Renewable Resources - Pebble Mine
Renewable Resources - Pebble Mine

More
Pebble Mine
News:

See the RRC
Newsletter with links to all newspaper articles on the Pebble mine issue.


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Anchorage Daily News
starts new
"Pebble Blog".
See it here >>>

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National media looking at proposed Pebble Mine. Read the LA Times article >>>

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More than 600 Turn Out for Anti-Pebble Rally in Dillingham
( Over 400 attend Anti-Pebble Rally in Naknek, AK on June 16, 2007)

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Northern Dynasty Minerals finances
new organization
"Truth About Pebble"
See their website


Bristol Bay Native Organizations
Applauded for Pebble Stand


The Pebble Scoreboard

(Who is for and against the Pebble mine? Find out here!)


Read about:

PEBBLE "WEST" versus
PEBBLE "EAST"


The Bristol Bay Native Association (BBNA) votes to oppose all large scale mining in Bristol Bay, unless unequivocable proof of no net loss to salmon. Read the resolution of 09/29/06 >>>

Sport Fishing Industry Leaders Blast Pebble Mine Proposal.
See the Press Release >>

Governor's Widow, Bella Hammond endorses the proposed Jay Hammond State Game Refuge for Bristol Bay. 02/15/07
Read the Anchorage Daily News Article >>

Dams Designed for Disaster.....Earthen dams proposed for Pebble Mine larger than Hoover or Grand Coulee dams. Read about the "Dam" Problem

Pebble Mine to use both open pit and block cave mining methods. Compare the risk of the proposed cave block method to be used in Pebble East with the proposed open pit method to be used in Pebble West...Read more>

Bristol Bay Native Corporation Slams Owners of Pebble Mine
for Misleading Investors in Dubai Presentation and on it's Website-12/12/06. Read the Anchorage Daily News article >>

Jewelers being asked to boycott gold from Alaska mine. 01/04/07
Read the Anchorage Daily News article >>

Scientific Study Challenges Credibility of Pebble Mine Owners - 12/07/06.
Read more >>

 

 
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Pebble Mine- News & Views
 

Recent Developments:

Alaska's Pebble mine worries biologist
Dr. Carol Ann Woody, a former federal fisheries biologist, said Pebble drill rigs might be drawing up water that could already be doing harm to developing salmon.
Read more >>>

Alaska Governor Sarah Palin announces that she will transfer the Habitat Division of DNR back to the Department of Fish & Game from whence it came. RRC and others applaud the decision as a first step in restoring the integrity of the mine permitting system in Alaska. Read more >>>.

Jewelry Retailers to hold mine to higher gold standards -
Tiffany, Fortunoff and others oppose an Alaskan operation over environmental worries.
Read the Los Angeles Times article >>>

National hunting organizations, Dallas Safari Club and Wildlife Forever, send Governor Palin letters in opposition to the Pebble Mine. See the RRC press release >>>

Shively to head new Pebble Mine partnership - A former state natural resources commissioner and Alaska Native corporation manager has been chosen to lead a joint-venture formed to develop the Pebble copper/gold mine on the Alaska Peninsula.
Read the Alaska Journal of Commerce article >>>



LEAD STORY

A BBC report claims Anglo American (developer of the Pebble Mine) has displaced over 20,000 Africans from their homes in their quest for uranium as well as polluted local rivers. Read more >>>

 

A Superior Court judge in Fairbanks has ruled a clean-water ballot initiative is unconstitutional because it usurps the Legislature's duty of allocating state resources. A second clean water initiative is approved. Both sides however say this is just a whistle stop on way to the AK Supreme Court. Read more >>>

Lawmaker accuses Pebble developer of payoffs
By Stefan Milkowski, Fairbanks News Miner
http://newsminer.com/2007/09/18/8934
Published September 18, 2007

A local lawmaker has asked the state’s attorney general to investigate allegations of bribery by the developer of the Pebble mine project and created a firestorm in the process.

In a recent letter to Attorney General Talis Colberg and a U.S. attorney in Anchorage, Rep. Jay Ramras of Fairbanks relayed charges from Dillingham area residents that Northern Dynasty Mines Inc. was paying local officials to support its controversial mine project.

“In conversation after conversation, I heard disturbing stories of money and influence being inappropriately plied to influence this important policy decision,” he wrote.

Ramras, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, stopped short of accusing the company directly but wrote that there appeared to be “a lack of transparency, and at the very least, a lack of decency” in the way the debate was being waged.

On Monday, Sean Magee, Northern Dynasty’s vice president of public affairs, called the allegations “baseless” and said his company has never paid anyone to support the mine.

“This stuff is really troubling,” he said. “Our company is working in good faith with local people.”

Magee said it was “irresponsible” for Ramras to be making serious allegations without evidence and without naming those he accused of accepting bribes.

Native corporations also expressed frustration with Ramras.

“We are personally offended by the accusations being made by a legislator from urban Alaska who did not speak to the residents of the region, including ourselves and our family, prior to making his claims,” wrote Lisa Reimers, general manager of Iliamna Development Corp., in a statement.

Ramras said Monday he thought it would have been inappropriate to name names and considered himself simply a conduit for rural Alaskans having a hard time expressing their “victimization” by the company.

“I felt that I was helping to give a voice to a vulnerable subset of Alaskans,” he said.

Ramras wrote his letter after traveling to the mine with Northern Dynasty and to nearby villages with a friend from Fairbanks who is a fishing client of an elder from Ekwok, one of the villages. His concerns, he wrote, were based on things he heard from local residents.

Ramras described villagers being flown to Anchorage for a meeting on the project, put up at the Sheraton, and given cash payments of $600 each; local elected officials and directors of Native corporations receiving payments from the company; and people being paid exorbitant salaries as spokesmen for the project.

Ramras asked specifically that the attorney general send a representative to investigate the allegations during upcoming legislative hearings in the region.

Magee acknowledged that Northern Dynasty has paid as many as 50 community leaders at a time to attend educational meetings in Anchorage and generally compensates them $200 per day for their time away from home and work.

“All this is fully disclosed,” he said. “This is not money that is passing under the table.”

Northern Dynasty and its subcontractors have also employed elected officials for work related to the project, such as site services or transportation services, he said. Positions in local government are not full-time, and many of the officials have found additional work with Northern Dynasty.

