EPA is reopening the protection process for Bristol Bay. Here's what that means.
Yesterday, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced its intent to reinstate proposed protections for the watersheds of Alaska’s Bristol Bay, a significant turn of events that could prevent the proposed Pebble Mine from devastating North America’s best salmon stronghold.
This is a huge step toward stronger protections for Bristol Bay. However, this move doesn’t mean the region’s important salmon and trout runs are guaranteed protection.
As you may remember these protections had massive local and nationwide support and were nearly finalized by EPA in 2014, before a lawsuit by the developers of Pebble Mine stalled the protections. Then the EPA under the Trump Administration moved to reverse them completely.
Although Pebble failed to earn a key permit from the Army Corps of Engineers last year, the head of the company behind the Pebble Mine proposal recently said “we have by no means given up on this project.”
Today’s decision by the Biden Administration’s EPA will eventually reopen the Clean Water Act protection process. Now Wild Salmon Center, together with our coalition of Tribal, business, nonprofit, and community organizations in the Bristol Bay Defense Fund, will be working to supply the scientific evidence for that process, and rally public support for putting the headwaters of the region’s most productive rivers off limits to hard rock mining.
Celebrate this big step and stay tuned!
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