It seems awfully fitting (with emphasis on awful) that coinciding with Sen. Ted Stevens’ Day, 2020, the Trump administration concluded that the massive Pebble Mine “should” not hurt the long-term health of Bristol Bay salmon and so, released a “final environmental review … that smooths the path for the mine’s potential development.” Pebble’s CEO hailed the announcement as a milestone and Pebble advertisements assure us that this is now “the right mine at the right time”.
But as the Alaska Journal of Commerce reminded us: even “The scaled-down version of the Pebble mine project would still be a massive undertaking … A large bulk tailings storage facility capable of holding 950 million tons of waste rock would collect most of the milled ore. A smaller, lined tailings storage cell designed to hold 135 million tons of potentially acid generating mine waste would be segregated from the bulk tailings but be behind the same series of tailings dams. The primary tailings embankment would be 600 feet tall and three others would be between 60 and 420 feet tall.” It would require monitoring basically forever after, not necessarily happily.
Should Bristol Bay hope the mine’s potential development remains just potential? If Alaska suffers another major earthquake, it may be Sen. Ted Stevens rolling in his proverbial grave.
Ken Green
Cooper Landing
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