The company employs four “community associates” to share information locally, but they are not paid specifically to promote the mine, according to Magee. Northern Dynasty employed more than 100 people from the Bristol Bay area last year and spent more than $4 million on contracts with local companies.

“We won’t apologize for those things,” he said.

Ralph Angasan Sr., president of Alaska Peninsula Corp., demanded in a statement that Ramras retract his letter.

“We have people employed as technicians, drillers’ helpers, cooks, cleaning people, bus drivers, mechanics, carpenters, observers and scientists,” he said in the statement. “Not one of us has ever taken a bribe.”

Ramras has long opposed the development of the mine, and is co-sponsoring a bill that would raise significant hurdles for Northern Dynasty by making it illegal to disturb certain salmon streams in the Bristol Bay region.

He said Monday he is opposed to the project because of the effect he believes it would have on subsistence fisheries.

Ramras is friends with Bob Gillam, who owns a lodge near Pebble and has actively fought the project. Gillam last year donated $10,000 to a Jewish congregation in Fairbanks at a fundraiser to which Ramras invited him, but Ramras said his position on Pebble is not affected by his friendship with Gillam.

“I don’t dance to his tune,” he said.

Contact staff writer Stefan Milkowski at 459-7577; smilkowski@newsminer.com

Legislative and Ballot Initiative Update:

Petition challenges former Gov. Murkowski's move of Habitat Division. Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell has certified an initiative petition to undo a controversial change to one of the state's environmental oversight agencies. Read more >>> . Also just certified was an anti-mixing zone initiative to reverse another Murkowski regulatory change.

State to appeal clean water initiative decision to Supreme Court
The state of Alaska will appeal to the state Supreme Court an Oct. 12, 2007 state Superior Court decision that cleared the way for a citizen ballot initiative establishing a state law that would affect large mine activity across the state called the Alaska Clean Water Initiative (I).
http://www.alaskajournal.com/stories/110407/nat_20071104020.shtml

Previously Alaska Superior Court Judge Fred Torrisi had ordered state officials to expedite printing of petition booklets for an Alaska Clean Water ballot initiative…
http://www.alaskajournal.com/stories/101807/hom_20071001899.shtml

Approved. Lt. Gov. Parnell has approved Bristol Bay residents ballot initiative to restore the state's Habitat division to ADF&G. The initiative is called the "Fisheries Habitat Protection Initiative". For more information visit RRC's review of recent changes to Alaska's mine permitting process.

State of Alaska denies voters the right to decide the fate of The Alaska Clean Water Initiative. See the memorandum supporting the Lt. Governor's decision. Supporters have filed an appeal in state Superior Court. Meanwhile another sympathetic group has filed a modified Alaska Clean Water Initiative with the Lt. Governor's office.

The lieutenant governor’s letter to the initiative’s sponsors is available at http://www.ltgov.state.ak.us/PDFs/07WATRletter.PDF .

The Division of Elections memorandum is available online at http://www.ltgov.state.ak.us/PDFs/07WATRelectionsmemo.PDF .

The proposed Alaska Wild Salmon Protection Act is introduced
in Juneau - HB 134 - on 02/14/07. See the Press Release. Unfortunately the bill is stalled in committee as is SB 67 - the Jay Hammond Refuge proposal for Bristol Bay.


Filmmakers focus on Bristol Bay, Pebble project
Despite their own reservations, they say they'll include both sides

By ELIZABETH BLUEMINK
ebluemink@adn.com

Published: August 20, 2007
Last Modified: August 20, 2007 at 08:47 AM

This summer, a couple of young filmmakers from Colorado traveled inland from the southwest coast of Alaska to the headwaters of Bristol Bay to create a documentary about its enormous fishery and the people who rely on it. The filmmakers wanted to talk to residents about a new industry rising in the region: mining.


The hills north of Iliamna Lake straddle the headwaters of two rivers that feed the richest sockeye fishery in the world. They also hold billions of dollars worth of copper, gold and molybdenum.

With this documentary, and myriad other publicity projects brewing, the foes of the Pebble project -- a massive mineral deposit near Iliamna -- want to make Bristol Bay known to virtually every American, to generate as much national opposition to mining in the Bristol Bay region as there is to drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

"We're very aggressively working on building national attention," said Art Hackney, a founder of the Renewable Resources Coalition, an Anchorage-based group headed by businessmen funding Pebble opposition in Alaska. "We're going to make this a world priority."

Hackney epitomizes the odd assortment of special interests that have joined forces to fight Pebble. A political consultant, Hackney is a frequent development booster, much more at home defending the "bridges to nowhere," opening ANWR to oil drilling and promoting the Red Dog Mine than trying to save pristine salmon streams from mining.

Pebble "is a different animal" than those projects, he says, because it will interfere with an existing industry, fishing.

"If good science shows it can't be done, we want it put to bed," he said.

The filmmakers and Hackney's coalition are just a fragment of the diverse forces getting involved in the battle over Pebble, which include hunters, sportfishermen, commercial fishermen, lodge owners, Bristol Bay Native groups, outdoor retailers, environmentalists and some villages and tribal groups.

THE NEXT ANWR

The campaign to stop Pebble has mushroomed over several years in Alaska.

Outside, the fight is being led by sportfishing groups. In the past year, some of the country's biggest fly-fishing outfitters -- including Redington, Orvis and Patagonia -- lined up publicly against large-scale mining in the Bristol Bay region.

Northern Dynasty Mines Ltd., the company exploring Pebble on state-owned land, says it won't even apply for permits for five or six years. The publicity machine against Pebble is "unprecedented" for a project this early in its development, company officials said.

But Pebble's critics aren't willing to wait.

"People see Pebble as the next ANWR," said Jason Brune, executive director of the Resource Development Council, a pro-development business group based in Anchorage, which hasn't officially taken a position on the project.

The developers should get a fair chance to prove they can build a mine without hurting the fisheries, Brune said.

The filmmakers who explored Bristol Bay this summer, Travis Rummel and Ben Knight, said most people in the Lower 48 have never heard of Bristol Bay or Pebble. They want to change that.

Pebble can capture national attention because Bristol Bay is legendary among U.S. hunters and fishermen, said Scott Hed, outreach director for the Sportsman's Alliance for Alaska, which has been working to woo other hook-and-bullet groups to the anti-Pebble campaign.

