The Pebble Blog : Red Dog Mine settlement in final stretch

The Pebble Blog

The gigantic Pebble copper and gold prospect in Southwest Alaska is one of the touchiest topics in Alaska today.

In this blog, I'll track news that is significant or interesting about the Pebble project. I'll also try to generate discussion and information sharing about some of the claims and counterclaims about the project, and mining in general.

Please keep your comments courteous and on topic. If you violate the ADN comment policy, your posts will be deleted.

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About Elizabeth Bluemink ebluemink@adn.com

I've been writing about mining in Alaska since 2004 and without a doubt, it is one of the most interesting topics that I cover at the Daily News. I've been a newspaper reporter for the past 10 years. In the Deep South, I specialized in reporting about environmental conflicts and pollution cleanups. For two years, I covered commercial fishing, mining and logging in Southeast Alaska. In my current job as a Daily News business reporter, I write about mining, tourism, Native corporations and other businesses.

Red Dog Mine settlement in final stretch

Posted by Elizabeth Bluemink

Posted: September 3, 2008 - 4:09 pm

Hi folks:
The folks in Kivalina have finalized their settlement with Teck Cominco over pollution discharges at the Red Dog Mine, but federal officials get 45 days to look at a proposed "consent decree" before the case is officially over.

Among the provisions of the settlement is a new pipeline that would discharge Red Dog's wastewater to the ocean.

For additional information, feel free to review the attached documents.

Attachment	Size
motionforconsetdecree.pdf	80.88 KB
proposedconsentdecree.pdf	1.11 MB

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5 September 7, 2008 - 1:21am | Sockeyemark

Overheard an Interesting comment

within the not to distant future with the way our population of the world is growing, salmon will be worth much more than any gold/copper mine. Now that is some foresight.....lets see if our Government sees it the same way.

September 14, 2008 - 1:13am | njalo99

any way you want to spin it there socko

even IF the salmon is more valuable in the near future....what are you going to use to fish, hold and haul all your fish??? All the metals you use come from mining???? true?? Evidently mining is a neccessary evil that helps make your life easier, and I am not talking Gold or Silver, I am talking iron ore, copper, aluminium, chromium, platinum......??? How bout you lead the way there socko....wooden boats, wooden hooks, and nets handmade fom your fisher wive's..... do your job without the benefit of mining and I would take you more seriously.....You want to fight the Pebble project, that's fine, but your ideas will affect the whole industry and frankly it's getting annoying

September 14, 2008 - 1:32am | PuckFebble

Picks and shovels...

Sure no problem. I fish on a fiberglass boat. Id be willing to compromise as soon as the Pebble folks are willing to work with picks and shovels, a gold pan, and at most a sluice box. Until then this argument holds less water than an old leaky wooden boat.

September 14, 2008 - 12:11pm | rfn

Oh No!

Fiberglass is made from TOXIC chemicals!

That boat is a TOXIC TIDAL WAVE lusting to kill salmon.

But, of course, it's propelled by paddles fashioned only from wood, no?

Or pushed by a metal outboard motor? With toxic petroleum products carried in the boat, just waiting to spill?

Talk about environmental terrorism!

September 15, 2008 - 8:18am | demorgan33

Here we go again

This is my favorite argument for this mine, "If you have ever used metal you are a hypocrite for opposing Pebble" This is a load of rubbish. We have gone over the value of mining to everyday life before, and it is understood that metals are valueable, but not so valueable as to damage a renewable resource to get at them. Please apply a little common sense here if you can. One can be opposed to Pebble without hating the entire mining industry. This "develop at all cost regardless of risks" mindset is troubling to many Alaskans and is now drawing the attention of the outside world. I don't want to see the environmentalist crowd climbing into our business any more than you do, so let's not give them the ammunition or reason to be here. This project should be put on hold until a realistic, non-damaging method can be found and then reevaluate this deposit at that time.

September 15, 2008 - 8:35am | njalo99

which would be when??

by some of the comments I've read here it wouldn't ever be mined. NIMBY would turn into NIML, not in my lifetime........
As a miner I don't support one resource over another either, but want responsible developement also.

September 16, 2008 - 6:42am | demorgan33

That would depend

On the mining industry and the state regulators. It is common sense that with current mining practices and budgets in mind, there is no way to open up o hole for Pebble without removing or destroying lakes and salmon habitat. If and when the Pebble people can figure out how to get at the riches below without ruining or risking the surface then and only then should this mine even be considered. The "How" may be the million dollar question, but with all the profits that Nortern Dynasty claims are waiting for themselves, and a few select others, it shouldn't be a problem to invest in research to find some new methods.

September 7, 2008 - 9:30pm | rfn

I suspect they will.

And will subsidize development of gigantic fish-farms so salmon are available at reasonable prices to people in need of protein.

September 8, 2008 - 3:33am | Sockeyemark

If only they could farm sockeye,,,,sigh....

So we'll just have to make sure their habitat is safely guarded. I think my proposition is a good one, "Do not disturb" salmon rearing in progress leave rivers, streams and lakes alone.
It's catching on...No pun there

September 8, 2008 - 7:36pm | rfn

Sockeye can always be counted on

to rise to the bait.

And to eat anything they're fed.

Not just theory; proven!

4 September 4, 2008 - 3:55pm | Sockeyemark

Salmongate

Politics of the Plate: Salmongate
09.03.08

At the very least, there was something fishy about Alaska Governor (and Vice Presidential hopeful) Sarah Palin’s decision to speak out publicly against the state’s Clean Water Initiative late last month. There may also be something blatantly illegal about her advocacy for defeating the ballot initiative, which ultimately failed to pass when 57 percent of Alaskans voted against it.

