GAITHERSBURG, MD ----- The Izaak Walton League of America fully supports the Environmental Protection Agency’s decision to prevent a catastrophic environmental disaster in a unique wilderness ecosystem and one of the world’s most sustainable commercial fisheries.
Today, the EPA issued a Clean Water Act section 404(c) veto of the proposed Pebble Mine in Alaska’s Bristol Bay, ending the threat posed by the mine to one of the world’s largest wild salmon runs.
For over a decade, the League has stood with a coalition of partners that includes Tribes, Alaskan communities, commercial fishermen, and sportsmen to fight the proposed Pebble Mine in Bristol Bay.
With this veto, the EPA is confirming what we and our partners have been saying for years: Bristol Bay’s fish and wildlife are its most valuable and most sustainable natural resources. Putting them at risk for short-term exploitation of minerals imperils more than just salmon and bears, but a unique way of life that can only exist in this place. The 14,000 jobs that depend on a healthy ecosystem in the Bristol Bay watershed only further that point.
The Pebble Mine would irreparably harm the headwaters of Bristol Bay by destroying water quality and habitat in a best-case scenario. A catastrophic failure of the mine’s waste containment would be an unfathomable environmental disaster in one of the world’s most pristine ecosystems.
Founded in 1922, the Izaak Walton League of America fights for clean air and water, healthy fish and wildlife habitat and conservation of soil and other natural resources for future generations. The League’s advocacy has led to many of the bedrock environmental protections achieved in the past century and today plays a unique role in supporting community-based science and local conservation as well as shaping sound national and local policy. See www.iwla.org.
Contact: Michael Reinemer, Director of Communications, mreinemer@iwla.org