Bristol Bay is located along Alaska’s southwest coast. Looking at a map, it is near the base of what looks like the state’s left “arm” which extends out into the Bering Sea. When one thinks of Alaska, one usually conjures images of a beautiful, mountainous and snowy region, teeming with animals such as wolves, moose, and caribou; bears scouring for fish in cool blue waters, and whales majestically and wildly throwing their heaving bodies about the surface of the sea. But when you think of Alaska, do you ever think of a gargantuan pit 2 miles wide by 2,000 feet deep, with an underground extension going a mile beyond that? This is the picture painted by Robert Redford, a long-time actor, director, environmental activist, and founder of the Sundance Institute. As a resident of the state of Utah, Redford warns that this is what Bristol Bay residents may see in their near future – after all, there is a pit just like it near his home in the Oquirrh Mountains near Salt Lake City. The same mining companies who built this mega mine in Utah are setting their sites now on Bristol Bay.

For them, there is something special about Bristol Bay that goes beyond its prized salmon runs and sensitive ecosystem, fed by the runoff of glacial ice: its rich mineral deposits. Therefore, the mine is expected to be even bigger than the one in Utah. It would, in fact, be the biggest man-made excavation on Earth and as a result, probably one of the most toxic.

The Pebble Project - as it is otherwise known - is being spearheaded by Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd, a mineral exploration and development company based in Vancouver, British Columbia, and Anglo American PLC, a global mining company based in the United Kingdom. These companies have a 50/50 partnership in the pit mining projects in both Utah and prospectively, the one in Alaska. Rio Tinto PLC, another leading international mining company, owns shares in Northern Dynasty and has been an active member and beneficiary of the Pebble Mine initiatives. The engineering, environmental, and socioeconomic studies that the Project requires is staggering, as well as the cost: some $500 million dollars will have been spent just on designing the Project alone. But there’s a reason why these companies are so eager to invest so much into the mine planning at Bristol Bay: according to Northern Dynasty’s estimates, the region contains roughly 55 billion pounds of copper, almost 70 million ounces of gold, and 3.3 billion pounds of molybdenum. Quantities of silver, palladium and rhenium occur there as well. All things considered, the profits from the mine could easily soar into the trillions.

While representatives from Northern Dynasty are promising the mine would support about 1,000 year-round jobs with a salary of 90,000 dollars per year, most Alaska residents aren’t tempted – not when they consider all that the Pebble Project would put at risk. Mining, while profitable, would not be able to continue forever; and when they have squeezed all that they can squeeze out of the area for the next few decades (mining in Utah is expected to continue until 2028), the sensitive ecosystem there could be damaged irreversibly. With this in mind, native peoples of Alaska are organizing, residents are petitioning, and conservationists and environmentalists are fighting against construction of the mine every step of the way.

Many fisheries and investors around the globe are also grinding their teeth about the potential mega mine. Bristol Bay is an important economic driver for the commercial fishing, sport hunting and sport fishing industries according to Trillium Asset Management in a CSR Press Release. Trillium is one of two organizations that that hold over 13 million shares in Anglo American PLC. Trillium and the other organization, Calvert Investments, are leading an initiative that includes almost 30 other investor organizations, geared toward urging the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to review the potential environmental impact the mine has on the region according to the review process under the Clean Water Act. Even though these are investors in Anglo American PLC, and would therefore benefit from the trillions of dollars in minerals recovered from this massive mining project, they believe that responsible resource management is more important. If the ecosystem is degraded in the Bristol Bay region, it would put over $450 million dollars in annual revenue and 10,000 jobs associated with the fishing, sport hunting and sport fishing industries at risk. Ironically, that’s many more jobs than the amount being promised by Northern Dynasty in terms of mining employment. Considering Bristol Bay is one of the most productive marine ecosystems in the world, contributing for over $2 billion dollars in annual revenue to the Bering Sea fisheries (especially due to its world class sockeye salmon runs), the economic repercussions of any lasting environmental damage would be felt on a global scale.