A bit of background. The Clean Water Initiative (aka Ballot Measure 4) was put in place to restrict the amount of arsenic and other toxic pollutants that new, large-scale mines could dump into the state’s waterways. Its stated goal was to protect human health and safeguard salmon that use the rivers and streams to spawn. More specifically, it was aimed at a massive gold and copper operation called Pebble Mine located directly upstream of Bristol Bay, site of one of the world’s largest and most sustainable wild salmon fisheries, which produced 31 million pounds of king, sockeye, and chum salmon in 2007.

The law in Alaska forbids a governor from officially lobbying for or against a ballot initiative such as Ballot Measure 4. To get around the law, Palin exercised what she called “personal privilege” when she said to reporters, “Let me take my governor’s hat off for just a minute here and tell you, personally, Prop 4—I vote no on that.”

I will leave it to legal minds in Alaska whether doffing a metaphorical hat and claiming personal privilege exempt a person from obeying the law of the land, but one thing the possible veep’s stance clearly shows is an alarming lack of judgment.

Do the calculations yourself. On one hand, you have an industry (mining) that employs 5,500 people in your state and generates $200 million in tax revenues. It is based on a finite resource that will run out one day. On the other hand, you have an industry (salmon fishing in Bristol Bay alone) that employs 12,000 people and contributes $250 million to the economy. This industry is based on a sustainably managed renewable resource that will be around long after the last ton of ore is dug out of Pebble Mine. Which would you favor?

There’s a deeper tragedy here. Several years ago, I was honored to spend a week out on the boats with Bristol Bay’s salmon fishermen, a hardworking, hard-living crew if ever there was one. At the time, before Americans became educated about the environmental and health benefits of wild Alaska salmon, the biggest threat to the fishermen’s livelihood was competition from cheap, farmed salmon from Chile that had driven prices to the point where it was questionable whether even a decent day’s catch would pay the fuel bill, not to mention the bank loan.

Pebble Mine still has to clear some regulatory hurdles before it goes into full operation, probably sometime around 2011. If that happens, the greatest threat to Bristol Bay’s salmon fishery will have come from bad decisions made by homegrown politicians

September 4, 2008 - 11:02pm | GrizzleyGal

Pot Calling the Kettle Black

Elizabeth...anyone who pays even remote attention to your articles or blog has long since seen the line from journalism to advocacy clearly crossed when it comes to this issue. Isn't this rant sort of like the pot calling the kettle black? Granted you are far from public service at this point in your career, but you survive by advocating your personal opinion on Pebble (without ever having to remove your 'journalistic' hat). I wonder if you have ever visited the proposed site you so vehemently lobby against? Quit ADN and go work for Gillam.

September 5, 2008 - 10:25am | ebluemink

Grizzly Gal

For the second time in a couple weeks, you've posted something without double-checking yourself. (The other time, you accused me of bias for not blogging about Sarah Palin's position against Measure 4, which I had, but somehow you missed it.)

I normally try not to respond to criticism or praise on this blog, but I think you'd make your case a little better if you accused me of something I actually did.

Anyway, this so-called rant was posted by a reader of the blog (Sockeyemark), not me.

If you noticed below in the comments, I do provide a link to the original source of this "Salmongate" commentary.

September 5, 2008 - 7:35am | Sockeyemark

I've e-mailed Elizabeth on this very subject

it's an uphill battle all the way, one industry against the other. Elizabeth advocates a neutral position.....hardly.

September 4, 2008 - 5:38pm | ebluemink

Fact check

they should have done one on this line:

"The law in Alaska forbids a governor from officially lobbying for or against a ballot initiative such as Ballot Measure 4."

In any case, that item was published in Gourmet Magazine and can be read here:

http://www.gourmet.com/foodpolitics/2008/09/politics-of-the-plate-salmon-scandal

September 4, 2008 - 4:17pm | rfn

Eloquent.

But re-read the news stories that came out of the miner's meeting in Fairbanks.

Measure 4 was born of a classic "Hissy Fit". No more; no less.

3 September 4, 2008 - 2:23pm | rfn

Is it possible that the lawyers

who encourage the people of Kivalina to sue anything with pockets figured out what the utter defeat of Measure 4 did to their chances for squeezing a little more?

2 September 4, 2008 - 6:43am | njalo99

...

nevermind....

December 7, 2008 - 2:44pm | charlierotario

Red Dog Mine settlement in final stretch

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1 September 3, 2008 - 8:06pm | demorgan33

A look into the future

This is where the people of Bristol Bay will be in a few years, beginning a court battle to try to clean up the mess made by large scale mining. I'm just thankful that there isn't a world-class salmon run affected by the non-compliance at Red Dog.

September 4, 2008 - 2:14am | Sockeyemark

I so thankful we have these strict water quality rules in place?

so that this will never happen, again and again and again. What a farce, Pebble will be steamrolled through our lame process. Then Alaskans will be told about the Great plan and all its safeguards......once the ball starts rolling it's only a matter of time before we see headlines about Pebble's non-compliance.....ahhhh history repeats itself......our administration is pro development in regards to this mine sorry to say,,,,, maybe the rest of the US will want our salmon streams left alone.....GO SARAH. Go to Washington and bring Bristol Bay to the PEOPLE

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Red Dog Mine settlement in final stretch