Advantage, Salmon: EPA Restores Clean Water Act Protection For Bristol Bay

The following appears in the October issue of Alaska Sporting Journal:

BY CHRIS COCOLES

Advantage: Bristol Bay salmon. For now.
Think a high-stakes tennis match – filled with the participants sending each other unreturnable serves and powerful volleys. For those who have strived to protect what’s known as the “world’s last great salmon run” from mining interests, the momentum has swung back in their favor.

Consider August of 2020, when the proposed Pebble Mine seemed poised to clear a significant hurdle after the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers tentatively submitted an environmental impact statement to greenlight a version of

the gold and copper mine. That had watershed advocates pushing back, saying the development was close enough to several valuable salmon spawning rivers that it could decimate Bristol Bay’s fishing industry.

But the pendulum would swing back last fall, when the USACE reversed course and rejected the Pebble Partnership’s permitting process because “the applicant’s plan for the discharge of fill material does not comply with Clean Water Act guidelines and concluded that the proposed project is contrary to the public interest.”

And now in September 2021, the administration of President Joe Biden, who vowed to block the mine leading into his successful 2020 campaign, has committed to restoring protections for Bristol Bay.

“The Bristol Bay Watershed is an Alaskan treasure that underscores the critical value of clean water in America,” said Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael S. Regan. “What’s at stake is preventing pollution that would disproportionately impact Alaska Natives, and protecting a sustainable future for the most productive salmon fishery in North America.”

“A HISTORIC STEP”

Clean Water Act guidelines once ensured protection for the region, and as there has been a push by Alaska Native, fishing and conservation groups to grant permanent protection to Bristol Bay, reaction to the news was overwhelmingly positive.

Robert Heyano, president of United Tribes of Bristol Bay, termed the EPA’s announcement “a historic step forward in the long fight to protect Bristol Bay, our fishery and our people.”

Bristol Bay’s tribal groups petitioned the EPA to implement protections via the Clean Water Act dating back to 2010, which gained support from various interested parties both in and out of Alaska and continued throughout the ensuing

decade. According to a joint press release from United Tribes of Bristol Bay, Bristol Bay Economic Development Corporation and Bristol Bay Native Association, more than two million comments have been submittedtotheEPAsincetheinitial request for Clean Water Act protection.

“BristolBay’sTribeshaveworked to protect our waters since time immemorial, and we are grateful that the EPA has decided to reinstate the process for permanent protections for Bristol Bay,” said Ralph Andersen, president and CEO of Bristol Bay Native Association. “We hope the agency will work quickly to incorporate all the available science into the proposed determination and issue a final determination that provides durable protections for the headwaters of our fishery.”

FIGHTING FOR SALMON

Instate organizations SalmonState and

Trout Unlimited’s Alaska chapter have been two of the most vocal supporters to keep Bristol Bay and its multi-billion- dollar salmon fishing industry mine-free.

“The Environmental Protection Agency’s announcement that it plans to cease defending the Trump administration’s backroom deal abandoning science-based protections for the world’s most productive sockeye salmon habitat, Bristol Bay, is a step in the right direction,” a candid Tim Bristol, SalmonState’s executive director, said when the EPA’s decision was announced on Sept. 9.

“We encourage the Biden administration to finish the job and finalize Clean Water Act Section 404(c) protections for Bristol Bay, ensuring that the world’s largest wild salmon fishery and its 15,000 jobs and traditional salmon- based ways of life are no longer threatened by the proposed Pebble Mine.”

Early this year Trout Unlimited brought a lawsuit against the EPA’s 2019 withdrawal from protections (prior to the EPA’s decision, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals had ruled in favor of Trout Unlimited proceeding with its litigation).

Chris Wood, TU’s president and CEO, used the phrase “a victory for common sense” to describe the latest reversal back to protection status of the ore-rich landscape shared with the pristine salmon habitat of Bristol Bay’s waters.

“Blocking industrial-scale mining from Bristol Bay is the right thing to do for the Alaska Native Peoples who have depended on the fishery for millennia,” Wood said. “It is the right thing to do for the 17,000 family-wage jobs the $1.6 billion commercial fishery provides. It is the right thing to do for a place that provides half of all of the world’s wild sockeye salmon.”

WHAT’S NEXT?

