Majority of Bristol Bay region residents say no to the Pebble Mine
Thursday, September 24, 2009 at 12:00AM 
Anchorage, Alaska – A new poll released today finds an overwhelming majority of Bristol Bay residents strongly prefer their subsistence lifestyle to the promise of jobs at the pr oposed Pebble Mine.
The poll, which is the most in-depth survey of local Alaska Natives’ opinion on the Pebble Mine, found that 79 percent of respondents believe the mine, located in the headwaters of two of the region’s largest salmon-spawning rivers, would damage Bristol Bay’s wild salmon fishery – a key resource that many residents depend on for income and food.
“What Anglo American’s CEO told us when we met in London earlier this year was that if local communities did not want Pebble mine, then Anglo American would not build it,” said Bobby Andrew, spokesperson for Nunamta Aulukestai, a coalition of eight village corporations that commissioned the survey. “A majority of local people know the mine will pollute and destroy subsistence, commercial and sport fishing and adamantly oppose it.
“We are asking Anglo American to honor its promise and withdraw from the Pebble project,” Andrew said.
Andrew and the three other local Alaskans who met with Anglo American executives and shareholders earlier this year in London sent a letter today to the company’s CEO, Cynthia Carroll, along with the survey results. They asked her to adhere to promises she made in a private meeting that the company would abandon the Pebble project if local communities rejected it.
The letter dated September 22, 2009, stated: “Opposition to the mine is overwhelming and unwavering despite significant outreach efforts by Anglo American and Northern Dynasty over the years…. With that in mind, we ask you to keep your stated commitment to forego development of the Pebble mine given the ongoing community opposition.”
“We are not going to risk our subsistence way of life, which has sustained our families for generations, on the Pebble Mine,” said Lydia Olympic, an Igiugig native who joined the group that met with top company officials in London in April. “Mining is not the answer.
“Sustainable development can only be based on our wild salmon, clean water, and renewable energy – not on a mine that will pollute our land and water with toxic waste,” Olympic said.
The poll released today was conducted by Anchorage-based Craciun Research, which sampled 411 Bristol Bay residents from six parts of the Bristol Bay region between May 18, 2009 and June 2, 2009. It was statistically drawn to get an accurate assessment of opinion in each of those areas: Alaska Peninsula, Lake Iliamna/Lake Clark, Nushagak Bay, Nushagak River, Togiak, and Kwichak Bay. The margin of error was plus or minus 4.8 percent.
Among the survey’s main findings:
• The vast majority of residents favored renewable energy development (94 percent), value-added fish packing (89 percent), and tourism that Alaska Native communities could be involved (82 percent) in over mining.
• Survey respondents agreed almost unanimously (97 percent) that maintaining subsistence-lifestyle resources and their subsistence lifestyle is important.
• Seventy-two percent of those surveyed reported that a significant part of their diet came from fish, game, berries and other subsistence sources.
• Only 8 percent of survey respondents supported the Pebble mine project, less than the one-third the number that support oil and gas drilling.
• The strongest opposition to the mine was in the Nushagak Bay area, but even in Iliamna-Lake Clark area, where local businesses benefit more from current exploration activities, 73 percent of survey respondents oppose the mine.
• A majority (78 percent) thought Pebble mine would damage commercial, guided or subsistence fishing.
• A majority of respondents agreed that most jobs created by the mine would go to outsiders, not locals.
• Few respondents thought that mining could be done without harming the environment.
Stop the Pebble Mine in Conservation, News
Reader Comments (6)
Never thought this day would come. This is huge for the wildlife and the year round folks who subsist there and have since Christ was a corporal. The proof of the pudding will be when and if Anglo-American honors what it promised. I am really surprised no shots have been fired so far.
I'm not supprised, locals know a good thing. Just need to keep the pressure on.
(was Christ really a Corporal?....dang)
Well you don't have to be a very smart or an educated person to see the greed. These people (Northern Dynasty and Anglo America) do not care about anyone who lives here. They see dollar signs. All one has to do is research past mining projects and you'll see the aftermath. It's a nobrainer. Everyone and everything in the state of AK depends on Salmon in one way or another. Sure they can probably get this gold out of the ground safely but theres a small chance that they can't. One fuck up and the Salmon go bye bye FOREVER. Thats a long time. We can't take the chance. I'm not a very educated person but I think I'm smart and I'll lay bets that these companies don't give a shit about this survey and they proceed business as usual. I say toHELL with them and thier greed....tell all your friends in AK and outside AK to stand up and shout it NO PEBBLE MINE!!!!! Rainbows Rule....
I don't know what to say. I have a friend who works for the Pebble Mine, and he's the only person I know who's making a living. He works 12 hours a day for 20- to 30-day stretches, where he's away from his family out in the tundra. He's torn between doing the work to provide for his family and how his work conflicts with his ideals as an outdoorsman.
The way I see it, the only way a person can take a believable stance against the Pebble Mine , or any mine for that matter, is to abstain entirely from metals and fuel. That means no metal guides or reel seats, no metal reel components, no automobiles, no computers, no cameras, no camcorders. That means hitchhiking and getting around on foot, not hauling your boat and trailer 500 miles attached to your SUV. If a person uses or possesses any of these things -- and particularly if they buy them new -- I personally feel that they have no business taking a stance against mining; they are, as a matter of fact, the very reason mining exists. They are the demand for the supply.
If you are a person who takes every step to minimize the usage of metals and fuel in your daily life, and in taking those steps you do not buy any of your ride, boat, or gear new off the shelves then, by all means, you have my respect when you talk against mining. I will probably listen to you.
On the other hand, if you tell me one day that you just got back from a 2400-mile plane ride to the Gulf to fish on a top-of-the-line charter boat, and then tell me another day that you're against the Pebble Mine, I think you need to take a step back and realize that, in your consumption of metals and fuels, you're being more than a little hypocritical. You're not just part of the problem; you're a big part of the problem. If you live this way and talk against mining, I probably won't listen to you.
If anyone is going to make any headway against mining, it has to be done by working to eliminate demand. If you're not eliminating demand, what you're saying is "Not in my backyard." What that means is that, sure, the Pebble Mine might be thwarted, but some other mine will have to take its place, which means there will be a whole new fight to save some other earthly wonder. If you can eliminate the demand, meaning that as the human population increases, the desire for metals and fuel decreases, when there is no need for newer bigger mines, and the problem of saving a precious part of the planet from mining is closer to being solved.
Although I contribute to the demand for minerals, my vote goes to putting mines in places other than the worst possible place in the world for a mine.
put the mine in Dallas or some other god forsaken place like Arizona desert country. It is beyond me why anyone would even consider Bristol Bay would be a good idea