Pebble critics chagrin, as their arguments turn against them Environmentalists are now saying that the Pebble mine, in addition to being a danger to salmon, is also a danger to brown bears.
But, to their chagrin, their arguments can be used against them in favor of Northern Dynasty.
In talking about the Pebble mine being a danger to Alaska's bears, the environmentalists are talking about Alaska's McNeil River brown-bear sanctuary.
The author of "Op-Ed: Alaska’s Pebble Mine Somehow Just Got Worse"
states,
"As a reporter, I’ve been taught to keep my opinions to myself."
... He doesn't add that the most important qualification of a reporter, is to just report the news, and let people decide for themselves what the facts mean.
"Sometimes in my reporting I come across a topic I know well, and a proposal so ill-considered, so criminally inept, that to hold the tongue is to be complicit in the destruction of something remarkable."
... He is familiar with the McNeil River brown-bear sanctuary, but not with how the Pebble mine proposal will affect it. Looking at his write up, he just makes uninformed guesses. So, saying: "Sometimes in my reporting I come across a topic I know well," has no relevance, or applicability, to what he is reporting about it.
""Love of gold threatens McNeil."
"Remember Alaska’s Pebble Mine, the massive, open-pit abomination proposed for the headwaters of two of the major rivers that feed Bristol Bay, one of the most productive salmon fisheries in the world?"
"Now Pebble is back, [] to terrorize the state’s residents and their way of life—thanks to the Trump Administration, which has yet to meet a landscape it can’t help monetize."
As you can see, he is not just reporting facts. Right away, and without any thing to back up his statements, he is implying that the Pebble mine is a monstrosity, and that it will destroy the McNeil bear sanctuary.
The writers of the other articles about Alaska's McNeil River bear sanctuary also used similar tactics.
He continues: the company is going to lay down 35 miles of two-lane highway across the Alaska Peninsula east of Lake Iliamna. "The transportation corridor proposed by the company "literally kisses the edge" of the refuge."
... In actuality, the closest it will get is 10 miles from the sanctuary.
"Roads fragment a landscape.They fracture habitat. They bring in invasive species. (?) Many studies have shown this happening elsewhere."
... To back up his statement he lists a reference to a study on how roads have affected habitats world wide. I read it, and it did not pertain to the Pebble-McNeil situation.
"You have this industrial complex that is going to be hazing bears." "There will be more hunting and more poaching, [] critics predict." "In some cases, bears are going to become food-conditioned."
Another author clarifies this by writing, "The food and waste produced by Pebble employees and contractors in the area would be a tantalizing attractant for bears, greatly increasing the likelihood that the region’s wild bears would become food-conditioned and even killed [by passing trucks]."
... The authors have to know that in other protected areas where bears reside, if an industrial employee feeds a wild animal, including a bear, he is fired on the spot. It just isn't done. The left over food is carefully disposed of, and is kept away from indigenous animals. So that argument is pure hogwash, to put it politely. Pebble employee's are not going to be feeding the bears, and any left over food will be collected and removed from the premises.
... The authors of these hit articles also know that the people reading their articles (the general public) would not know that bears, and other native animals, are strictly protected, and so the authors (environmentalists) use false allegations, and deliberately misconstrued 'facts', in order to twist the public's opinion so that it lines up with the authors personal viewpoint.
The present day anti-Pebble writers are using the same underhanded tactics. When people discover that they have been manipulated and lied to, plus when they find out all the good that Northern Dynasty will be doing,
PUBLIC OPINION will turn in favor of Northern Dynasty.
The writer goes on to say, "The company also wants to lay a 188-mile natural gas pipeline under Cook Inlet."
Another author, expanded on the subject of the pipeline, stating that volcanic eruptions happen in the area, and that when another one occurs, a volcanic mud flow would destroy the pipeline, that there is no way to prevent the pipelines destruction, and that this would contaminate the water and cause a long term environmental disaster.
... Near Cook Inlet, there is the active Mount Redoubt volcano, which had a massive eruption on December 14, 1989, that lasted for four months. The Drift River Oil Storage Facility, with seven storage tanks, was located in the Cook Inlet, near the foot of Mount Redoubt. It was used for storing oil that was transferred to oil tankers.
