Pebble Mitigation plan a ruse to build trust in discredited company

Sportsmen, women call for immediate permit denial

ANCHORAGE, AK: Anglers, hunters and Bristol Bay business owners call into question a Compensatory Mitigation Plan for the proposed Pebble mine submitted today by Northern Dynasty Minerals, the sole investor in the Pebble Limited Partnership. The plan was required by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) after it concluded the company’s permit application failed to meet basic environmental and safety regulations earlier this summer.

“The Pebble Partnership’s mitigation plan should be dead on arrival,” said Nelli Williams, Alaska director of Trout Unlimited. “The massive amounts of destruction proposed by the Pebble Partnership cannot be mitigated. This plan is a farce and the latest in a long string of lies by a company that is putting American businesses and fisheries in harm's way. Any claim to have a mitigation plan that meets the requirements should be taken with a dump truck of salt.”

Scientists familiar with the mitigation requirements explain the task set to Pebble Limited Partnership by the Corps in common sense terms: First, Pebble Limited Partnership cannot eliminate a threat the company itself created. Second, it is impossible to fix or restore an area like Bristol Bay that is already pristine.

“We know Pebble cannot be trusted. This whole permitting process is based on a sham proposal that completely failed to meet basic standards. This so-called ‘mitigation’ plan is no different,” said Nanci Morris Lyon, owner of Bear Trail Lodge in King Salmon, Alaska. “It is time to deny Pebble’s permit application and allow Bristol Bay to focus on more important and productive conversations about the future of our region.”

Recent ‘Pebble Tapes’ revealed company executives stating plans to build a mine much larger than currently proposed.

“It’s telling that the Pebble Limited Partnership didn’t immediately release its mitigation plan to the public,” said Williams. "For more than a decade they have worked either to hide details from the public or tell outright lies, which we’ve all now seen on tape. Nothing they put in a mitigation plan changes the fact that this project cannot and should not qualify for a permit. The Army Corps of Engineers should end this charade by immediately rejecting Pebble’s permit application.”

The Corps’ Final Environmental Impact Statement shows the proposed Pebble mine will harm more than 191 miles of streams and 4,614 acres of wetlands if phase one of the project advances, with the vast majority of those impacts being permanent.

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Trout Unlimited is the nation’s oldest and largest coldwater fisheries conservation organization dedicated to conserving, protecting and restoring North America’s trout and salmon and their watersheds. Across the country, TU brings to bear local, regional and national grassroots organizing, durable partnerships, science-backed policy muscle, and legal firepower on behalf of trout and salmon fisheries, healthy waters and vibrant communities. We have worked in the Bristol Bay region for almost two decades along with thousands of supporters including dozens of businesses that depend on the fishery of the region. For more information on the Save Bristol Bay campaign go to SaveBristolBay.org or tu.org.

Header image by Tim Romano