Sad Day For Bristol Bay

Got this from Brian Kraft via e-mail today.
"Prop #4 was our "Clean Water" initiative which simply said that large scale open pit mining could not put toxins into salmon bearing streams nor could they store potentially toxic material within a 1,000 yards of a salmon bearing stream. Prior to Palin's comments we were ahead in the polls 55-45. The end vote was 56-44 the other way?so we lost. This would not have 'killed' Pebble but it would have raised the bar for them to have to comply with."
Brian Kraft
Owner / Operator Alaska Sportsman's Lodge
Alaska Sportsman's Bear Trail Lodge
Kodiak Sportsman?s Lodge
SW Alaska Project Director for Trout Unlimited

This almost assures that the Pebble Mine will come to be.
The loss of habitat for salmon and other game could be staggering for Alaska. :(

There is a full write up on it on http://www.thisisfly.com/ pg 69

More articles at http://www.thisisfly.com/blog/?p=1275

It's really too bad.

I am truly sorry to hear that. I hope the fight isn't over. This mine approval is so short sighted, it amazes me it can have that much support.

The fight is far from over and Prop 4 was hardly the right answer, even if it had passed. It is a clear case of why initiatives fomented outside the state seldom make sense. Prop 4 defined large mines as those over 640 acres, which seems a lot, but a typical claim is a quarter-section, 160 acres, and when gold is found claims are staked along as much of the creek as possible and getting 5 claims in a row is very common. Prop 4 would suddenly put a large percentage of mines in a more expensive spot.

The scale is unfathomable and the risk is simply not worth it and it will ruin salmon runs, period, no guessing...
art

Here's a good article about Pebble Mine and the histories of open pit mines:

http://www.orvis.com/intro.asp?subje..._pla=01&bhcp=1