Salmon Take Center Stage in Testimony
By Elizabeth Bluemink, Anchorage Daily News, Alaska
Mar. 1–Rural villagers from Southwest Alaska launched a passionate debate in Juneau on Wednesday over sweeping new legislation to protect salmon and restrict mining in their region.
A legislative panel listened for 2 1/2 hours as villagers shared their economic woes and weighed in on the pros and cons of the controversial Pebble copper and gold mineral prospect.
The potential for developing Pebble as a massive mine has erupted as a statewide controversy because of its proximity to some of the state’s largest salmon fisheries. But Pebble is also attracting national attention: It’s in the headwaters of the world’s largest sockeye salmon fishery and some world-class sportfishing streams.
The bill’s main sponsor, Rep. Bryce Edgmon, D-Dillingham, said Wednesday that his bill would ensure salmon get the top priority in Bristol Bay. Current state laws aren’t strong enough to protect the fish from environmental problems caused by mining, he said.
The bill would prohibit anyone from withdrawing or polluting water in the drainages of five salmon-rich Bristol Bay rivers: the Nushagak, Kvichak, Naknek, Egegik and Ugashik. The bill would allow some exceptions for traditional uses such as drinking water and seafood processing. It also would allow the state to penalize a company polluting the streams up to $1 million per day.
The company exploring Pebble, Canada-based Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd., has previously said Edgmon’s bill would prevent it from developing Pebble. Company executives did not testify Wednesday.
Legislators gave Bristol Bay village residents who flew to Juneau the first chance to weigh in on Edgmon’s bill. About 30 other people waited for their chance to testify by phone. Testimony on the bill will continue Friday.
The villagers who spoke out Wednesday were deeply divided on House Bill 134, called the Alaska Wild Salmon Protection Act.
Some said the bill would protect the region’s most precious resource — salmon — for their children and grandchildren.
“My family has lived of the land for years. … (We) eat the fish. It’s a mechanism to survive. We can’t go to the grocery stores like you guys,” said Rae Bell Whitcomb, a Dillingham resident.
Other village residents said the bill would choke off any economic development in towns like South Naknek, which has lost two-thirds of its population and its school, according to town assembly member Eva Nielson-King.
“Be prepared to write a lot of welfare checks,” she said.
Some, like Trefon Angasan, a Northern Dynasty employee from South Naknek, said the bill would even harm subsistence if it required refuge-style management. “Subsistence is not regulated as a priority on refuges,” Angasan said.
Fisheries Committee Chairman Paul Seaton, R-Homer, said the type of state management required by the bill was unclear and he would ask for clarification from legislative lawyers.
Lake and Peninsula Borough Mayor Glen Alsworth told the legislators the borough won’t allow healthy fish and clean water to be sacrificed for other development projects. “I would vote to table (the bill). I think there’s a much better way,” he said.
The bill is one of two new Bristol Bay protection bills before the Legislature this year.
A bill in the Senate would establish the Jay Hammond State Game Refuge to protect fish and wildlife populations on 5 million to 7 million acres of state land. That bill hasn’t been scheduled for a hearing.
The rural testimony Wednesday bore out many sore points in rural Southwest Alaska.
For example, villagers said their income has been damaged by increasing limits on commercial fishing and they are irked by low Native hire at sportfishing lodges and seafood processors.
“If you were in our shoes, wouldn’t you support any kind of resource development?” said Lorianne Rawson, tribal administrator for South Naknek.
Rawson said her family cannot meet its annual income needs from commercial fishing anymore. “Our season used to go the whole summer. Now, it’s only four-and-a-half weeks,” she said.
Others testified that too much land in the region has already been designated as parks or refuges.
Some special interest groups also testified on the bill, including the Alaska Miners Association, which opposes it, and the Renewable Resources Coalition and a couple of commercial fishing groups, which support it.
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