Bristol Bay: I'm proud to say I spent formative years growing up there. This life-abundant region is a vital arm of our great state. Its rivers and streams are the lifeblood of southwestern Alaska and matter greatly to the people, fish and wildlife that depend on them.
Ballot Measure 4 is important not just to the people of Bristol Bay, but to all who call Alaska home. Also known as the Alaska Clean Water Initiative, it will be on the August primary ballot.
Most of us know how heated the arguments for and against the measure are. Most of us are not chemists or geologists. We have to work hard to make sense of all the information out there on giant mining operations such as the Pebble mine and how an operation that size can affect the health of the natural environment.
For me, it boils down to two things: history and human nature.
Historically, there isn't much good to say about the environmental impacts of hard rock mining -- open pit and below ground. The track record of hard rock mining ventures in this country is abysmal.
It is well known that this industry is the nation's leading polluter. As Jared Diamond points out in his book "Collapse," almost half of the rivers in the western United States having been adversely altered -- in some cases permanently -- by toxic exposure. Clearly the technology for pollution-free mining isn't here yet.
We have heard from the pro-Pebble mining ads that Ballot Measure 4 is unnecessary because there are existing environmental regulations in place and the permitting process will adequately address the matter of predicting mining activity impact on the watersheds surrounding the mine site.
In 2006, Earthworks concluded a two-year study of water quality predictions by major mining companies. The study looked at 25 mines from which the researchers were able to get water quality data. "... (T)he average year of opening was 1986, and the average length of time they were or have been operational is 15 years." The results of the water study showed that 76 percent of the mines had caused major pollution in surface water or groundwater in spite of predictions to the contrary during their permitting processes. Copper sulfide and cyanide were just some of the common pollutants.
Proximity to water determines the likelihood of acid causing contamination. Some 91 percent of the mines in the study that had year-round streams showed contaminants in those streams that far exceeded allowances in water quality standards.
All of these mines in the study predicted no problems adhering to existing regulations. They all assumed "best-case conditions" and that measures to lessen and control any impacts to the water environment would be effective. Not one considered the likelihood of any accidents or miscalculations.
The opportunity for amassing great wealth is alluring and we all want the conveniences that come with metallic consumables. It is understandable to want success and to flourish. Such drives are also found in every salmon that swims upriver, as millions before it and millions to follow have done and will do. The Pebble mine promises billions of dollars worth of copper, gold and molybdenum. It is human to think big and want big. Huge profits are what every portfolio-building enterprise wants.
But consider what can happen because of shortsighted ambition.
In 2004, after decades of pollution caused by cyanide heap-leach metals mining, the people of Montana voted to preserve their ban on such mining. The Zortman-Landusky mine was sued in 1995 under the Clean Water Act. Two years later it declared bankruptcy and got out of more than $30 million of cleanup responsibilities, which were then passed on to the state. Montanans had had enough. Unfortunately for them, the damage had been done. Did the mining executives planning such a huge venture foresee this? Of course not -- the call of untold wealth is a siren song that comes with blindfolds.
Ballot Measure 4 is a step forward in preventing what could be for our state a disaster of far-reaching consequences.
Lita Oppegard lives in Eagle River.
LITA OPPEGARD
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