“Bristol Bay is one of the last places on Earth …”
“…with such bountiful and sustainable harvests of wild salmon.” – U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, when proposing in 2014 to restrict development of the Pebble deposit in Alaska’s pristine Bristol Bay watershed
This wealth could have been destroyed, if Pebble Mine had been permitted to proceed. Together, we will continue to protect Bristol Bay.
Proposed Pebble Mine
Bristol Bay
Nov. 9, 2021
For more than a decade, the threat of a huge, open-pit copper and gold mine has loomed over the heart of pristine salmon spawning territory in Bristol Bay, Alaska. Following a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers decision in 2020 to deny a key permit for the mine, the EPA must now finalize lasting, science-based protections against mining damage.
Pebble Mine would directly impact the world’s greatest sockeye salmon run. It would put in jeopardy thousands of American jobs, a cultural tradition of subsistence dating back 10,000 years, and a robust sport-fishing and tourism economy.
The Corps denied a key permit for Pebble Mine on Nov. 25, 2020, highlighting many of the concerns that opponents to the project, including Earthjustice, have pointed out all along. The decision should have been a death knell for Pebble Mine. However, the Pebble Limited Partnership has appealed it, and the agency review proceeding could take over a year.
In the meantime, in October of 2021, the U.S. District Court for the District of Alaska granted EPA’s request to reconsider a a Trump-era decision, which jettisoned an EPA proposal to protect Bristol Bay fisheries from mine-related habitat destruction. After years of litigation, this court decision clears the way for EPA to follow the extensive scientific record and finalize those enduring protections. In partnership with clients and partners, we urge EPA to act expeditiously to protect Bristol Bay.
As proposed, the Pebble Mine project would entail mining a pit over a mile long, a mile wide and 200 meters deep, destroying nearly 3,500 acres of wetlands, lakes, and ponds and 81 miles of salmon streams. And that only includes waters directly displaced by mine facilities, not the thousands more acres that would be fragmented, dewatered, and covered with dust from the mine.
Earthjustice is committed to representing those who oppose unlawful and ill-advised mining in the vast expanse of Alaska and British Columbia. Our Alaska-based attorneys wield extensive expertise in this arena, both on a national scale and in our Juneau office, which has battled some of the region’s worst hard rock and coal mine proposals.
One of our world's surviving great ecosystems, Bristol Bay is a sustainable economic powerhouse for local communities and the lifeblood for Alaska Native cultures who have lived there for millennia.
It produces an enormous portion of the world’s sockeye salmon catch and one of the world’s largest Chinook salmon runs, fueling 14,000 jobs and Alaska’s $1.5 billion fishing economy.
Bristol Bay
219 million pounds
162 million pounds
The rest of the world
Other Alaska, lower-48 states, Canada, Japan, Russia
Wild Bristol Bay salmon feed people all across the country and the world. For the Alaska Native people who comprise the majority of the Bristol Bay area population, and whose cultures can be described as “salmon-based,” salmon have a significance even beyond sustenance and wealth.
Well aware of what they stood to lose, six Alaska Native Tribes in Bristol Bay petitioned the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in 2010 to protect this beloved watershed from Pebble Mine. They were soon joined by a large, diverse group of people who also depend on the fishery, including more Bristol Bay Tribes and tribal organizations, commercial and recreational fishermen, seafood processors and marketers, chefs, restaurants, supermarket owners, sport fishing and hunting lodge owners and guides.
Under the Obama administration, the EPA heard them. Following a multi-year rigorous, peer-reviewed scientific study of how important the watershed is and why, the agency found that even the smallest Pebble Mine would irreversibly damage the Bristol Bay ecosystem.
Things changed dramatically under the Trump administration.
In a climate shaped by the Trump administration’s coziness with polluting industries, EPA settled a lawsuit filed by Pebble mine backers by agreeing to put protections for Bristol Bay on ice — despite its own findings that such protections were critical. At the same time, the Pebble Limited Partnership tried to sneak a permit through Clean Water Act regulations with the dubious promise of sticking to what it views as a “small” mine.
In a rushed process out of proportion with the project’s extensive destructive impacts, the Army Corps released its Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) in 2019, and the Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) the following year.
Despite its incomprehensible predictions that Bristol Bay salmon would be unharmed, the FEIS omitted critical details about how exactly Pebble would avoid harming fish. The agency focused its analysis on Pebble’s 20-year proposal, barely even mentioning potential impacts of expanding the mine. Meanwhile, Pebble consistently told their investors that Pebble Mine will grow beyond the proposal the Army Corps analyzed and will last generations.
Pebble Mine executives were caught on tape saying that they expect the project proposal they have submitted to the federal government to pave the way for as much as 180 years of mining – much more than the 20 years that the proposal states. “Once you have something like this in production, why would you want to stop?” said the chief executive of mine operator Northern Dynasty Minerals in one of several recorded meetings that were made public on Sept. 21, 2020.
On Nov. 25, 2020, the Army Corps denied a key permit for Pebble Mine, essentially finding that the mine would cause significant degradation to the surrounding environment, and that it would not be in the public interest. That decision echoes EPA’s findings under the Obama administration, which the October 2021 court decision frees EPA to act upon by establishing lasting protections against mine-related habitat destruction.
This is a victory for the Alaska Native communities who opposed the mine, wild salmon, families who rely on commercial fishing for their livelihoods, and the irreplaceable Bristol Bay watershed. We expect EPA to follow the clear scientific record and implement lasting protections without delay. 
Earthjustice’s Alaska Office has locations in Juneau and Anchorage.
Famed for its immense wilderness and abundant wildlife, the state is home to our country's only Arctic region, the Tongass National Forest, and a rich Alaska Native culture that dates back millennia. Since 1978, attorneys in our Alaska regional office have safeguarded public lands, waters and wildlife from destructive oil and gas drilling, mining and logging. Learn more.
