|
MINING NEWS: Fish refuge proposed for Pebble area Board of Fisheries will decide at its Bristol Bay meeting in December whether it should recommend the idea to Alaska Legislature By Sarah Hurst For Mining News
A former State of Alaska employee has submitted a proposal to the Board of Fisheries requesting it to designate the waters in the vicinity of the planned Pebble mine as a fish refuge. George Matz, who is now retired, but worked for the state for about 11 years as an analyst, is concerned that Gov. Frank Murkowski’s policies have removed some of the checks and balances that would ensure fish are protected when a mine is developed.
The seven-member Board of Fisheries is part of the Department of Fish and Game. The board considers proposals on individual issues every three years, and in December it will meet in Dillingham to look at proposals about Bristol Bay finfish. Any member of the public or organization can submit a proposal.
The board’s main role is to conserve and develop the fishery resources of the state. Usually it looks at questions such as how to divide up a fishery between sport fishermen and commercial fishermen. Matz’s proposal is slightly different, according to Tim Barry, a special assistant to the commissioner of the Department of Fish and Game, because it asks the board to make a recommendation to the Alaska Legislature. A more direct approach would have been for Matz to go to the Legislature and ask it to create a fish refuge, Barry told Mining News. Fish refuge Matz’s idea Matz is an officer with the Cook Inlet Alliance, a Homer-based group of Alaskans dedicated to sharing information about the Pebble project and its potential effects on Cook Inlet communities and resources. The CIA, as they call themselves, decided that the fish refuge proposal went beyond their organization’s scope, so Matz submitted it as a private individual. He came up with the concept of a fish refuge himself, describing it as a way of conserving fish while enabling the continuation of commercial, subsistence and sport fishing in the area.
“There is some concern that a permit-driven approach to habitat protection does not necessarily provide the comprehensive or precautionary approach that is needed to adequately protect the pristine habitat that Bristol Bay salmon have thrived on,” Matz wrote in his proposal. “What is needed is (a) conservation-oriented management approach that oversees all factors that relate to Bristol Bay salmon habitat protection, irrespective of a permit.”
The Murkowski administration’s streamlined mine permitting process has skewed the state’s bias in favor of economic development, according to Matz. He wants the lead agency for permitting in the waters of the Bristol Bay area to be the Department of Fish and Game, not the Department of Natural Resources, Matz told Mining News. One of the problems is that Murkowski transferred the Division of Habitat from DF&G to DNR, he added. Miners welcomed the move because they thought the bias went too far in the direction of conservation. Northern Dynasty has applied for water rights Vancouver-based Northern Dynasty, the company that wants to develop the Pebble mine, applied to DNR in July for water rights in the same area where Matz hopes to create a fish refuge. “What I’m proposing doesn’t foreclose the opportunity for Northern Dynasty to have water rights, as far as I’m concerned,” Matz told Mining News. The fish refuge would allow the development of the mine as long as it adhered to Northern Dynasty’s “no net loss” policy towards fisheries. Matz also wants the company, rather than the state, to pay for the mine infrastructure.
The fish refuge proposal came as something of a surprise to Northern Dynasty, the company’s chief operating officer, Bruce Jenkins, told Mining News. There was extensive public comment during the recent revision of the Bristol Bay Management Plan, which gave permission for mineral development in the area, Jenkins said. “It speaks to a lack of knowledge of the extent of the public review process,” he added. “This (proposal) seems to be based on the premise that the fish aren’t completely protected unless they do this. That’s completely wrong.”
DNR has told Northern Dynasty that a decision on water rights probably won’t be taken until all the mine’s permit applications are submitted, in at least a year’s time, according to Jenkins. Northern Dynasty encourages people to raise questions and identify issues and concerns, but the company is disappointed with the false statements about Pebble that have been circulating in advertisements by non-profits such as the Renewable Resources Coalition.
Contrary to the ads, Jenkins never said that the Upper Talarik Creek watershed would be left alone. There has been drilling in that area from the beginning of the project, he told Mining News. For the past two years there has been a publicly disseminated plan to build a road and transmission line that would traverse the watershed. What Jenkins actually said was that the watershed would not be used for the mine’s tailing facility. Jenkins also never promised that the mine would not use cyanide. He said that there would not be a cyanide heap leach facility, but there has always been a possibility of in-mill closed-circuit cyanide extraction, as at Fort Knox mine near Fairbanks.
This summer Northern Dynasty has about 110 people working at the Pebble property, using four drill rigs with a fifth about to be mobilized, Jenkins said.
|
