Opponents of a proposed copper, gold and molybdenum mine in southwest Alaska have gained new support via a tweet from Donald Trump Jr. in agreement from a former aide to Vice President Mike Pence that the Pebble mine should be stopped.
The president’s eldest son commented on Twitter on Tuesday, Aug. 4, that as a sportsman who has spent plenty of time in the area he agrees 100 percent with comments made by former Pence aide Nick Ayers, a senior adviser to the Trump campaign, that “the headwaters of Bristol Bay and the surrounding fishery are too unique and fragile to take any changes with.”
Trump retweeted Ayers’ comment saying he hoped President Trump would direct the U.S Environmental Protection Agency to block the Pebble mine. “A Canadian company will unnecessarily mime the USA’s greatest fishery at a severe cost,” Ayers tweeted. “This should be stopped and I believe @POTUS will do so.”
Pebble Partnership spokesman Mike Heatwole said that the final EIS issued by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers “shows that both Donald Trump Jr. and Nick Ayers are wrong.
“The EIS concludes that Pebble mine will not harm the Bristol Bay salmon fishery,” Heatwole said Wednesday, Aug. 5, in an email response to a request for comment. “We remain confident that the USAE will issue a ROD (record of decision) in the next few months. We do not believe that the President will interfere with this statutory process.”
The tweets drew a quick response from Tim Bristol, executive director of SalmonState, who noted that Trump and Ayers “are among hundreds of thousands of American fishermen who understand how special Bristol Bay is. As a result, their opposition to this project should come as no surprise,” Bristol said. “The question now is will Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan also join with 62 percent of Alaskans who oppose the Pebble mine to stand up to stop this toxic project?”
Daniel Cheyette, vice president of land and natural resources for the Bristol Bay Native Corp. also issued a statement in response to the tweets, urging the Trump administration “to listen to the science and the diverse voices who oppose the Pebble mine and deny the project a Clean Water Act permit.”
Cheyette said the tweet from Donald Trump Jr. confirms that Alaskans have known for decades, that the proposed mine has no place in Bristol Bay.
“The final EIS for Pebble makes clear that the proposed mime will severely impact thousands of acres of wetlands and hundreds of miles of streams,” Cheyette said. “These are unacceptable impacts for a region that supplies half of the world’s commercial wild sockeye salmon harvest and is a bucket list fishing destination for thousands of anglers each year.”
The Pebble Partnership, a subsidiary of the diversified global mining group Hunter Dickinson Inc., in Vancouver, British Columbia, maintains that the mine can be constructed and operated in harmony with the Bristol Bay fishery, home to the largest population of wild sockeye salmon in the world.
In its latest official statement on the matter, issued on Tuesday, Aug. 4, the Canadian mining subsidiary said that the environmental impact statement issued by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers “confirms that the project will protect salmon and that the plan to develop the Pebble deposit will not result in long term changes to the health of the Bristol Bay and Cook Inlet fisheries.”
The USACE issued its final environmental impact statement on the proposed mine in late July and is now working on its Record of Decision. The final EIS itself is not a decision on whether Pebble Partnership will receive the federal permits it needs to proceed with development of the mine, but a document to guide federal authorities in making permit decisions. The final EIS includes a northern route option for the mine, which would involve private lands owned by the Bristol Bay Native Association. BBNC officials have said they would not allow access to those lands for the mine project.
