TRUTH SQUAD
Alaska Mine: Anatomy of a Bad Idea
P
ebble Partnership, an international consortium of mining giants, is pushing
to construct a gold and copper mine near Alaska’s Bristol Bay, threatening not only a majestic and stunning landscape but also the world’s largest wild sockeye salmon fishery. The Pebble Partnership puts a positive spin on the project in a document on its website titled “Why Mine?” Taryn Kiekow, a staff attorney with NRDC’s marine mammal protection project, responds— and explains why not to mine.
For the Wolves nrdc’s legacy leaders
Job creation alone isn’t a good reason to mine. It’s about helping America affordably meet its future demand for copper and other minerals. fo r
T h at ’s su re
And yes, it’s also about doing it profitably, because that’s the role of private enterprise. A ver y happy side effect of that demand is that Peb ble will need about 1,000 full time emp loyees for the first 20–25 years to realiz e the Deposit’s potential. Pebble is a world-class Dep osit with the potential to employ gen erations. Additionally, many jobs wil l continue for years after closure, through the final reclamation phase of site operation.
m is le ad in g
* Pebble Mine would
risk more jobs than it would ever create. The Bristol Bay salmon fishery is worth $1.5 billion per year and supports more than 12,000 jobs. Salmon are the economic backbone of the entire region, supporting commercial and sports fishing as well as a subsistence-based native culture.
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FALL 2013
* For the foreign mining consortium seeking to exploit the Pebble deposit, it is all about profit. Yet more than 100 jewelers, including Tiffany & Co., Zale, and Helzberg Diamonds, have pledged to protect Bristol Bay by not using gold from Pebble Mine in their jewelry.
* Pebble CEO John
Shively has said “the government or somebody else”may have to handle the environmental aftermath of the mine if “we’re not available to work on closure.” If so, cleanup and remediation would indeed create jobs—at the expense of American taxpayers.
*The mine, and its
10 billion tons of contaminated waste, would have to be maintained forever. While mines exist in perpetuity, mining companies do not. The EPA has found that mine closure would require “hundreds to thousands of years of monitoring, maintenance, and treatment.”
to take the legacy challenge, or to let us know NRDC already has a place in your plans, please contact Michelle Mulia-Howell at legacygifts@nrdc.org or 212-727-4421.
DLILLC/Corbis
N o ki dd in g!
Challenge has raised more than $820,000 in matching funds for the protection of wildlife. Right now, when members include NRDC in their estate plans, a member of our board of trustees will contribute a matching gift of up to $10,000 to help save wildlife and wildlands. Nearly 200 members have already taken the challenge. The challenge comes at a particularly critical moment for our endangered wilderness heritage. In the weeks and months ahead, NRDC will increase pressure on the Obama administration to maintain essential federal protections for wolves and help their populations recover across the Lower 48, and will fight in federal court to block oil and gas drilling off the coast of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, the polar bear’s favorite onshore birthing ground. “It’s inspiring to speak to members who are so passionate about saving wilderness and wildlife and who want to help ensure that NRDC will be able to protect our environment for generations to come,” says Michelle MuliaHowell, NRDC’s director of gift planning. “The Legacy Leaders Challenge gives them that opportunity to have an even greater impact on saving those national treasures.”