Photo of the 1989 Mount Redoubt volcanic eruption
Credit: Panoramio
At the time of the eruption, the Drift River Oil Storage Facility was holding over 900,000 barrels of oil, four times more oil than the Exxon Valdez oil spill. On January 2, 1990, powerful explosions sent volcanic mud flows crashing into the Drift River Facility. It sustained only minor damage, and no oil leakage, because it was protected by a 20 foot high protective dike.
The owners of the facility were aware of potential volcanic eruptions, and designed protective measures for their oil storage facility. Northern Dynasty is aware of the dangers, and will design protective measures for its gas pipeline.
... All these arguments, about danger to the wildlife, danger to the environment, and thus, to the McNeil River brown-bear sanctuary, plus that natural disasters would cause destruction of the Pebble pipeline,
reminded me of the arguments put forth by the groups that were against the Trans-Alaska Pipe Line, so I went back and reviewed their arguments, and then researched if the pipeline actually had any of the harmful outcomes predicted by the groups that opposed the building of the Tans-Alaska Pipeline.
Although many Alaskans were for the proposed Trans-Alaska Pipeline, because of the jobs and income it would provide, many groups were not interested in the monetary aspects, but in the negative attributes that the pipeline would have.
Native Alaskans worried that their entire culture and way of life was in jeopardy if the pipeline was not created properly. The Caribou were one of the main sources of sustenance for the native people, and the caribou were also important to their culture. Many of the native villages were built in specific locations that coincided with the caribou migration.
Environmentalists opposed the construction of the "Silver Snake" in the Alaskan wilderness because of how it could affect the wildlife and the landscape.
"Silver Snake"
Credit: Princess Lodges Alaska Tours site
The animal that became a symbol for the struggle between the pipeline and the Alaska wilderness, was the caribou. This was exploited in an anti-pipeline advertisement when a picture of a forklift carrying several legally shot caribou was emblazoned with the slogan, There is more than one way to get caribou across the Alaska Pipeline".
Because the pipeline would be carrying heated oil, environmentalists said that it would melt the permafrost and make the land around the pipeline sink over a dozen feet, and that this would make the pipeline bend and break, which would cause a major oil spill.
Environmentalists also opposed the road that would be built alongside the pipeline, which would be built to monitor and service the pipeline. It would be a gravel road, and the environmentalists warned that the gravel would be obtained from nearby streams. They said that digging up the vast amount of required gravel would destroy the streams and their aquatic life forms.
Caribou would find the raised gravel road disturbing, and would not cross it. Environmentalists
said that the pipeline, and its adjacent road, would block traditional migration routes, making caribou populations smaller, and therefore making them easier to hunt, by men, and also bears, their most common predator.
Environmentalists said that the pipeline, and drilling sites, would cause the caribou to avoid their normal calving areas, where breezes partially protected them from mosquitoes which attacked new born caribou. This would increase the death rate in new born caribou. The disturbance from the drilling sites would also interfere with caribou mating. The disruption of their migration routes, would also interfere with their ability to locate adequate grazing areas.
About the mosquitoes: paraphrasing Jonah Goldberg
The roughnecks in Prudhoe Bay have a saying: "Life begins at 40." This is not a self-help mantra, but a statement of fact. Once the temperature rises above 40 degrees F, swarms of mosquitoes emerge and descend on the caribou.
In the calving areas, new born caribou can die from blood loss. The mosquitoes are a torment even for adult caribou. During calving time, the herds seek areas, such as near the ocean, where even minor breezes can help in keeping away the mosquitoes.
Putting all of these 'facts' together, environmentalists stated that the Trans-Alaska Pipeline would decimate the caribou herds.
They also said that grizzly and brown bears, would be affected by the pipeline. The pipeline, and its adjacent servicing roads, would cross their territory and also the areas where they den. Because they would avoid the pipeline and roads, they would have difficulty traversing their territory and finding food. They also wouldn't be able to find good areas to make their dens.
This would lead to a decline in the bear population.
