Revised Draft Bristol Bay Assessment Available For Review

From the EPA....

Greetings!

EPA invites your comments on the revised draft Bristol Bay Assessment until Friday, May 31, 2013.  The May 2012 draft assessment was revised based on valuable feedback from peer reviewers, tribes and the public. 

• View or download the Revised Draft Assessment from the EPA Bristol Bay website.
• Read the Fact Sheet, which summarizes changes and provides information on how to comment.
• Read the Executive Summary, for an overview of the revised document. 

EPA is arranging for the original peer reviewers to evaluate the revisions the agency made to the assessment. This follow-up with peer reviewers on will take place at about the same time as the public comment period. 

EPA will finalize the assessment by the end of 2013.  A summary of our responses to all public and peer review comments will be available when the final assessment is released.

Thank you for your interest in EPA's work in Bristol Bay.

You have until the end of May to submit your comments.

Northern Dynasty's reaction to the EPA's assesment of their mythical main proposal?

Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd. responded today to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) release of a revised draft of the Bristol Bay Watershed Assessment (BBWA) report originally released last spring, reaffirming that the new report fails to correct the central flaw that critics roundly agree invalidates the original and revised study.

"You simply cannot assess the effects of a mining project that has not been proposed, and for which key engineering solutions, environmental safeguards and site-specific mitigation factors have not been provided," said Ron Thiessen , President & CEO of Northern Dynasty, a 50% owner of the Pebble Limited Partnership

LINK (via:Yahoo Finance)

Here is a map from the EPA Executive Summary outlining varying footprint scenarios of the "yet to be proposed mining project."

The good guys spell out what the new EPA assessment spells out.

The science is clear: developing Pebble Mine will harm salmon and destroy streams even if nothing ever goes wrong at the mine,” said Tim Bristol, director of Trout Unlimited’s Alaska Program. “Pebble is far bigger and more threatening to renewable resource jobs than any other mine proposal in Alaska and it’s planned for the worst location possible: the headwaters of Bristol Bay. Clearly, the time for action to protect Bristol Bay under the Clean Water Act is now.”

LINK (via:Save Bristol Bay)

Salazar Calls for Permanent Protections for Bristol Bay

With the appointment and confirmation of new U.S. Secretary of Interior Sally Jewell, the outgoing secretary, Ken Salazar, took the opportunity to hold a “good bye” chat online with supporters.

When asked by a Dillingham fisherman about protections for Bristol Bay salmon, he said it should remain off-limits to non-renewable resource extraction.

LINK (via:KDLG)

Rio Tinto Has No Immediate Plans to Develop Pebble Project - CEO

Say what?

"There is a huge amount that needs to be done to prove or disapprove that the project can be built in a way to meet our standards," Sam Walsh told shareholders at the company's annual general meeting in London.

Rio Tinto would only support an underground mine if the project were to go ahead, and was against an open pit mine, he said.

LINK (via:Fox Business)

I'm sure the other partners are thrilled.

Rio Tinto holds about a 10% indirect stake in the Pebble project through a 19.8% stake in Canada-based Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd. (NAK), which jointly owns the project with U.K.-listed Anglo American PLC.

Movement is constant in the mining business, Himebaugh said

Photo: Deseret News

That is a quote from Ted Himebaugh, Kennecott's general manager of operation readiness.

If you haven't seen photos of the massive landslide that struck Utah's Bingham Canyon copper-gold mine on April 10, check out the photos and other links at SkyTruth.

LINK

Kennecott is a wholly owned subsidiary of Rio Tinto, the same folks who are a strategic partner in a proposed large open pit copper-gold mine that would sit on top of the world's greatest remaining sockeye run.

Senators likely to hit EPA nominee over ‘expensive powerplay’ with Pebble Mine

Gina McCarthy, President Obama’s Environmental Protection Agency nominee will get her confirmation hearing this week. McCarthy is expected to face questions regarding the EPA's spending taxpayer dollars holding meetings regarding environmental assessments for the Pebble Mine in Bristol Bay, Alaska, as well as exceeding its authority by arguing it can veto the mine.

LINK (via: The Daily Caller)

Leading the Spanish inquisition against McCarthy will be the dynamic duo of Republican Senator David, diaper wearing Vitter and House Republican Paul, evolution and the Big Bang theory are lies from the gates of hell Broun.

Meanwhile Rapala has joined the fight against Pebble. (via: In Fisherman)

Nunatics

Nuna Resources, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Pebble Partnership is out with this well produced trailer for a film that, "explores the struggles of rural Southwest Alaska where a lack of economic opportunity is threatening to destroy native culture and communities, yet the potential of natural resource extraction holds a promise for a stronger future."

That's code for, we should proceed with the Pebble Mine.

Now in a film of this nature you would normally see the individuals offering their opinions identified on screen but not in the case of the trailer.

This is Lake and Peninsula Borough Mayor Glen Alsworth, and if you watched the trailer, you heard him make the appeal that, "we get on the side of being producers, not just people that are taking from the government."

Turns out the Honorable Mayor Alsworh knows a thing or two about sucking off the government's teat.

From Alaska Business Monthly:

Lake and Peninsula Borough Mayor Glen Alsworth and Assembly Member Sue Anelon were served with a lawsuit charging them with misuse of public money as well as the abuse of their positions as elected officials for personal gain.

The suit alleges that Alsworth has been paid over $600,000 by the Lake and Peninsula Borough School District for the use of his aircraft company, Lake Clark Air. According to Alaska law, as a public official with oversight of the School District and a direct financial interest in spending by the District, Mayor Alsworth was not supposed to vote on school spending decisions.  

According to the suit, not only did he vote to approve the school budget for each of the last five years, but the School District, as reflected in Alsworth's own records, comprises his largest single source of income. In fact, Alsworth was the ultimate beneficiary of nearly all the travel expenses he approved as budget items in the School District's budgets from 2006 through 2011.

Oh it gets better.

Additionally, the complaint states that Alsworth, an ardent proponent of the Pebble Mine, has received $375,000 from the Pebble Limited Partnership and that the Partnership is Alsworth's second largest source of income. 

It should come as no surprise that Nuna Resources would showcase an individual whose pockets are lined by the same overlords. It does however completely destroy any objectivity you're trying to portray in your ongoing public relations effort that the mine will be a good thing for native communities. While the mine will certainly not be a good thing for Bristol Bay, it would certainly be a good thing for Mayor Alsworth.