Patagonia put up $5,000 plus $2,700 in equipment for the film. Last year, the company and 36 sportfishing-oriented companies and trade groups signed a protest letter to political leaders, including Gov. Sarah Palin, which was published in 12 nationally distributed outdoor magazines. The letter said mining in Bristol Bay is too much of a risk to its fisheries.

CREATIVE OPPOSITION

Rummel's tiny Denver-based film company, Felt Soul Media, joined up with the Alaska chapter of Trout Unlimited to promote and raise money for an in-depth, low-budget film about the region. The filmmakers' routine is to put most of their money into high-quality equipment, then couch surf or camp out.

They promise the film will feature people for and against Pebble, although Rummel and Knight admit to their own strong reservations about building a world-class mine in the Bristol Bay region.

Mining officials interviewed during Felt Soul's project are pessimistic the film will be fair to them.

"They received funding from sworn opponents of the Pebble project. We fear that it isn't objective journalism," said Sean Magee, Northern Dynasty's vice president of public affairs.

Rummel and Knight, both 29 and both avid fly-fishermen, rave about their summer in the Bush.

Of Bristol Bay: "People seem to have their priorities straight out there. We're so lucky we got to experience this," said Knight, who took a sabbatical from his year-round job as photo editor at a small Colorado newspaper.

"We're catch-and-release fishermen," Knight added. "And the next thing we know, we're literally knee-deep in a skiff full of dead, beautiful fish and our waders are slathered in salmon blood, and we're just like, 'Wow.' "

Starting in June, the two and their project coordinator, Trout Unlimited's Lauren Oakes, camped at the Peter Pan salmon cannery in Dillingham and in villagers' houses. They spent days with fishermen -- in their boats and homes. They floated next to belugas feeding on salmon near Nushagak Point, and two months later, hundreds of miles upstream, they stared down in amazement at tens of thousands of spawning sockeye.

While they ended up with an enormous quantity of footage, some of their most tantalizing targets declined to go on camera, Rummel said. For example, Bob Gillam, the Anchorage financier who has been funding much of the anti-Pebble fight and is described on their blog as a "big, bold, cigar lovin' fella."

Gillam refused to be interviewed on film, but he did provide two bush planes and three of his lodge employees to help the filmmakers get to the Koktuli River, near the Pebble site, for a 53-mile raft trip. And he donated money to the project, Rummel said.

They did spend an afternoon with Bella Hammond, the widow of former Gov. Jay Hammond, at her Lake Clark homestead, though she turned the tables and interviewed them.

"She's like the coolest grandma ever," Knight said.

After roughly 60 days in the Bush, gathering more than 40 hours of digital video, the two now face months of editing.

Next year, they hope to release their film for national distribution on the film festival circuit -- and maybe television.

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Find Elizabeth Bluemink online at adn.com/contact/ebluemink or call 257-4317.

FOR MORE on Knight and Rummel's film, visit

feltsoulmedia.wordpress.com


Court ruling may trouble Kensington and Pebble
MINING: 9th Circuit decision takes firm stand on pollutants.

By ELIZABETH BLUEMINK
Anchorage Daily News

Published: May 26, 2007
Last Modified: May 26, 2007 at 05:17 AM

A court decision this week blocking a Southeast Alaska gold mine's waste disposal method could create more hurdles for the world-class Pebble copper and gold deposit.

Gold Mine near Juneau -- which is nearing the end of construction -- will be forced into a costly redesign.

But Alaska miners said this week they also are worried about the implications for Pebble, a massive and controversial deposit in the headwaters of two of Bristol Bay's salmon-rich drainages, and other possible mines in Alaska's future.

"The immediate solution is to get an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court," said Steve Borell, executive director of the Alaska Mining Association.

Army Corps of Engineers and Department of Justice officials declined to give their interpretation of the court's decision this week.

They also wouldn't say if they plan to appeal the ruling to the Supreme Court.

State regulators and the mining industry say the ruling could erect new barriers to permitting mines in Alaska.

The implications seem clearest at Pebble. The massive copper and gold prospect is perched next to a watery mecca for salmon and other fish prized by fishermen.

If it becomes a mine, Pebble could be one of the largest copper mines in the world and the largest gold mine in North America, by industry estimates.

The company exploring Pebble says it's not certain the ruling will affect its plans.

"We don't know if there will be any implications for us," said Sean Magee, spokesman for Northern Dynasty Mines Inc.

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals decision said regulators cannot allow mines to sidestep a Clean Water Act provision that stops them from discharging pollutants into lakes, wetlands or other water bodies.

A 2002 rule change allowed regulators to redefine mining waste as "fill."

But the appellate court said Kensington's waste slurry did not comply with another part of the Clean Water Act, which says waste from copper, gold and other metal mines must have "zero discharge" of pollutants.

The Pebble project's final design hasn't been determined -- it's still in the exploration phase -- but engineering reports filed last year for the project near Iliamna Lake suggested storing billions of tons of tailings in valleys near the mineral deposit. Those plans include submerging a small lake.

State regulators said this week that it could be difficult to find a dry location to store Pebble's rock waste. Other mining companies could face the same problem in the future because the state has so many wetlands, they said.

One alternative for mining companies would be to drain wetlands, fill them with clean material and then put a mine waste disposal facility on top, said Ed Fogels, acting division director for permitting at the Alaska Department of Natural Resources.

While that might be legal, it seems absurd, Fogels said.

Converting an area to dry land before using it for tailings disposal would be more costly and could possibly have a greater environmental impact than just using the natural setting, Fogels said.

Kensington officials have said previously that they would save millions of dollars by piping their waste into the lake instead of storing it on land, as they had previously sought to do in the mid-1990s.

Environmentalists said it was dangerous to allow Kensington or any other mine to start putting waste in lakes.

The 2002 rule change "was an attempt to deregulate the mining industry," said Tom Waldo, an Juneau attorney for Earthjustice, which handled the Kensington lawsuit.

Though Northern Dynasty officials haven't designed a mine plan yet, the court ruling would prevent the company from sticking with its preliminary applications to the state.

The plans included submerging Frying Pan Lake, a shallow, fish-bearing lake, and some streams with tailings.

It was just an engineering concept, Magee said. "We're looking at many, many alternatives," he said.

