Bob Shavelson, director of Cook Inletkeeper, which works to protect the Cook Inlet watershed, says Bristol Bay region residents should watch how the state moves on the Chuitna Coal Mine project proposed by PacRim Coal LP, because decisions there could influence permitting decisions at the Pebble mine north of Iliamna.
In that regard, state officials now have to deal with three new scientific reports debunking PacRim’s claims that after strip mining through 11 miles of salmon streams (tributaries to the Chuit River) and disrupting huge swaths of verdant, wildlife-rich wetlands they can restore those systems to their former pristine natures.
The author of one report, Dr. Margaret Palmer, professor of Entomology and Biology at the University of Maryland, said, “There is no scientific evidence that wetlands or streams can be put back together to be living, healthy ecosystems after the kind of mining impacts described in the PacRim reports. The science just isn’t there. Experimentation should not be confused with sound, science-based knowledge.”
If permitted, the Chuitna mine would be the first ever allowed in Alaska to strip mine through an active salmon stream.
Palmer along with fisheries biologist Lance Trasky, who has 32 years experience with Alaska fisheries, and Dr. Mark Wipfli, currently associated professor with the University of Alaska Fairbanks, say stream restoration following mining is impossible and that an extensive search of scientific literature turned up no example where restoration has ever worked.
Further, the scientists report that PacRim’s surface and groundwater studies are inadequate for determining what mining operations would do to the Chuit River, its food webs, or to its critically important topology and ecology. The river system is home to spawning and rearing grounds for all five species of Pacific salmon, and an important source of fish for commercial, sport and subsistence economies in Cook Inlet.
Such matters are also forefront in the debate over the possible and likely impacts of Pebble mine, which would be built in the headwaters of Bristol Bay, home to the richest sockeye salmon run in the world. Loss of those systems from mine pollution would devestate Bristol Bay fisheries.
Tags: Add new tag, bristol bay, pebble mine, salmon
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