The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has announced its decision to protect "the most productive wild salmon ecosystem in the world" from being a dumping spot for dredged materials from a proposed mineral mine.
The EPA issued its Final Determination Jan. 31, after extensive review of the Recommended Determination submitted by the agency's Pacific Northwest regional office last December, the EPA reports.
“After reviewing the extensive scientific and technical record spanning two decades, EPA has determined that specific discharges associated with developing the Pebble deposit will have unacceptable and adverse effects on certain salmon fishery areas in the Bristol Bay watershed,” EPA Assistant Administrator for Water Radhika Fox said in the announcement. “Our Final Determination helps prevent those adverse effects while helping protect a vibrant and magnificent watershed."
EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan
| epa.gov/
Fishery resources in the bay power the region's economy, with an estimated value in 2019 at more than $2 billion, as well as supporting 15,000 jobs annually, the EPA reports. One of the last sustainable salmon-based cultures in the world is supported by Bristol Bay watershed, home to 25 Alaska Native communities. More than half of subsistence harvests for some of the villages is salmon, according to the EPA.
"The Bristol Bay watershed’s fishery resources are a thriving economic driver for the region," the EPA states in the report, "generating significant nutritional, cultural, economic, and recreational value."
The Pebble deposit, at the headwaters of the Bristol Bay, contains copper-, gold-, and molybdenum-bearing minerals. Plans to build and operate a mine at the site submitted by Pebble Limited Partnership in June 2020 were denied in November 2020, the EPA reports.
The Final Determination protects certain sections of the South Fork Koktuli and North Fork Koktuli river watersheds from being used as disposal sites for mine discharge resulting from the PLP plan or any future proposals that would generate the same or greater levels of change or loss to habitat, the EPA reports.
The "diverse, abundant, and high-quality streams, wetlands, and other aquatic habitats" in the South Fork and North Fork Koktuli rivers and the Upper Talarik Creek watersheds are crucial habitat for Coho, Chinook and sockeye salmon and other fishes, according to the EPA.
“The Bristol Bay watershed is a vital economic driver, providing jobs, sustenance, and significant ecological and cultural value to the region,” said EPA Administrator Michael Regan. “With this action, EPA is advancing its commitment to help protect this one-of-a-kind ecosystem, safeguard an essential Alaskan industry, and preserve the way of life for more than two dozen Alaska Native villages.”