"When we apply for permits, we're going to have to design a project that complies with all the laws, including those that might be influenced by this decision," he said.

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Daily News reporter Elizabeth Bluemink can be reached at ebluemink@adn.com or 257-4317.

Boston Globe Editorial
Protect Alaska's wild salmon
April 2, 2007

IN ALASKA, the world's most valuable wild salmon run is threatened by a plan to dig North America's largest open-pit gold and copper mine. Like any major development promising jobs, Northern Dynasty Minerals' Pebble project has supporters in Alaska, while opponents have introduced bills in the state Legislature to block the plan and protect the headwaters of Bristol Bay. More than any local action, however, conscientious enforcement of the US Clean Water Act by federal officials should deal the Pebble project the crippling blow it deserves.

The problem is that, under President Bush, enforcement of the nation's environmental laws cannot be taken for granted. It took the US Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to conclude recently in a preliminary ruling that the Army Corps of Engineers had been wrong to grant permission for a much smaller Alaska gold mine to dump its tailings waste into a lake.

The corps was acting in line with a 2002 policy change by the US Environmental Protection Agency that eased rules for mountain-top removal mining. The Appeals Court reversed a lower court judge and said that mining tailings, the waste product of a chemical milling process, could not be treated like mere "fill material" that the 2002 regulation allowed mining companies to dump into bodies of water. A spokesman for Northern Dynasty said the company was not certain how the court action would affect its plan for a dam-enclosed holding area that fishermen say would destroy fish spawning waters.

One of the earthen dams that could be used to hold back the tailings would be 4.3 miles long and more than 700 feet high, just slightly shorter than Boston's Hancock Tower. The dam would be larger than the Three Gorges Dam in China.

Both commercial and sport fishermen fear the effect the project would have on the region's carefully managed salmon and trout fisheries. Copper released into the environment, the fishermen know, interferes with the ability of the salmon to return to the stream in which it was born.

Bristol Bay produces 30 percent of all Alaskan wild salmon, with a value of $216 million in 2006. Pebble's reserves of gold, copper, and molybdenum, a metal used in strengthening steel, have an estimated value of $300 billion. "This is it," said Lindsey Bloom, a Bristol Bay fishing boat captain, in an interview. "Do we value a life-sustaining resource or do we value gold? You can't eat gold."

When Congress passed the Clean Water Act more than 30 years ago, it was intended precisely to protect the pristine streams and lakes that sustain communities of fish, bears, and human beings. Federal officials should take their cue from the Court of Appeals and make the Clean Water Act a bulwark against the Pebble project.

© Copyright 2007 Globe Newspaper Company.
The problem is that, under President Bush, enforcement of the nation's environmental laws cannot be taken for granted. It took the US Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to conclude recently in a preliminary ruling that the Army Corps of Engineers had been wrong to grant permission for a much smaller Alaska gold mine to dump its tailings waste into a lake.

The corps was acting in line with a 2002 policy change by the US Environmental Protection Agency that eased rules for mountain-top removal mining. The Appeals Court reversed a lower court judge and said that mining tailings, the waste product of a chemical milling process, could not be treated like mere "fill material" that the 2002 regulation allowed mining companies to dump into bodies of water. A spokesman for Northern Dynasty said the company was not certain how the court action would affect its plan for a dam-enclosed holding area that fishermen say would destroy fish spawning waters.

One of the earthen dams that could be used to hold back the tailings would be 4.3 miles long and more than 700 feet high, just slightly shorter than Boston's Hancock Tower. The dam would be larger than the Three Gorges Dam in China.

Both commercial and sport fishermen fear the effect the project would have on the region's carefully managed salmon and trout fisheries. Copper released into the environment, the fishermen know, interferes with the ability of the salmon to return to the stream in which it was born.

Bristol Bay produces 30 percent of all Alaskan wild salmon, with a value of $216 million in 2006. Pebble's reserves of gold, copper, and molybdenum, a metal used in strengthening steel, have an estimated value of $300 billion. "This is it," said Lindsey Bloom, a Bristol Bay fishing boat captain, in an interview. "Do we value a life-sustaining resource or do we value gold? You can't eat gold."

When Congress passed the Clean Water Act more than 30 years ago, it was intended precisely to protect the pristine streams and lakes that sustain communities of fish, bears, and human beings. Federal officials should take their cue from the Court of Appeals and make the Clean Water Act a bulwark against the Pebble project.

© Copyright 2007 Globe Newspaper Company.

Pebble's foes float tax idea for mines. 01/04/07
Read the Anchorage Daily News article >>

Hydrologists Report released 10/06/06 proves new permit requests by Pebble developer for water rights will drain salmon spawning areas.
Read the News Release and the Report >>>

Is this a Crime? First photos of pollution at Pebble mine site taken by Erin McKittrick. See the photos and read the story>

"Wait and See" versus "I've Seen Enough"
Anchorage Daily News - Compass articles 10/23/05

U.S. Senator Ted Stevens announces his opposition to the Pebble Mine . Read more in the Peninsula Clarion.

What is the mining
industry now saying
about Pebble?

- Read the answer >>

Web posted Sunday, March 11, 2007

Polls show Alaskans favor protections for Bristol Bay
Supporters of Pebble Mine project question methods, timing of survey as Legislature debates bills that would affect project

By Hal Spence and Margaret Bauman
Peninsula Clarion/Alaska Journal of Commerce



An exploration drilling rig works in the Pebble prospect area near Iliamna on the Alaska Peninsula. A poll commissioned by an opposition group to the mine project found support for laws that would restrict mining practices in the area. Mine backers, however, questions the poll's legitimacy. ARCHIVE PHOTO/Rob Stapleton/AJOC

KENAI — Opponents of Northern Dynasty's proposed Pebble Mine say a new opinion poll shows that provisions in Bristol Bay protection bills now before the Alaska Legislature are supported by a vast majority of Alaskans.
A spokesperson for Northern Dynasty Mines Inc. doubts the survey methods and the results, calling it part of a broad effort to raise fears and squelch the project before it gets a fair hearing.

The poll, commissioned by the Renewable Resources Coalition and conducted by Hellenthal and Associates, asked more than 400 registered voters statewide whether they favored or opposed legislation meant to protect Bristol Bay fisheries.

