The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is invoking its Clean Water Act authority to look at permanently banning or restricting mine waste disposal into the world’s largest wild salmon fishery.
This action comes as attempts are made to build the Pebble Mine, which would be North America’s largest open pit gold-copper mine and would dispose of waste into Alaska’s Bristol Bay watershed.
“We're thrilled the EPA is taking this important step to protect the world's greatest wild salmon fishery, and the communities that depend on it,” said Jennifer Krill, executive director, Earthworks.
“The decision is clear. The science is definitive. Some places just shouldn’t be mined, and the Bristol Bay watershed is one of them,” she added.
EPA’s action is not a final decision to block the mine, but it is being reviewed, the US Army Corps cannot take any steps to grant permits.
During the review, the EPA says it will rely heavily on its peer-reviewed scientific assessment of the impacts of large scale mining on the Bristol Bay watershed which was released in January.
Commercial fishermen, conservation groups, investors and recreations fishermen have united to oppose the Pebble Mine proposal and for the protection of the watershed, which supports 14,000 jobs and the US$480m a year commercial fishery.