In addition to the pipeline disturbing Alaskan wild life, environmentalists, and geologists associated with the environmentalists, pointed out that the pipeline would cross areas that were known to be subject to major earthquakes and that there was
No known way to build the pipeline so that it could withstand an earthquake.
Environmentalists stated that invariably an earthquake would strike and demolish the pipeline. This would cause a major oil spill and an environmental disaster.
And then the pipeline was built.
First of all, did the environmentalists leave out any minor details in their dire warnings about the pipeline.
The pipeline runs north to south though the state. Most of Alaska's caribou herds migrate east to west. Only 3 of 32 herds were affected by the Alaska pipeline.
A minor detail I guess.
How many people would have known that?
That was deliberate. If people knew how few herds were affected, it would have weakened the environmentalists' argument.
After the pipeline was built, did environmental groups stop publishing fake stories about the pipeline?
An issue of Field & Stream asserted that bored Prudhoe workers were shooting endangered animals for fun in their off hours!
Jonah Goldberg wrote that a former ranger who read the article said, with great exasperation, "I knew a guy who got fired for throwing a rock at a fox." "He wasn’t throwing rocks for sport, mind you; apparently almost all of the Arctic foxes are rabid. If you get bitten by a rabid fox with inactive rabies, you get those infamous shots. If you get bitten by a fox with active rabies, the company pays for your funeral." (His quote) “Every single fox head I’ve sent to Anchorage for testing has come up positive,” he explained.
What about the caribou? Were they affected by the pipeline or the oil drilling complexes with their drilling pads/platforms, pumps and buildings?
Pipeline
The Trans-Alaska pipeline carries heated oil, because it flows easier through the pipeline. The pipeline has 4 inches of fiberglass insulation, but even so, some of the heat leaks out through the insulation.
Many areas in Alaska stay so cold that the ground stays permanently frozen, and is called permafrost, although the top one and a half feet, will thaw during the short summer. Because the pipeline leaks heat into its surroundings, it would melt the permafrost during the winters, and this would be extended in the summers, eventually causing the pipeline to bend and break. Therefore, in the permafrost areas, which accounted for more than half the length of the pipeline, the pipeline was raised above the ground.
Special structural support pipes, that used internal continuous evaporation and condensation of ammonia as a refrigerant to cool the support pipes in order to protect the permafrost, were connected with a crossbeam, which suspended the pipeline above the ground. By just laying the pipeline on the crossbeam, rather than attaching it to the crossbeam, it allowed the pipeline to move in case of expansion or contraction of the pipeline due to the extreme temperature difference of -100 °F to +80 °F during the year. The crossbeam also allowed the pipeline to adjust if the ground shifted for any reason.
The pipeline was additionally raised high enough to easily allow caribou to walk under it.
Credit: Kingwood TEA Party
Since the pipeline was high enough off the ground, so that caribou could easily pass under it, the raised sections of the pipeline did not impede their migrations. In the areas where the pipeline was built on the ground, gently sloped ramps allowed them to walk over it, and so these areas also did not interfere with the caribou's migrations.
In earthquake zones, the pipeline was designed to be able to withstand the strongest earthquake ever recorded in the area in which it was built.
(The Pebble mine has been designed to withstand the strongest earthquake that has occurred in its area in the last 10,000 years, as determined by geologists that have examined ground faults in the area!)
The pipe line supports had Teflon coated 'shoes' that were connected to Teflon-coated sliders that were designed to allow the pipeline to move 20 feet side-to-side. The supports were also designed to accommodate a 5 foot up and down movement.
To protect against forward-and-backward shocks the pipeline was laid in an S-shape, because the bends would allow the pipeline to move without breaking.
Pipeline with designed bends, Teflon shoes and slider beams.
Photo By David Jacobson, Temblor
The pipeline was designed to withstand an 8.5 magnitude earthquake. In comparison,
the largest continental American earthquake ever recorded was the 7.8 magnitude 1906 San Francisco earthquake.
Magnitude is a number representing the total energy released in an earthquake. For each whole-number increase in magnitude, the seismic energy released increases 32 times, and it releases that energy over a larger area, for a longer time.
Because the pipeline was designed to withstand an 8.5 magnitude earthquake
it would be able to withstand an earthquake 22 times stronger than the San Francisco earthquake.
