Alaska's Militia Community Divided Over Pebble Mine

Still united when it comes to federal tyranny.

LINK

EPA Bristol Bay Pebble Mine Peer Review Report: Perpetual Management & Argument

Jack Caldwell has some thoughts on the recently released EPA Bristol Bay Peer Review report.

Correctly, I believe, the peer reviewers called on the EPA to provide more detail on how any mine in that part of the world will be looked after perpetually.  The reports states: “perpetual management of the geotechnical integrity of the waste rock and tailings storage facilities, as well as perpetual water treatment and monitoring, most likely will be necessary. Therefore, emphasize how monitoring and management of the geotechnical integrity of waste rocks and tailing storage facilities should continue ‘In Perpetuity.’ “

Now that is an impossible mandate and the peer reviewers should know that and should have acknowledge it.  They failed to do so, because they know this could be a nail in the coffin.

LINK (via: Think Mining)

Bristol Bay Peer Pressure

The EPA has released the Final Peer Review Report prepared by the independent peer reviewers charged with evaluating EPA’s May 2012 draft assessment of the Bristol Bay watershed entitled An Assessment of Potential Mining Impacts on Salmon Ecosystems of Bristol Bay, Alaska (Bristol Bay Assessment).

Naturally which side of the Pebble issue you're on determines your report release analysis.

Try as Pebble might to spin this into a science controversy, the bottom line is this: the facts and the science are clear and no one has called EPA’s findings into question. In fact, EPA has done due diligence and at the request of these independent scientists, has provided even more information.

LINK (via: Save Bristol Bay)

Pebble spokesman Mike Heatwole said it appears the EPA reviewers agree with some of the company's key points, mainly "that the report itself is pretty flawed in using a hypothetical mining scenario and just relying on impacts without having a concrete plan in front of them that takes into full consideration mitigation and how a modern mine would meet the permitting and review process."

LINK (via: Anchorage Daily News)

The EPA's response?

Based on the comments, and EPA’s commitment to fully address them, EPA has decided to convene a group of qualified experts to review the revised draft assessment in light of the issues raised by the peer reviewers. The final Bristol Bay Assessment will reflect this further expert review and be accompanied by EPA’s point-by-point response to the peer reviewers’ comments as well as public comments. These “response to comment” documents will be available when the final Bristol Bay Assessment is released.

My money is on Bristol Bay, and the EPA, when that final assesment is released.

Pebble Mine Meets Weird Science

The top investigator for the science committee in the House of Representatives, Georgia Republican Rep. Paul Broun, wrote the EPA and said its study of the proposed Pebble mine in the Bristol Bay region fell short and shouldn’t be used to block development.

“These are serious concerns. If EPA ultimately uses this watershed assessment as justification to pre-emptively veto mining permits in Bristol Bay – not withstanding EPA’s legal authority to do so – the scientific credibility of the assessment will need to be beyond reproach,” Broun wrote. “This is obviously not the case.”

Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2012/08/10/161540/republicans-say-epa-is-digging.html#storylink=cpy

LINK (via: McClatchy)

Republican Rep Paul Broun, the top investigator for the House science committee believes evolution is a lie from the pit of hell and the earth is 9,000 years old. 

LINK  (via: The LA Times)

Broun is not the only crackpot on the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology.

Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2012/08/10/161540/republicans-say-epa-is-digging.html#storylink=cpyS

CEO of Anglo American, Pebble Mine’s biggest backer, has "resigned"

Under pressure from investors over the miner’s lagging share price, and continued dependence on troubled South Africa, Chief Executive Cynthia Carroll stepped down on Friday after more than five years in the job.

Despite cost cuts, analysts say that under Carroll, Anglo has lost one-third of its value on a U.S. dollar market capitalization basis and is now worth $25 billion less.

LINK (via: Reuters)

Pebble CEO Dismisses Sportsmen

If you thought that the Pebble Partnership was in anyway concerned about the interests of the sport fishing economy in Bristol Bay, Pebble Partnership CEO John Shively would like to set you straight.

ISER Researcher Criticizes Pebble Data, Shively Shrugs Off Concerns of Hunters and Sport Fishermen

Week 2 of the Keystone Center’s process on Pebble Mine wrapped up this afternoon in Anchorage, capped by an incisive appraisal from a researcher at the well-respected UAA Institute of Social and Economic Research.  Steve Colt, a Professor of Economics with ISER, had this to say in a comment summarizing his feedback on Pebble environmental baseline document:
 
"It is fair to say that this chapter (of Pebble’s EBD), as written, diminished the importance and role of the sport fishing economy in the regional economy in a way that is not supported by the data.  You need to recognize that this is an industry that is tied to the world market."

In response to a question about the noneconomic, yet very important experientail, dimensions of fishing in Bristol Bay, Pebble Limited Partnership CEO John Shively, brusquely shrugged off the concerns of hunters and fishermen, essentially telling them their money, jobs, and way of life don’t matter.

“You cannot assume that all the people who go out there are individual people willing to spend $6,000-$8,000,” said Shively. “There is a huge amount of corporate money that is spent that are largely tax write offs that supports that recreational lodge industry out there and so if we are going to do that kind of thing and make that information meaningful we have to understand all the different users.”

LINK (via: Headwaters)

Shively's response was also captured on audio.