Like the mineral mining pit in Utah, toxic tailings ponds would be used to store a dangerous concoction of chemical byproducts. What is more troubling is the danger these same chemicals pose to the environment, especially the water quality of the region. The extensive glacial gravel deposits in Bristol Bay are highly permeable, a characteristic that also contributes to the highly prized salmon productivity in the region. It also provides pathways for glacial water runoff to move between surface and groundwater, and between river basins. Therefore, not only would surface water integral to salmon development most likely be contaminated, so would the groundwater. The Pebble mine in Utah has contaminated over 60 square miles of groundwater near Salt Lake City, making the water there undrinkable for at least 4,300 households; and the contamination won’t end there. Contamination can continue for years after mining activity has stopped, therefore making it hard to make a clear-cut determination on how bad the environmental damage can be.

Nevertheless, Northern Dynasty says that the efforts it, and Anglo American are taking in ensuring that the project is the best possible from an environmental perspective should be enough to curb anyone’s fears about the mine. Still, the evidence from past projects these mining companies have undertaken around the world show that there is indeed a need to be wary of any persuasive, soothing rhetoric they may offer. The website, Ourbristolbay.com, created by Earthworks (a non-profit organization dedicated to protecting communities and environments from the potential hazards of mineral and energy developments while supporting sustainable energy solutions) and Nunamta Aulukestai (a non-profit corporation made up of nine Alaska Native Villiage Corporations based in Bristol Bay dedicated to protecting the land) released an executive summary of some of these operations and how they harmed the people and environments in which they took place. According to the summary, prepared by veteran corporate researcher Phil Mattera, a 2001 study of 34 mines around the world concluded that those mines operated by Anglo American had the highest levels of arsenic in its surface water by far. Other Anglo American mining operations reported high levels of mercury air pollution (Nevada), heavy metal contamination of the earth and surrounding water sources (Ireland and Ghana), lead poisoning of children (South Africa), reports of slurry in residential areas (South Africa), copper contamination (Kruger National Park, South Africa) and even displacement of local villagers such as farmers (Ghana, South Africa and Mali). With a poor track record such as this, in addition to the nightmare unfolding in Utah, it is hard to believe the reassuring words of these mining companies.

This is not to suggest that other mining projects are not under way in Alaska. Because Alaska has a lot of tectonic activity (a term that refers to earthquakes, volcanoes, and mountain building in general), this helps push minerals up from the farther reaches of the Earth’s crust, up towards the surface. According to the national organization Trout Unlimited (devoted to conservation and protecting fisheries including those in Alaska), large mineral mines currently operating in Alaska include a silver mine in Juneau, a zinc mine near Koltzebue, and a gold mine near Fairbanks. However, none of these mines even come close to the size of the Pebble mine anticipated for Bristol Bay, and its 9 billion tons of potential mining waste including its toxic tailings pools. The question is, how safe is it to build a mega mine such as this in a region with such extensive tectonic activity? Many are saying that the risks far outweigh the benefits, especially because geologists have identified the area where the proposed Pebble mine would be located, as a hot spot for seismic activity.

Fortunately, as the result of pleas from Alaskan native villagers and other Alaska residents, corporations, organizations including non-profits, concerned investors, philanthropists, environmentalists, conservationists and nation-wide petitions, the EPA has agreed to review the environmental risks associated with the mine according to the Clean Water Act. In addition, in February of 2011, Mitsubishi sold its 11% interest in Northern Dynasty Minerals following a meeting with the senior attorney of the National Resources Defense Council, who presented Mitsubishi with almost 10,000 petitions in opposition to the mine. Hopefully, for the sake of the residents of Alaska – both human and animal, enough can be done to reevaluate the plans for the mega mine. However, many hope that they never see a mine like the one in Utah in any way, shape or form – and it is hard to blame them. It may be true that Alaska is rich in minerals such as copper, gold, molybdenum – all minerals modern society uses every day for a variety of different purposes – and it may be true that a mega mine like the one desired in the Pebble Project would redress a growing gap between US domestic copper supply and demand (according to Ronald W. Thiessen, President and CEO of Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd., in a news release on the company’s website), but the point is, to allow a mega mine such as this to be built in a rich, sensitive ecosystem like Bristol Bay, by companies with poor track records in terms of being environmentally responsible, does not seem to be worth everything it threatens to destroy.

If you would like to be part of the movement against the Pebble Mine in Bristol Bay, take action at the National Resources Defense Council website.

Photo credit: loc.gov/pictures/item/fsa1992001525/PP/ (Pit mine in Utah)