In a press release Feb. 28, the coalition said Hellenthal found 83 percent of Alaskans supported salmon protections in House Bill 134. Among other things, that bill would prohibit draining and destruction of salmon spawning streams for industrial purposes.

Sixty-seven percent said they supported the habitat protection concepts at the heart of Senate Bill 67. That bill would establish a game refuge in the watersheds making up the headwaters of Bristol Bay — an area completely surrounding the proposed mine site. The refuge would be named after late Gov. Jay Hammond and is supported by his widow, Bella Hammond, and other family members, the coalition said.

Sixty-nine percent of respondents said creation of one of the world's largest open-pit mines at the headwaters of the Bristol Bay watershed was a negative development for Alaska.

Scott Brennan, chief operating officer of the Renewable Resources Coalition, said sponsors of the measures, including Sen. Gary Stevens, R-Kodiak, and Rep. Bryce Edgmon, D-Dillingham, were putting people and fisheries first.

“Despite Northern Dynasty's corporate spin, these bills are widely supported in Alaska. Our Bristol Bay fisheries are too valuable to risk,” Brennan said.

Reached in Juneau on Feb. 28, shortly after appearing at legislative hearings on House Bill 134, Brennan said it was clear Alaskans valued salmon habitat protection and clean water.

“They've seen that the (regulatory) system has been weakened over the four-plus years under Gov. Frank Murkowski. That message has been heard in Juneau,” he said. “My sense of the hearings today was that members of the committee heard the concerns of the commercial, sport and subsistence fisheries communities in Bristol Bay and will continue to discuss HB 134 and habitat protection in general.”

Sean Magee, vice president for public affairs with Northern Dynasty Mines Inc., is particularly critical of HB 134, which he said would forbid any water withdrawals or water insertions in any stream or water course, for any commercial purpose, in the area of the proposed mine. Magee said that while the measure includes exemptions, there is still a lot of confusion about what the exemptions mean. Magee asked even if those exemptions were clarified, “why is it okay for the fish and water to be threatened by some industries, but not by others?”

Magee called the bill “draconian” and said it would severely restrict economic development over 22 million square acres of Southwest Alaska.

Polling method questioned

Hellenthal's survey was conducted between Feb. 12 and Feb. 20, and had a 95 percent confidence level and a margin of error of plus or minus 4.9 percent.

Northern Dynasty's Magee said it was no accident the release of the poll data was timed to coincide with the launch of hearings on the pending legislation in Juneau. He said Northern Dynasty suspects the Renewable Resources Coalition is engaging in push polling, using questions designed to elicit desired results.

“I would want to see the entire poll and the questions before giving much credence to the results,” he said.

Brennan said the Renewable Resources Coalition had no problem releasing the questions.

According to their responses, participants represented a cross-section of Republicans, Democrats and Independents, equally divided from very conservative to very liberal, with education levels ranging from no high school diploma to post graduate studies.

Regarding Senate Bill 67, pollsters asked, “The Bristol Bay watershed is the source of the world's greatest wild salmon fishery generating more than $300 million annually. A bill is now before the state legislature to protect this valuable natural resource and to prohibit the draining and destruction of salmon spawning streams for industrial purposes. Do you strongly favor, somewhat favor, somewhat oppose, or strongly oppose protecting Bristol Bay salmon spawning areas in this manner?”

Eighty-six percent of those responding were somewhat or strongly in favor, 19 percent somewhat or strongly opposed, and about 4 percent were neutral.

A battle for public opinion

Magee acknowledged Northern Dynasty faces a daunting political reality.

When it comes to the environment and potential for harm represented by development, issues soon reach emotional “apple pie and motherhood” territory, he said.

Alaskans' expressions of concern were legitimate and understandable, he added, but easing those concerns was part and parcel of the company's efforts in focusing on good science, its environmental program and community education outreach.

“That's the traditional approach,” Magee said. “But this is not a traditional project.”

Having well-financed, professional activists running an orchestrated campaign of the scope exhibited by the Renewable Resources Coalition is not conventional, he said, likening it to the advertising power of a McDonalds.

“We have to compete with that message,” he said.

From Northern Dynasty's perspective, a “fear campaign” is easier to produce than trying to communicate the complexities of a mine development and environmental protection plan.

“There is no doubt their advertising campaign is influencing peoples' perceptions of Pebble,” Magee acknowledged. “It's a very significant campaign.”

He said the Renewable Resources Coalition hasn't released figures on what they are spending, but Northern Dynasty professionals believe it to be in the range of $2 million to $3 million.

Brennan said the Renewable Resources Coalition is as 501(c)3 corporation operating under federal requirements and to that degree its financing is a matter of public record.

“Our budget comes from our member organizations,” he said. “We have over 300 individuals and businesses who support us and enable us to work to protect their interests in Bristol Bay. The members speak for themselves.”

Proponents of the mine, including a group called Truth About Pebble, backed by upward of $20,000 in support from Northern Dynasty, argue that all they want is due process in pursuit of permits to develop the mine. Opponents, including the Renewable Resources Coalition, say they also want due process, but with protections in place beforehand for the fisheries and water.

Brennan went on to say he saw it as ironic that a Canadian company raising money in Europe, the Middle East and other parts of the world would be critical of Alaskans joining forces “to protect one of the world's greatest salmon fisheries.”

Magee said thanks to the Renewable Resources Coalition campaign, many Alaskans might now believe that Pebble will destroy the Bristol Bay fishery. However, Northern Dynasty claims its mine will touch only “two modest tributaries” of the eight rivers that comprise the Bristol Bay fishery system. Six of those rivers, he said, supply 80 percent of the sockeye production for Bristol Bay. The two tributaries represent “less than one-half percent,” he said.

“Our commitment is that our project will cause no reduction to any fishery,” Magee said.

The Pebble project is years away from production. The earliest permitting applications would be filed would be late 2008, he said, and more likely 2009. Given the controversy surrounding the project, the permit process could take three years, Magee said.

Brennan said, however, that Pebble was just “the tip of the iceberg.”

There are more than 1,200 mining claims in the region around Pebble, he said, and a million more acres the Bureau of Land Management wants to open up to development.

Margaret Bauman can be reached at margie.bauman@alaskajournal.com.

