The Trump Administration has been accused of ignoring more than a decade of scientific analysis on the impacts the proposed Pebble Mine in Alaska will have on the state’s Bristol Bay salmon fishery.
This criticism was made at a Senate Commerce Committee hearing on 29 July, where US senator for Washington, Maria Cantwell, said that the Pebble Mine threatens the salmon fishery and that NOAA is not “sticking up for the science”.
“Instead of focusing on getting recovery dollars out the door to protect the seafood sector, the administration is paving the way towards permitting the Pebble Mine,” Cantwell said at the hearing.
“It is beyond unconscionable that the administration continues to threaten the largest salmon fishery in the world instead of focusing on the catastrophic failure that we are seeing because of the pandemic. This is like a one, two gut punch to the industry…So as I have said many times, we must let science lead, and the administration is not listening to science and NOAA is not sticking up for the science.”
The Pebble Mine threatens to permanently damage the Bristol Bay watershed, the 40-60m salmon that return to it every year, and the fishermen and industries that rely on Bristol Bay salmon. A three-year study by the Environmental Protection Agency released in 2014 found that the mine as proposed would result in irreparable harm to Bristol Bay salmon and the fisheries that depend on them. This year, EPA Region 10 found that the mine even in the course of normal, safe mine operations, would destroy 3,560 acres of wetlands, 55 acres of lakes and ponds, 81 miles of streams and 11 acres of marine waters.
Cantwell has repeatedly voiced her disapproval of the project and this month criticised an environmental analysis released by the Trump administration that could pave the way for approval of the proposed Pebble Mine.
