Pebble is an unwelcome guest . It's time for it to leave.
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Pebble is an unwelcome guest

Why go to a boring, text-heavy, bureaucratic website to speak your mind? Because the proposed Pebble mine would shove a huge industrial complex onto a watershed and region that nourishes the largest sockeye salmon fishery in the world, an unparalleled bear viewing destination, and a dynamic and sustainable ecosystem that has supported communities for thousands of years.  Take action now to protect Bristol Bay.

A bear with a fish runs at an unwelcome guest and all the other seagulls.
Bear fishing at the McNeil River. Photo by Diane Frank.

Pebble does not belong in Bristol Bay. The promises made by a Canadian corporation dead set on exploiting the area for profit do not measure up to the promise already fulfilled by the region’s natural systems.

The Yup’ik, Dena’ina, and Alutiq peoples have lived, fished, and hunted in Bristol Bay for millennia. The area’s fisheries support thousands of Alaska jobs. The natural character of the region sustains recreational and educational businesses and activities.

One cut corner and ignored fact after another

Flaws, miscalculations, shortcuts, inattention, power dynamics, and hubris can turn into catastrophe. We’ve seen this with the Exxon Valdez. The Deepwater Horizon. The Brumadinho mining dam collapse.

Many Alaskans enact their culture and get their food through fishing. They do not want an unwelcome guest to mine in the watershed that feeds them.
Photo by Carl Johnson

Already, the Pebble permit application and the Army Corps’ handling of the draft environmental impact statement reveal a pattern of rushed, inadequate, non-transparent practices.

The science used to justify the project lacks credibility. The financing behind the project looks sketchy. The processes for pushing the project lack internal accountability.

Keep the pressure on

Yes, the Army Corps finally extended the public comment period to July 1, but only after public and political pressure forced its hand.

The "no Pebble" message is predominant in Bristol Bay, where the Pebble proposal is an unwelcome guest.
Bristol Bay residents say no to the Pebble mine. Photo by Michelle Sinnott.

Alaskans and people who care about rivers, salmon, and communities need to keep the pressure on at every turn. As Canada’s Northern Dynasty seeks funding for Pebble, it will make a sales pitch that exaggerates good intentions, makes promises it can’t keep, and sidesteps the tactics it uses to keep people quiet and divided, and to buy their support.

We’ve seen this before. The people who fish for food, their way of life, and livelihood have lived under the shadow of this ruinous mining project for too long.

Tell the Army Corps and your elected officials to unsnag Alaska from this oppressive industrial project once and for all. Go to the Pebble project EIS website or this easy to use action page by July 1 and raise your voice.

Read more:

Pebble’s big fish story

Another Pebble funding partner backs out

Pebble, EPA cut backroom deal

Pebble called “worthless”

Pebble uses subpoenas to harass people opposed to the mine