Other Polls Had Found Overwhelming Statewide Opposition to Pebble Mine.
See the 10/25/06 News Release with Results>>>
.......... Hellenthal Executive Summary (Bristol Bay Poll) >>>
.......... Cromer Group Executive Summary (Statewide Poll) >>>
.......... Excerpts from both Polls >>>

Northern Dynasty shares plans
By HAL SPENCE
Peninsula Clarion
April 18, 2007

Still years away from filing for its first mining permit, Northern Dynasty Mines Inc. continues work on its broad-ranging baseline environmental studies program in anticipation of answering the concerns of a skeptical public with what the company hopes will be provable scientific fact.

To view article in its entirety, please click on

http://www.peninsulaclarion.com/stories/041807/news_0418new004.shtml


DAMS DESIGNED FOR DISASTER

Northern Dynasty has begun the permitting process by just filing an application for permits to build at least 5 incredibly large earthen dams on the North and South Fork of the Koktuli River at the headwaters of the Bristol Bay watershed. The proposed dams would be tailings settling ponds or in another words, toxic waste storage sites. The one earthen dam would be 740 feet high and 4.3 miles long. The other dam would be 700 feet high and 2.9 miles long. The larger dam would be higher than the Hoover Dam or the Grand Coulee Dam which are of course made of concrete. These proposed earthen dams are in one of the most active earthquake zones in Alaska. Please see the attached letter with specifics from Lake and Peninsula Borough to DNR requesting that all such applications be suspended. Clearly, if these applications for permits are approved it will only be a matter of time before a disaster will occur. Read more in the Alaska newspaper articles below.

Web posted Sunday, October 15, 2006

Size of tailings dams sparks new concern over Pebble
By Margaret Bauman
Alaska Journal of Commerce
Web posted Sunday, October 15, 2006

Still a long way from being cleared for take-off, the Pebble Mine keeps edging toward the starting line, while opponents, fearing environmental disaster, continue to challenge the project.
The proposed mine would sprawl over a huge area that includes spawning waters for the famed commercial, sport and subsistence fisheries of Southwest Alaska, including Bristol Bay. The area is also home to the 120,000-plus Mulchatna caribou herd, plus numerous moose, bear and other animals.

Opponents say the proposed mine would threaten the animals' existence. Proponents disagree.

The latest volley of criticism comes in the wake of information filed Aug. 26 with the Alaska Division of Mines, which noted that the largest of the tailings dams to be built for the project would be at least 4.3 miles long and in excess of 700 feet tall.

"They are big; they are very big," said Tom Crafford, the state's large mine permitting manager. "This is the first time those dam parameters have been formally submitted."

The largest of the proposed Pebble dams would, in fact, be larger than the Three Gorges dam under construction in China, which is the largest dam in the world.

"It would be two and a half times as high as the Captain Cook Hotel," said Robin Samuelsen, president and chief executive officer of the Bristol Bay Economic Development Corp. in Dillingham. "This project is so huge that the board of BBEDC is real worried about (possible effects on) the world-class fisheries and wildlife resources that have sustained people out here for thousands of years."

The Bristol Bay Native Association in Dillingham on Sept. 29 passed a resolution opposing all large-scale mining in the Bristol Bay region until studies unequivocally prove there will be no net loss to subsistence, commercial and sport users, or to the region's land, air and water quality.

Northern Dynasty Mines Inc., the Canadian firm that would develop the massive copper-gold-molybdenum deposit in Southwest Alaska, argues the water rights permit applications, which have stirred up a storm of protest, are just another small step in the process. All the Vancouver-based company is seeking right now is to have those applications accepted as complete, said Bruce Jenkins, chief operating officer for the mine project.

The size and height of the huge dams that would be part of the mining operation is nothing new, according to Jenkins. "We've been discussing the size and height of the dams in community meetings," he said.

Beyond that, Jenkins said, the area is designated for mineral exploration and development. "We look forward to that development, and no one has the right to deny us that due process. It is our job to put the project together and show it is a good project," he said.

Crafford acknowledged that his agency's only current decision regarding the water rights permit application, including the dam projects, would be to determine whether the application was complete. "We will not act on this until such time as we receive applications on the rest of the project," he said.

"What typically happens, what kicks off the process for a mine such as this, would be an application for a national pollution discharge elimination system, under the (federal) Clean Water Act, Section 402," he said.

Crafford also said the huge dam would be built in stages. "That dam would probably be raised 15 or 20 times," he said. "It just doesn't make sense to spend all that money up front to build the dam that big off the get-go, and beyond the economic issue, the idea is that you generate the material with which to build the dam during the mining process. The dam will be largely constructed of waste materials generated during the mining process."

Glen Alsworth Sr., mayor of the Lake and Peninsula Borough, meanwhile has asked that the state suspend processing applications from Northern Dynasty to construct tailings dams within the Koktuli River drainage.

Crafford, who has not yet responded to Alsworth, said "The state is not processing these applications at this point in time, and the applicant does not want us to process the applications at this point in time, and they've said as much. What they want is to have their application in the queue."

"It is hard to comprehend the scale of these dams," Alsworth said. "The dam downstream on the South Fork Koktuli is higher than the Hoover Dam or the Grand Coulee Dam. Risk to downstream resources is dependent on many variables, but one of them is the size of the dam."

Alsworth said later, in an interview, that such a project should meet standards of the federal Environmental Protection Act, and that people in Southwest Alaska, who depend culturally and economically on these natural resources, are worried about who will enforce these strict environmental standards. "We need to make sure the standards are met and exceeded," he said.

"There is a great fear of the water being polluted and the fish being killed, and that triggers a fear of degradation of subsistence, and a loss of the isolation and independence that makes us unique.

"One thing leads to another," Alsworth said. "All over America and all over the world, we have examples of colossal failure of mines, of people's lives being affected.

"We don't have to repeat it," he said.

Another issue raised by mine opponents is the potential for disaster should an earthquake cause damage to one of the huge dams.

According to reports written by Knight Piesold Consulting for Northern Dynasty, the dams could withstand the maximum ground acceleration they could experience from an earthquake in the area.

"This is not necessarily what the state would determine is adequate," Crafford said. Once the state starts its actual review of the application, almost certainly the state would go out and acquire high-powered consultants to compile an engineering review, he said. Typically the state hires the consultants and the (mining) company has to pay the consultants' bill, he said. "Part of the process of selecting these consultants is to make sure they don't have any conflict of interest."