Critics had said that it would be impossible for engineers to design a pipeline that could withstand an earthquake.
But in 2002, the Denali Fault, over which the pipeline was built, had a massive 7.9 magnitude earthquake. An earthquake stronger than the San Francisco earthquake.
The ground shifted 14 feet horizontally, and 2.5 feet vertically, under the pipeline, and yet it only caused minor damage to a few of the pipeline's supports.
This proved the critics wrong, but more to the point,
"Pebble critics" are saying that it will be impossible for engineers to design a mine that could withstand an earthquake.
This shows that critics can be spectacularly wrong in their assessment of the dangers of earthquakes, and Northern Dynasty can point out how wrong they were when they said
that it would be impossible for engineers to design a pipeline that could withstand an earthquake.
What about critics complaints that the pipeline, its adjacent gravel road, and the oil drilling complexes, would destroy the areas' streams, repel caribou, disrupt their migrations, and end up in the destruction of the herds?
Rather than obtaining gravel from nearby streams, and thereby possibly harming them, 470 gravel sites were located throughout Alaska, and that gravel was used for constructing the maintenance roads.
Critics said that the pipeline would destroy the surrounding streams and aquatic lifeforms. This was easily averted. Today, critics are saying that Pebble will destroy streams and rivers used by salmon.
Northern Dynasty can point to the Alaska pipeline gravel roads, whose construction did not harm the nearby streams, to show that streams can be protected with innovative solutions.
Plus Northern Dynasty can stress that they will be a positive factor in helping save the salmon. They will unclog streams and rivers used by salmon, plus they will be helping the fishermen by providing low cost electricity, and ice on barges, that the fishermen can obtain while on the bay fishing, and use it to keep the salmon fresh prior to bringing it to shore.
Oil drilling complexes
To see how caribou would react to planned oil field installations, an imitation oil compressor, which broad cast the sounds associated with a real compressor, was placed in front of migrating caribou herds. A different imitation compressor, that did not broadcast sound, was used as a control test, and was also placed in front of the herds. The migrating caribou herds were monitored to see if either of these imitation oil field installations would cause them to change the route of their migration.
The caribou showed little signs of disturbance with either compressor, and in fact, the mean distance for caribou passing in front of the noisy simulator was smaller that the mean distance for the control groups. These results were verified when the actual oil field installations were built.
As far as deterring the caribou, during the summer they stand on the elevated gravel roads that service the pipeline, because the breezes are slightly stronger, and help keep the mosquitoes off the caribou. The drivers using the roads are careful to watch out for the caribou.
Also, during the summer, caribou frequently use oil field roads and gravel pads for insect relief. They stand on the elevated gravel roads and pads because fewer mosquitoes harass them there, due to the stronger breezes at those locations.
During the summer, the caribou find the elevated gravel sites useful in deterring the mosquitoes.
During the winter they find the pipeline itself useful. They stand under, or near the pipeline, because it is an opportunity for them to get warm in a hostile environment.
Caribou that have been born since the pipeline was built, see it as part of their natural environment.
Wild animals adapt to their environment, and they have taken advantage of the new useful pipeline in their environment.
Present day oil complexes are much smaller than in the past. They use horizontal and directional drilling, so that one drilling rig can drill wells to multiple oil deposits. In the 1970's, when the environmentalists were complaining about the oil complexes deterring the caribou, the oil companies used multiple drilling pads over a large area, plus the many oil field pump facilities that they required, and sites for equipment storage. There were also multiple buildings to house personnel, their quarters and mess halls. Today one drilling pad does the job of many pads, and there are no longer all the pump installations and buildings. The more modern oil sites are so small that they do not interfere with the caribou.
Environmentalists, in their arguments against the pipeline and oil drilling sites, did not take into account the innovative designs that the companies would come up with, even though they knew stunning improvements in design always take place when necessitated
Credit: Daleel Oil & Gas Supply
It should also be pointed out, that humans at these sites, pipeline and oil complexes, strictly leave the caribou and bears alone. So they have learned to ignore humans.
Have the caribou herds been adversely affected?
