but the little gold mine I work at seems to be in quite a state of turmoil just now.

[stiffnecked]

I will contact my legislators and ENCOURAGE them to vote FOR opening the Pebble mine.
Otherwise we will all end up in Ketchikan or Juneau driving tour buses in the summer. It's amazing at what hype the bunny huggers will spew...

[User 2]

Originally Posted by stiffnecked

what hype the bunny huggers will spew...

Some folks aren't able to distinguish which is hype, nor where it's coming from.

Those who promise 'responsible' development are the ones who are pushing hype.

Let's see if there's a pattern to the 'hype':

1991

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency issues a Notice of Violation stating that certain mine operations were not in compliance with conditions of the Red Dog mine air permit

: EPA fined Cominco for illegally discharging heavy metals into a nearby creek –134 separate permit violations.

Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation issues warning to the Red Dog mine that lead levels outside the mill are 30 % higher than what is considered to be protective of human health.

http://www.northern.org/artman/publish/reddogfact.pdf



1997

According to a lawsuit brought by the U.S. Department of Justice,
the violations occured at the company's Red Dog Mine and the mine's
Chuckchi Sea port over a four-year period.

...action that was based on numerous Clean Water Act violations from 1990 through 1993.

#294: 07-14-97 - Alaska Mining Company Agrees to $4.7 Million Environmental Settlement

Red Dog 'promises' they won't pollute again.

1998

The Red Dog mine in northwest Alaska -- the largest lead and zinc mine in the world -- is being required by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to reduce the toxic metals in the effluent it discharges to an Alaskan river system which is the spawning ground for important marine and fresh-water fisheries.

Alaska's Red Dog Mine Required to Reduce Pollutant Discharges | Newsroom | US EPA

Red Dog 'promises' not to pollute again

2003

Red Dog Mine agrees to pay fine for 18 state air quality violations.

http://www.northern.org/artman/publish/reddogfact.pdf


2005

The operators of the Red Dog Mine, the world’s largest lead and zinc mine, agreed to pay civil penalties...

Alaska Mining Company Agrees to Pay $33,000 for Discharges to the Chukchi Sea | Newsroom | US EPA

2006

Red Dog mine remains at the top of the Environmental Protection Agency’s national Toxic Release Inventory for the third straight year, but owner Teck Cominco wants the public to know...

MINING NEWS: Red Dog closely monitoring toxic releases - April 23, 2006 - Petroleum News

More promises....... more violations.

2008

U.S. Supreme Court declines to block case

Canada’s Teck Comino must refute claims of pollution

MINING NEWS: U.S. Supreme Court declines to block case - January 27, 2008 - Petroleum News

Suppose those promises were all hype?

Suppose it's just one operator?

2006

MINING NEWS: Greens Creek settles with EPA

MINING NEWS: Greens Creek settles with EPA - June 25, 2006 - Petroleum News

2006

Coeur Alaska Inc. has agreed to pay an EPA penalty ....to resolve federal Clean Water Act violations at the Kensington Gold Project

Coeur Alaska Inc. agrees to pay over $100,000 to settle Clean Water Act violations | Newsroom | US EPA

2007

Two workers killed in a construction accident at a gold mine last year were not properly trained

management engaged in conduct that amounted to "more than ordinary negligence" in failing to comply with a mandatory safety standard.rd.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/22708916/for/cnbc

2007

Ever since prospectors rushed to the Yukon seeking gold more than a century ago, miners have been guilty of extracting the mineral riches in the North and doing a vanishing act when the veins petered out or prices fell. These miners often left behind environmental messes that occasionally became regulatory nightmares.

MINING NEWS: Unique operator cleans up old messes - February 25, 2007 - Petroleum News

(This is the industry's own publication which confirms this truism isn't hype.)

More hype?

USACE placed various mitigation measures on the Rock Creek Mine Project to mitigate environmental damage from this project as well as damage caused by the earlier mining activities.

The Gold Rush is Back on in Alaska: Ninth Circuit Upholds USACE Permit Allowing Mining Involving Significant Filling of Wetlands : Abbott & Kindermann Land Use Law Blog

The Red Dog mine in northwestern Alaska had 134 violations of effluent limitations and 28 separate violations for failing to report these violations.

Juneau After the Gold Rush

The Greens Creek Mine, located on Admiralty Island in Southeast Alaska, ...had been cited for 391 violations of the Clean Water Act by 2003.

The Zortman-Landusky gold mine near the Fort Belnap Indian Reservation in central Montana ran from 1989 to 1998 when its operator, Pegasus Gold Inc., abandoned the site and filed for bankruptcy, leaving behind a $33 million cleanup tab.

Federal and state agencies had predicted no adverse impacts to water quality, yet by 1993 Pegasus was being sued by the state and the EPA.

Montana officials have said water treatment will have to continue "forever."

Kenai Peninsula Online - Alaska Newspaper -

None of this is 'hype', the only hype one hears is from those who favor irresponsible development with no regard for the future.

Care to read more?

Fact Sheets for Alaska Mines and Exploration Projects

Court Rules in Favor of Clean Water: Kensington Mine’s Tailings Plan Illegal ...

Northern Alaska Environmental Center :: Mining :: Alaska Mining Press Kit

In Alaska, there are over 400 abandoned mines

Costs and Benefits of Industrial Hard Rock Mining in Alaska
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[User 3]

And what makes you think you'd be qualified to drive a tour bus wing-nut...

Legislators won't have anything to do with deciding this BS deal in the end.....we'll simply cover Pebble up with years of lawsuits

We need to put a bounty on the executives at Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd....

Jewelers being asked to boycott gold from Alaska mine (1/3/07)

adn.com | Mining : Jewelers being asked to boycott gold from Alaska mine (1/3/07)

Jewelers say they won't buy Pebble prospect's 'dirty gold'

adn.com | Mining : Jewelers say they won't buy Pebble prospect's 'dirty gold'

[User 3]

Open pit 2 miles long and a half-mile wide and over 1,700 feet deep.

Brought to you by a pack of cheese head Canadians & ole dirtbag Frank Murchitski

It will never happen....

[User 3]

BRISTOL BAY ALLIANCE

Pure water is more precious than gold


SIGN THE BRISTOL BAY PROTECTION PLEDGE...

Pure water is more precious than gold

[Rance]

I've signed.

[stiffnecked]

If you keep shutting down the development of natural resources than what pray tell should we do for jobs???? Once a country quits producing products from raw resources they simply become a consumer nation. When they happens the whole house of cards will soon collapse.

Trust me I'm all for saving the enviroment and all that jazz. But if you can't provide jobs and people can't put bread on the table and roof over there heads it all doesn't really matter does it????

[DannyL]

Originally Posted by stiffnecked

Trust me I'm all for saving the enviroment and all that jazz. But if you can't provide jobs and people can't put bread on the table and roof over there heads it all doesn't really matter does it????

Tell it to Wyoming. Same kind of promises. they come in, tear hell out of the land, take the money and leave, and Wyoming still doesn't pay jack on wages or has abundant decent housing.

Modern mining is nothing more than 21st century rape and pillage.