According to Jenkins, the entire Pebble project application process won't be complete until about 2008, because the company still hasn't finalized the total mine concept, due to relatively new information on the Pebble East portion of the claim.

The state won't decide on this until the full permit application is submitted, so there is nothing to be afraid of, he said.

The critical response to date speaks of the ignorance of a small, outspoken minority about the permitting process, he said. "There is plenty of opportunity for them, during the formal permitting process, when they will have to defend what they say.

"They will have to marshal their science and their engineering, and then you will see the weakness of their positions." Jenkins said.

Critics like Samuelsen, whose family has lived in the Bristol Bay region for generations, aren't buying that.

"Most people in Bristol Bay are for small-scale mining, like we've had out here in the past," Samuelsen said. "This is going to have major social and economic impacts, with consequences for hundreds of years. People are really scared out here. Our salmon will be worthless if they are polluted salmon."

Dick Jameson, president of the Renewable Resources Coalition, also disagrees with waiting to protest the mine. "People are overwhelmingly opposed to the development," he said. "They are opposed to any large-scale mining development in the area.

"Clearly they've started the permitting process," he said. "It's irksome that they keep saying wait and see until we file for permits. It is time for people to start reviewing what their plans are. We think it's our job to make sure the public is aware of what their plans actually entail."

Margaret Bauman can be reached at margie.bauman@alaskajournal.com.

Alaska Board of Fisheries: Proposal 121 by George Matz:
State Fish Refuge for Lower Talarik Creek, Upper Talarik Creek and Koktuli River.
Read the details of an excellent way to save critical fish habitat >>>
Read the Board of Fisheries Abstract of the Proposal >>>

Pebble proposes vast dams for waste
MINE: Largest of the earthen structures would stand taller than Hoover, Grand Coulee.

By ELIZABETH BLUEMINK
Anchorage Daily News

Published: October 8, 2006
Last Modified: October 8, 2006 at 03:40 AM

The company pursuing the Pebble mine prospect recently furnished the state with a proposal for earthen dams so large that some Alaskans are comparing them to the world's biggest dams.

The dams described by Northern Dynasty Mines Inc. would hold back rock waste and water from the potential mine in the headwaters of Bristol Bay.

Though they are only an idea, the dams have unleashed a flood of new debate over the potential copper, gold and molybdenum deposit near Lake Iliamna.

Northern Dynasty's concept calls for a series of five dams that would fill in some valleys and a lake with tailings, or mining rock waste. The dams would also divert some water from three streams in the Bristol Bay watershed, the world's largest salmon fishery.

Many mines, including Red Dog and Fort Knox in Alaska, use tailings dams.

If built, Pebble would essentially be one of the largest mines of the world, and these dams would be similarly big.

"They aren't small. We've never said they are small," said Bruce Jenkins, the Vancouver, British Columbia-based company's chief operating officer.

In its final stages, the largest of the Pebble dams would grow taller than the Lower 48's Hoover or Grand Coulee dams.

That's just incomprehensible, says Lake and Peninsula Borough Mayor Glen Alsworth.

But wait a minute, says Northern Dynasty. These dams wouldn't look or be anything like the Hoover or Grand Coulee, which were built to generate electricity, not to deal with mine waste.

Rather than a vertical concrete massif holding back billions of tons of water, these dams would be steep, rocky embankments stretching for miles in length and holding back billions of tons of tailings and water.

"You have to envision this as a mountain you've created," Jenkins said. "You are creating a new land form. Over time, they (the tailings dams) get more and more stable," Jenkins said.

Jenkins stresses that the dams, and the Pebble project in general, are not final designs. Northern Dynasty doesn't plan to submit a proposed mine development plan for Pebble until 2008.

Yet the project's foes say the dams are too dangerous.

Not only would the dams divert large quantities of water needed by fish, but they'd forever sit on one of the world's most earthquake-prone areas, according to the Renewable Resources Coalition.

According to Northern Dynasty consultants, the dams would be built to withstand a "maximum credible earthquake" of magnitude 7.8.

"It's hard to comprehend the scale of these dams," Alsworth, the Lake and Peninsula borough mayor, wrote in a recent letter to the Alaska Department of Natural Resources expressing his concern about the massive structures.

"Let's analyze alternate methods, if it can be done," Alsworth added in a recent interview.

Alsworth asked DNR to suspend its review of the dams pending further study. DNR says it won't approve any Pebble project applications until the permitting stage.

As proposed, the dams and other water rights applications by Northern Dynasty would divert water from the north and south forks of the Koktuli River and Upper Talarik Creek.

The Bristol Bay Native Association provides economic and social services to Natives in the area. Last week the board voted to oppose all large-scale mining in the Bristol Bay region until studies prove "unequivocally" that it will not cause any net loss of fish to subsistence, commercial and sport fishermen.

"You are going to see more communities and organizations outside of conservation asking tough questions," said Tim Bristol, director of Trout Unlimited of Alaska.

Northern Dynasty has vowed that its project will not cause net loss to Bristol Bay fisheries. The company pitched the series of dams to DNR as its current preferred method to hem in the billions of tons of potential mining waste and water from the Pebble deposit.

Jenkins said Friday that the entire project should not be judged on its dam applications to DNR.

Northern Dynasty is now finding a rich mineralized area deep below the surface on the east side of its exploration zone. "We have a whole bunch of other alternatives to evaluate," Jenkins said.

Northern Dynasty chose tentative locations for the dams -- the drainage basins of the southern and northern forks of the Koktuli River -- because it believes they are the least environmentally sensitive places in the area to store mining waste, according to its dam applications.

Northern Dynasty projects it would store 2.5 billion tons of tailings behind the dams. An estimated 3 percent of the tailings would be potentially acid-generating rock, according to Northern Dynasty's filing with DNR. The company plans to store the rock permanently under water to prevent water pollution downstream.

Three dams would hem in up to 2 billion tons of mining waste, and two others would hold 500 million tons. One of the dams would grow to 740 feet tall and 4.3 miles long. The second largest would grow to 700 feet high and nearly 3 miles long.

The tailings would eventually form into a high plateau covered in roughly 50 feet of water, Jenkins said.

If any of the dams break, they will hurt the environment, said Bobby Andrew, a spokesman for Nunamta Aulukestai, a consortium of Bristol Bay Native villages that opposes the Pebble project.