Northern Dynasty Minerals, the Canadian-based company spearheading

the Pebble Mine project, reacted as it has throughout the process. All along it has believed a mine and the ecosystem could safely coexist despite other instances of harm done when comparable projects’ tailing dams failed and damaged nearby streams and rivers, such as the 2014 Mount Polley accident in British Columbia, Canada.

“The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers published an Environmental Impact Statement for Pebble in 2020 with input from many agencies including the EPA that states that the project can be done without harm to the region’s fisheries or water resources,” read Northern Dynasty’s statement. “The EIS further notes the tremendous economic opportunity the project represents for the communities around Iliamna Lake, where year-round jobs are scarce, and costs of living are quite high. Our focus remains on working through the formal appeal process via the USACE.”

Expect more pressure to be applied

As the fight for Bristol Bay’s salmon continues, the latest news was promising for locals like United Tribes of Bristol Bay president Robert Heyano, who called the EPA’s decision “a historic step forward in the long fight to protect Bristol Bay, our fishery and our people.” (THOMAS QUINN/UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON)

to the EPA and the Biden administration to deliver the permanent Bristol Bay protections that environmental and conservation groups have called for throughout the process.

Meanwhile, in this tennis-style back-and-forth matchup, the principles fighting for the fish were happy to hold serve. Filmmaker and Seattle resident Mark Titus has made two documentaries about the importance of salmon to the West Coast. His most recent project, The Wild (Alaska Sporting Journal, July 2020), focused exclusively on the residents of Bristol Bay and the impact its fish have on their lives. In a YouTube video, Titus thanked those same “salmon warriors” for continuing this still-ongoing fight.

“All the folks that have been locally on the ground working for 30 years to put an end to this and have the region that has the most intense and beautiful and fully intact wild salmon system left on earth remain intact,” Titus said. “Enjoy this, and we’ve got much more to come.” ASJ

WHAT THEY’RE SAYING

ere’s more reaction to the EPA’s agency process, and we’ll be fighting decision to reinstate Clean every step of the way to permanently Water Act protections to the protect the world’s greatest wild salmon

and misinformation. We fought and won against former President Obama’s heavy- handed political attempts to kill the project, and we will do the same again.” –Northern Dynasty Minerals president and CEO Ron Thiessen

“This is a pivotal moment for Bristol Bay fishermen. Our decades-long, locally led effort to permanently protect Bristol Bay, our thriving commercial fishery, and our communities from the Pebble Mine is finally back on track. –Katherine Carscallen, executive director of Commercial Fishermen for Bristol Bay.

“After over a decade of fighting to save our fishery and our jobs, we are thankful for EPA’s renewed action to protect Bristol Bay and the 15,000 American jobs and small businesses like mine. As Bristol Bay just wrapped up an all-time record- breaking run, delivering 65 million salmon to our rivers, streams, fishing nets and onto tables all over the nation, we remain hopeful President Biden will see through his commitment to stand by the science and protect these irreplaceable salmon.” -John Fairbanks, Washington-based Bristol Bay commercial fisherman CC

Bristol Bay watershed.

“This is a smart and significant step toward putting more durable safeguards in place for Bristol Bay’s fish, clean water, communities and businesses. This is an important layer of protection that makes it much more difficult for the Pebble Partnership, or any other companies in the future, to mine the Pebble ore deposit. Now is the time to get these much- needed protections across the finish line, and we look forward to working with EPA and Congress to get it done. Let’s put the Pebble mine proposal in the rearview mirror for good so we can focus on a bright, prosperous and fish-filled future for Bristol Bay.” –Nelli Williams, Alaska director for Trout Unlimited

“It’s clear that (the) EPA is listening. Tribal, business and community leaders, along with millions of supporters, have been fighting the destructive Pebble Mine for more than a decade, urging the agency to save this national treasure. This decision will restart an in-depth

fishery and the homeland of the Yup’ik, Dena’ina, and Alutiiq peoples.” –Joel Reynolds, senior attorney and western director for the Natural Resources Defense Council

“This news provides a welcome step toward certainty for our fishery and our communities. We’re thankful to see the EPA’s work to protect our waters back on track. Permanent protections will enable our region to focus on growing and diversifying sustainable economic opportunities and building a robust future – rather than defending our waters.” –Bristol Bay Economic Development Corp. CEO Norm Van Vactor

“Here we go again. It is unfortunate that politics continues to interfere with scientific evidence. Under President Joe Biden, we once again find ourselves dealing with Obama-era policies that were inappropriate then, and are inappropriate now. In the end, science and facts prevail over political pressure