Just how many reasons does the Pebble Partnership need to stop its disastrous plans to build the Pebble Mine in Bristol Bay, Alaska? NRDC explored that question in a series of ads in Politico. The ads give the Pebble Partnership several compelling reasons to quit the Pebble Mine, culminating today with a simple request: walk away from Bristol Bay.
Bristol Bay is home to the world's greatest wild salmon fishery, supplying half of the world's sockeye salmon. Salmon support a $1.5-billion annual commercial fishery that employs 14,000 full- and part-time workers. Salmon are not only the economic backbone of the region but the lifeblood of Bristol Bay's native communities, which have relied on subsistence fishing for millennia.
Yet the Pebble Partnership wants to build a giant gold and copper mine at the headwaters of these important salmon runs. The Pebble Mine would produce up to 10 billion tons of mining waste and destroy 94 miles of streams and 5,350 acres of wetlands, ponds, and lakes -- key habitat for salmon. The mine's open pit would be almost as deep as the Grand Canyon, and the mine's total footprint would cover an area larger than Manhattan -- all located in a seismically active area. As if the environmental footprint alone weren't reason enough to stop the Pebble Mine, here are a few other reasons highlighted in the ads:
- Overwhelming local opposition to the mine. Polls show that 85 percent of commercial fishermen in Bristol Bay, 81 percent of the Bristol Bay Native Corporation's native shareholders, and 80 percent of Bristol Bay residents oppose the Pebble Mine.
Now it's time for the Pebble Partnership to leave.
As today's ad makes clear, it's time for the Pebble Partnership to walk away from Bristol Bay.
Click here to send your message to the Pebble Partnership. Tell them to walk away from Bristol Bay, and join the overwhelming majority of Bristol Bay residents -- together with a strong majority of Alaskans -- in opposition to the Pebble Mine.