Battle Against Pebble Mine
A sword of Damocles swings over one of the greatest wild fisheries left on earth. Sixty-two million salmon returned to Alaska’s Bristol Bay last spring. But EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt gave the green light to build the largest open-pit mine in North America on the headwaters of the Bay.
The very name — Pebble Mine — grotesquely minimizes its lethal potential. This mine will gouge a hole two miles wide and several thousand feet deep. It will generate ten billion tons of toxic waste stored behind earthen dams. Earthen dams can and do fail. Alaska experienced 55,000 earthquakes last year and 16,000 this year already. If a dam breaks, who gets hurt?
Brown bears, caribou, moose, wolves, shorebirds, whales, and salmon gag on toxic waste. So do fishermen. The Bay hosts commercial fisheries for salmon, herring, and crab. A toxic spill will doom these fisheries. Poof! Thirty-three thousand jobs vanish.
I love Bristol Bay. Fished it for years. How can one love a cruel sea that mercilessly beats you up, disappoints you, and would just as soon kill you? One word answer: beauty. The beauty of true wilderness. The stunning bio-complexity: salmon, shorebirds, bears, whales, wolves, on and on. The smells, the endless surprises, the mystical magic of vast open water and endless tundra that massages your soul.
Another powerful reason for stopping Pebble: competence. Our forebearers grew up on farms and worked in factories. They mastered endless technical skills. But massive offshoring of jobs strips away skills and fills lives with emptiness. Hope and ambition give way to alcohol, opioids, and suicide. Loss of competence fuels feelings of worthlessness.
Technical competence shines among Bristol Bay fishermen. Besides finding fish, fishermen know welding, fiberglass repair, electronics, net hanging, engine repair, and boat design. When things break on Bristol Bay, you’re on your own. Really on your own. When Pebble’s tailings dams spill toxins into Bristol Bay, yet another cadre of skilled, competent Americans will disappear. Join me as I visit one.
Bristol Bay, mid-May. Gray sky, 35 degrees, wind blowing 20 miles per hour. To the west, the dark, turbid, wind-whipped waters of Bristol Bay stretch eleven miles to Dead Man Sands. To the east, flat, brown tundra rolls toward snow-capped mountains so distant they seem a mirage.
I button up my collar and wander into the boat yard. Dozens of fishing boats nestle together, hibernating like sullen Brown bears. I hear banging, clanging, swearing. A fisherman working on his boat! It’s Bob Bonanno.
Fishing is a month away and Bob has lots to do. Install an entire refrigeration system for cooling fish. Design and install new fish holds to prevent capsizing. Replace the engine blower housed in a monkey-sized space. Replace the stern bearing. Remove and properly align the drive shaft. Find and repair elusive electrical shorts.
Overcoming challenges is the essence of fishing Bristol Bay. For Bob, none has been greater than the recent tragic death of his daughter. His devotion to her memory strengthens his resolve to stop Pebble Mine. The pillars of his resilience rest on courage, devotion to duty , and a sense of humor.
Back at the cannery, Bob and I walk down a long wooden ramp. “Check out these boots,” he says. He pulls up his pant leg and shows me his brown Xtratuf fisherman boots. The boots normally go to the knee, but these are cut off at the ankle. “Why?” I ask.
“My daughter worked in the cannery,” he says, “regular cannery boots have no arch support and hurt her feet. We wear the same size, so I made her these.” He laughs and says “now I’m walking in my daughter’s shoes.”
Pebble Mine will impact thousands of men and women who risk their lives on the unforgiving waters of Bristol Bay. It will touch their loved ones, their families, their communities. It’s crucial to view this through their eyes, to walk in their shoes. Their loss will be ours as well.
Indifferent to job losses, conservative Washington think-tanks support Pebble. Sadly, the Environmental Impact Statement from the Army Corps of Engineers is fatally flawed. Opposing both Pebble and the EIS are fishermen’s groups and environmental groups like Natural Resource Defense Council. Recently, Congressman Jared Huffman offered a ray of hope by getting Congress to cut off funding for the EIS. Neither the Senate nor Trump are likely to agree. So the sword of Damocles continues to swing over Bristol Bay. Yet there is still time to save it…
