Opinions

OPINION: EPA must use Clean Water Act authority to protect Bristol Bay

Last month, we traveled to Washington, D.C. from Alaska to meet with members of Congress, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the White House, and other decision makers to urge them to use their authority to protect Bristol Bay from the threat of Pebble Mine — a proposed massive open-pit mine intended to extract copper, gold and molybdenum at the headwaters of Bristol Bay. Now we are at a critical moment for Bristol Bay. With the recent release of the EPA’s Proposed Determination, we are one step closer to achieving durable protections for Bristol Bay. But these protections need to be finalized soon. The fight to stop Pebble Mine has lasted for years, and with another fishing season soon to start, there’s no better time to protect them for good.

The fishing is expected to be better than ever, with more than 73.4 million sockeye returning to Bristol Bay this season, nearly 10 million more than last year. To give you an idea of what this record-breaking projection looks like, 73.4 million fish nose-to-tail would go around an outline of the United States twice and then some. With climate change, mining and development encroaching on salmon habitat all over the world, this is incredibly rare. Other salmon runs aren’t likely to be anywhere close to what we’ll see in Bristol Bay. As a result, the boats and the nets of commercial and subsistence fishing will be out in full force, as will huge numbers of sport fishermen from all over the globe.

The Bay and its salmon also play a central role in the cultural and spiritual identity of tribes in the area. The mine puts at risk a way of life that has sustained the Indigenous people of the region since time immemorial, a commercial fishery that has been going strong for more than 130 years, and habitat that gives birth to the world’s largest wild salmon run.

This region feeds the world from coast to coast, sustains 15,000 jobs a year, and generates over $2.2 billion that goes back to the economy. Recent years have seen record-breaking returns to the region, which is all due to thousands of years of Indigenous stewardship and sustainable management practices. If Pebble Mine was built, billions of tons of waste would pollute the headwaters of Bristol Bay — threatening the lands, waters and salmon that we rely on to sustain our way of life. The EPA can stop this, but it must provide truly comprehensive protections for our headwaters, not just limitations based on a past mine plan.

Tribes, commercial fishermen and communities who rely on Bristol Bay salmon should not have to live in limbo, facing a reckless mining project which could destroy our way of life or our economy any longer. We specifically made the trip to D.C. to ask the EPA to use its authority under the 404(c) Clean Water Act to veto the Pebble Mine project and we are glad that the agency released its proposed determination. This step in the Clean Water Act process signals that we are one step closer to protecting Bristol Bay for generations to come.

For decades, we have been asking for Clean Water Act protections to be used to protect this region. Protection under Section 404(c) of the Clean Water Act would be highly durable; no 404(c) action has ever been struck down or overturned once finalized. The Biden administration already has the tool — and one that has historically been pursued more frequently by Republican administrations — to protect Bristol Bay from Pebble Mine. Not another fishing season should go by with the threat of this mine hanging over the region.

The EPA knows what’s at stake. The agency must listen to Bristol Bay tribes, fishermen, communities and others about the need to protect the full headwaters of our fishery during this comment period, and work toward a final determination without delay. The science is clear, public opinion is supportive, and the time is now. The EPA must establish robust science-based protections to protect Bristol Bay’s irreplaceable resources and provide certainty that the Pebble Mine won’t destroy our way of life, cultural and spiritual identity, or the local economy. It’s time to finish the job.

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Delores Larson is the Deputy Director of the United Tribes of Bristol Bay.

Michael “MJ” Jackson is the President of Bristol Bay Regional Seafood Development Association and an Advisor for Commercial Fishermen for Bristol Bay.

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