Of the 3 herds affected by the pipeline
The Fortymile herd went from a population of 10,000 in the 1970's to 71,400 today.
The Western Arctic herd from 75,000 to 259,000.
The Porcupine herd, named for the Porcupine River along its migration route, went from 102,000 to 218,000.
This adds up to a total of 548,000 caribou in just these 3 herds. When you add in the caribou from all the herds, as of July 2018,
the number of caribou easily outnumbered the number of people (700,000) living in Alaska.
This shows that the Alaska Pipeline and oil complexes did not have a deleterious effect on the caribou population. Just the opposite. They use the sites to their benefit. The bears were also not affected.
Observation of the brown bears, by air plane and radio monitoring collars, shows that they are not bothered by the pipeline. They walk right past it. The oil complexes also don't bother them.
They make their dens right next to the gravel roads.
If a bear is disturbed at her den, she will abandon her newborn cubs. Bears make their dens in December, and the dens are soon covered by deep snowdrifts. Pipeline maintenance workers need to stay a mile away from the dens, in order not to disturb the bears.
Environmentalists stated that oil personnel, or even governmental agents, would not be able to find the bears dens under the snow. That
there would be no way for them to keep from disturbing the bears and thereby causing the death of their cubs. This in turn, would lead to the destruction of the bear population.
The oil companies came up with using Forward-looking infrared (FLIR) cameras, typically used on military aircraft, which use a thermographic camera to sense infrared radiation emanating from target enemy personnel or installations.
In this case, they use it to detect the heat signature given off by the sleeping bears. Wildlife biologists map the bear's dens using (FLIR) cameras mounted on helicopters, and in this way, the oil company workers are able to bypass and not disturb the dens.
So, once again, using ingenuity and common sense, companies were able to overcome all the dire predictions and objections of the obstructionist environmentalists.
Not a one of the dangers predicted by the environmentalists came true.
Relating this to Northern Dynasty. Both the protection of the Alaska pipeline from a massive earthquake, and the protection of the Drift River Oil Storage Facility from an exploding volcano, show that environmentalists negative predictions of unavoidable destruction, is just pure guesswork, and has always been proved wrong in real life.
Thus, Northern Dynasty can use these examples to back up their claim that today's strict mine construction codes will protect the Pebble mine from earthquakes, and that Northern Dynasty's Cook inlet pipeline, can be protected even if a volcano becomes active.
That the pipeline and oil companies were able to protect the brown bears from harm, and prevent people from disturbing them, shows that there is every reason to believe that Northern Dynasty will be able to do the same with
Alaska's McNeil River brown-bear sanctuary.
In even wider terms, since none of the environmentalists warnings came true, in large part because they did not take into account modern engineering advances, and also because they deliberately misrepresented the facts,
Northern Dynasty can point out to the public that critics against the Pebble mine are also basing their arguments
on similar misrepresentations of the facts.
Critics of the Pebble mine point to the many mine failures that have taken place in the past, and say that this 'proves' that the Pebble mine will fail and contaminate the country side, as well as the streams used by the salmon.
They deliberately fail to mention that, of those previous mines that failed, ALL used outdated flawed designs that are now outlawed.
NOT A SINGLE MINE THAT HAS BEEN BUILT WITH MODERN STRINGENT STANDARDS HAS EVER FAILED DURING AN EARTHQUAKE.
As far as waste rock from the mine leaking contaminated waste, or water containing toxic ore residues, into the ground water, this does not happen with modern mine designs.
Environmental critics of Pebble use bogus facts in their arguments, as shown in their previous arguments against the Alaska Pipeline, and now, in their Alaska McNeil River brown-bear sanctuary arguments.
People will take notice of this, if it is pointed out to them. Northern Dynasty can show people that the groups opposing the Alaska pipeline knowingly used arguments that they knew were flawed and invalid. And that today, the groups opposing Pebble, are also, deliberately, and knowingly, using flawed, invalid arguments against Pebble.
When Alaskan residents, and Native Alaskans, realize that the environmentalists are lying to them, and when they realize all the benefits that Northern Dynasty will provide, they will vote in favor of Northern Dynasty building the Pebble mine.