Alaskans vote on anti-Pebble clean water ballot meAlaskans vote on anti-Pebble copper/gold project, clean water ballot measure
A long, expensive fight over the future of the Pebble copper-gold project is being placed before Alaska voters on this Tuesday's primary ballot. No matter what the outcome, litigation is anticipated.
Author: Dorothy Kosich
Posted: Monday , 25 Aug 2008
RENO, NV -
On Tuesday, Alaskans will vote on Ballot Measure 4, the Clean Water Initiative, one of the most expensive political campaigns in state history, aimed ultimately at the massive Pebble project.
Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has spoken out against Ballot Measure 4, while the State Department of Natural Resources launched a website which the Alaska Public Offices Commission ordered retooled to present a fairer picture of both sides of the initiative.
That website was developed with a $25,000 legislative appropriation to educate the public about the Clean Water Initiative. State officials say that the language of Ballot Measure 4 duplicates existing regulations. They also point out that the Pebble Mine site is supposed to be managed for multiple uses including earning a living.
Bristol Bay lodge owner Brian Kraft--founder of the Bristol Bay Alliance which wants to protect the Bristol Bay watershed from mining development--filed a complaint with the Alaska Public Offices Commission last week, arguing the site violated campaign disclosure laws by distributing anti-Ballot Measure 4 information.
Previously Kraft has argued that if Ballot Measure 4 is approved Tuesday, it "will create tough new clean water standards that will help protect Bristol Bay. It will not shut down existing mines-just protect salmon spawning habitats." However, the DNR website insists "this ballot measure would apply to all new large-scale metallic mines (disturbing over 640 acres), not just the proposed Pebble mine."
Meanwhile, jewelers, such as Tiffany & Company, have pledged not to use gold from the Pebble Mine. The New York Times says the vote is expected to be close. Sport fishermen, commercial fishing companies, and environmental NGOs collected the 30,000 signatures of registered voters to qualify it for the ballot.
Tim Bristol, director of Trout Unlimited Alaska, told the NYT that, "We're just trying to convince Alaska that, okay, we can have mining, just not in this place. It's such an exceptional risk to an exceptional fishery." Nevertheless, John T. Shivley, CEO of the Pebble Partnership, a consortium of Anglo American and Northern Dynasty Minerals, which hopes to develop Pebble, insists he does not want a legacy of destroying a fishery or part of a fishery.
Last week Governor Palin declared, "I have all the confidence in the world that the Department of Environmental Conservation) and our (Department of Natural Resources) have great, very stringent regulations and policies already in place. We're doing to make sure that mines operate only safely, soundly."
Ed Fogels, director of project management and permitting at the Alaska Department of Natural Resources, told the NYT, "It's going to have to be the most environmentally tight mine ever designed on Planet Earth if it's going to go. That's unequivocal."
The Alaska NANA Regional Corporation, comprised of Inupiat people of the Northwest Arctic, currently operates the Red Dog Mine in Northwest Alaska with their partner Teck Cominco. In 2007 mining revenues topped $58 million dollars. Sixty two percent of NANA's profits are distributed to other Native Corporations. ‘The mine currently employees 465 full time employees with an annual payroll of $48 million with almost 56% of those employees being NANA shareholders from a region that is beset with high unemployment and a lack of good job opportunities," according to NANA's website.
NANA opposes Ballot Initiative 4, stressing that concerns about Pebble should not be addressed with a proposal that could harm an entire industry. The group asserts that "Ballot Measure 4 threatens Alaska's resource-based economy, undermines the state's stringent, proven environmental regulations, and may prevent Red Dog from expanding - or even force it to shut down prematurely."
NANA is also fearful that the measure would prohibit Red Dog from discharging water than has fewer trace metals than tap water.
Steve Borell, executive director of the Alaska Miners Association, said if the measure passes, bringing into question existing regulations, it will create uncertainty in Alaska's mining industry. "We are competing with the world for exploration funding to the extent it scares companies away, that is bad for Alaska," he recently told the Associated Press.
The two sides are expected to spend more a total of more than $10 million. The NYT claims that "opponents of the measure have outraised supporters by more than two to one." The Fairbanks News Miner said public campaign records show that opponents of the measure have raised $6.9 million, while the main group in support of the initiative has raised $2.5 million as of last week.
Art Hackney, campaign manager for Alaskans for Clean Water, which supports the initiative, said supporters are campaigning door-to-door across Alaska to spread the word. He told the News Miner last week that, "Turning them out to vote is the name of the game. You're just sort of banging the drum loud enough that they realize that the last vote is the one that makes the difference."
The Pebble project is located in the Bristol Bay region of southwest Alaska, approximately 17 miles northwest of the community of Iliamna.
The Pebble West project is believed to have a measured and indicated resource of 4.1 billion tonnes containing 42.1 million ounces of gold, 24.6 billion pounds of copper, 1.4 billion pounds of molybdenum and additional silver. The Pebble East project is believed to have a 3.4 billion-tonne inferred resource containing 42.6 billion pounds of copper, 39.6 million ounces of gold and 2.7 billion pounds of molybdenum