A coalition of village corporations and others files have filed suit against the company to put an end to drilling and exploration for a copper and gold mine above Bristol Bay — a sanctuary for wild salmon. It is told that the proposed Pebble Mine would dwarf all the others operating in the Alaskan wilderness and generate up to 9 billion tons of ore, most of which would have to be sifted and disposed of near the ponds and streams that feed into Bristol Bay.
According to the information it also would generate hundreds of jobs in troubled southwestern Alaska, and as much as $300-billion worth of copper and gold. IN their lawsuit they are charging that the state was violating its Constitution by allowing drilling and other exploration to proceed without full environmental review.
Conservationists worry that the millions of dollars spent on exploration while officials conduct public hearings and await the environmental impact statement will give the project political momentum that even Alaska’s powerful fishing industry would find hard to fight. It is said that the lawsuit invoked an article of the Alaska Constitution that requires hearings and analyses to determine whether state-owned natural resources are being managed for the common public good.
Tim Bristol, director of Trout Unlimited in Alaska, which has opposed the mine but is not a plaintiff in the lawsuit, said that they would like to see right now is for everyone to take a step back and look at all the potential negative impacts associated with a development this large in an area that’s incredibly sensitive and extremely important to a lot of people in this state.
State officials have said that plenty of studies would be done once Pebble applies for its development permits. At the moment, they added, exploration is going on at hundreds of mining claims, large and small, across the state, and Alaska law does not require formal studies or public hearings.