If either the land or water becomes contaminated by tailings, "they are going to become worthless. No one will want to use them," Andrew explained.

DNR officials also said they are likely to follow through with a suggestion from Alsworth to convene a panel of national experts to review the dam designs.

Contact reporter Elizabeth Bluemink at ebluemink@adn.com or (907) 257-4317.

Northern Dynasty to Drain Salmon and Trout Spawning Streams !

In a major departure from their stated plans, Northern Dynasty Minerals has started the permit process for their Pebble Mine by applying for a permit to drain water from the Upper Talarik Creek and the Koktuli River. Why do they want the water from these worldclass salmon and trout streams?

- READ MORE ON THIS CRITICAL THREAT>

Northern Dynasty's Water Rights Application documents hint at Plans

In the documents filed, Northern Dynasty has clearly stated its intentions to extend the open pit mine into the Upper Talarik Creek Watershed. This will absolutely destroy the upper reaches of the creek or, in Dynasty’s crisp, technical lingo, “This application is for all of the water up gradient of the proposed downstream limit of water extraction (DL-3 on Figure UT-1).”

See the Pebble Water Rights Map, by clicking here.

In addition to the map and the language above, the following language is very interesting as well:

“The Pebble Project will be a large open pit mine located 17 miles northwest of the community of Iliamna, on the north side of Lake Iliamna (Figure 1.1). Primary mine area facilities will consist of the open pit, ore conveyor, ore stockpile, a mill site (with associated offices, workshops, equipment repair and storage areas), tailing storage facilities, and a worker camp. Transportation facilities will include a mine area road network, and an approximately 100-mile road to a port facility on Cook Inlet. The primary port site facilities will include metal concentrates storage, fuel storage, a ship loading structure, barge landing, offices and worker housing.”

City of Dillingham, AK (largest city in Bristol Bay) passes resolution which opposes "... all large scale mining including the proposed Pebble Copper/Gold mine within its watershed." Read entire resolution >

Alaska Natives Petition Government - New Stuyahok, August 18, 2006
Thirteen native organizations met to organize themselves at large conference on the Nushagak River in Bristol Bay to stop the water rights grab and any large mining projects in the area.. (Note: the Petition was rejected by the Dept. of Natural Resources on September 18, 2006).

Alaska Magazine - Editorial - Pebble's Problems
"If we are ever going to make ourselves more than a source of raw materials, we’ve got to say no when places we value are threatened. Saying no to the Pebble mine is a perfect place to start."



Pebble promises
Keep a sharp eye on the fine print

Anchorage Daily News
Published: August 11, 2006
http://www.adn.com/opinion/story/8065897p-7958685c.html

Critics of the proposed Pebble mine are assailing the credibility of the company pushing the project, Northern Dynasty. In response, the company says the seeming contradictions in some of its public statements can be explained -- if you know the whole story.

As the two sides blast each other, there's a lesson for Alaskans. When it comes to Northern Dynasty's promises about the project, you have to read the fine print.

The rhetorical sparring broke out when Northern Dynasty filed for water rights to Upper Talarik Creek.

The move appeared to contradict earlier pledges.

A 2004 Daily News article quoted Northern Dynasty chief operating office Bruce Jenkins: "I said leave Upper Talarik Creek alone." A 2005 article in the Kenai Peninsula Clarion quoted the project's environmental manager: "We made a commitment to stay out of the Upper Talarik Creek because it is sensitive fish habitat."

If that's true, why did the company file for water rights to the creek?

All along, "leave alone" and "stay out" meant the company wouldn't put its tailings pond in the watershed, according to Mr. Jenkins. The company has drilled test holes in the watershed the past four years, he says, and for the past year and a half its plans have shown a road and transmission lines, even part of the mine pit, in the Upper Talarik area.

"We are not staying out of Upper Talarik Creek entirely," Mr. Jenkins says, but the other proposed facilities are in only a "tiny portion" of the drainage.

Then there's the matter of using cyanide to enhance mineral recovery. That possibility worries Pebble's critics, since cyanide has created big contamination issues at other mines around the world.

Mr. Jenkins said no cyanide would be used at the mine, according to a Daily News article in 2004.

Critics charge the company is reneging on that promise.

Not so, says Mr. Jenkins. From Day 1, he says, what the company said was that it would not use a particular cyanide technique known as heap leach extraction. According to Mr. Jenkins, "We've consistently said in the last year and a half, one of the alternatives is to use cyanide in an in-mill, closed-circuit system." However, he notes no decision has been made on that option.

The company and critics have a similar dispute over whether or not Northern Dynasty ever said there were no fish in the lake it might use for its tailings pond. "Of course there are fish there," Mr. Jenkins says. The quote in question, he says, was taken out of context. He was talking about salmon and was saying the lake is not critical salmon habitat.

There's a pattern here that concerns critics. They wonder if they can rely on what Northern Dynasty says. They are concerned that they're told, "Don't worry, that won't be a problem," and then plans could change and it might turn out there is something they need to worry about.

"Just as importantly," Mr. Jenkins says, "the opposite can be true. What critics might think is a concern can turn out not to be a concern."

He urges Alaskans to withhold judgment until the project is designed and the company applies for all its permits. "A fair process is all I'm after," he says.

When that work is done, Alaskans should take a close look at the fine print. So far, Pebble looks like an environmentally disruptive project that doesn't belong in the state's most productive wild-salmon watershed. The seeming contradictions in Northern Dynasty's pledges, and the company's clarifications, do not help dispel Alaskans' concerns.

BOTTOM LINE: Has Northern Dynasty broken promises about the Pebble mine? No, says the company, not when you know the whole story.

Choggiung Village Corporation Unanimously Opposes Open Pit Mining in Bristol Bay ( largest native village corp in Bristol Bay watershed -Ed)

Native Leaders Also Dispute Claims that Mining and Fish can Coexist

See Full Release for More Information--

 

More from the "Newsroom" :

In Alaska, Surprise Resistance to Mine

Critics Say It Threatens Another Industry With Rich Tradition in State: Salmon Fishing. The Washington Post, Tuesday, August 15, 2006 Read entire Article>

Anchorage Daily News - Editorial -Pebble Mine Too Risky
"Wrong place to experiment with massive hole in the ground"

Chairman David Keene of the American Conservative Union
voices his opposition to the proposed Pebble project.

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