On a day after the president just enacted the the largest reduction of public-lands protection in U.S. history, we need to again take up the fight against the Pebble Mine. You may have thought it was dead, but it is not.
For more than a decade, a Canadian mining company, Northern Dynasty Minerals, has wanted to gouge one of the world’s largest gold and copper mines into the heart of the watershed, putting its rivers on a centuries-long poison drip. The company has failed to move forward with the project, known as Pebble Mine, due to intense and sustained opposition. It has also been burdened by proposed restrictions recommended by the Obama-era Environmental Protection Agency — the result of a four-year review.
But President Trump’s EPA administrator, Scott Pruitt, has rejected his agency’s review and moved to withdraw its proposal to impose restrictions on the mine, thereby reviving the company’s prospects for federal permitting. Pruitt is poised to take this action imminently, showing a flagrant disregard for the public’s overwhelming opposition.
Now, in what could very well be the most important land-use decision in North America in our time, an essentially eternal supply of food is pitted against an essentially eternal supply of poison.
The fly fishing industry has been fighting this tooth and nail, but you can get involved directly here.
dirty bastards
Nice one. Thanks for post.
Floated the Koktuli 2 different time from the proposed pebble Mine down to the Mulchatna River. Not many people can say they have actually seen the proposed mine location. The Koktuli River was amazing fly fishing from its headwaters all the way down to the mouth. The amount of King Salmon in the river was overwhelming. We were doing riparian habitat and water quality baseline study for the State of Alaska. We would count 400-600 King salmon in a single hole. The water was just red with all the fish. We tagged a couple hundred rainbow trout and Dolly Varden. It would be very sad to loose such an abundant ecosystem to a mine disaster. I would encourage anyone to make that trip and it will seen far more important to preserve than if you have never seen it.