NDM - State official says Pebble exploration not a threat

DESPITE ALL THE flapdoodle about risks to the Bristol Bay fishery from development of the huge Pebble ore deposit, state regulators overseeing mine operations say there is no reason to block the ongoing exploration drilling at the ore body.

They aren't ready to sign off yet on approving the actual mining and development operations. That's no surprise since the Pebble people haven't decided how the mine would be developed. The two primary possibilities appear to be open pit mining or underground tunneling.

Ballot measure 4, the item on the Aug. 26 primary ballot that has everybody stirred up, isn't specific about which type of mining its sponsors would hate most. And Tom Crafford, large mine project manager for the Department of Natural Resources, said the operating rules for development will be written once a development proposal is received.

Obviously a lot is at stake with Pebble. It appears to be one of the largest copper, gold and molybdenum deposits in the world. Developing it would make the mine a major employer for the region and a force in the Alaskan economy. The worrisome aspect is that the waterways near and below the mine eventually run into Bristol Bay, perhaps the greatest salmon fishery in the world.

Those two great resources — the mine and the fishery — need not conflict with each other. Whether they do or not depends on how the mine is developed, but make no mistake — it should be developed in an environmentally sound manner in the interests of the people of the region and all Alaskans.

When the time to make development decisions comes, it will be absolutely crucial that tailings be disposed of in a way that makes it all but impossible for the potentially toxic materials to be exposed to the air and released into the waterways.

Keeping the tailings from being exposed to the air is critical and quite possible. The expected method will be to cover them with water behind an earthen and rock dam, one not susceptible to earthquakes. Built properly, such a dam would not break but simply shake in an earthquake, settling down to continue its job of holding back the water and keeping the tailings from being exposed to the atmosphere.

Such water impoundments are often stocked with trout, a sure sign that the water is not harmful to fish. The trout are the fishy equivalent of the canary in the coal mine.

Making sure that Pebble development does not harm the Bristol Bay fishery will be a high priority for both regulators and the mine operators. That is very much an achievable goal, one worth pursuing.

In the meantime, Alaska voters would do well to vote against ballot measure 4 when the time comes. Let the Pebble prospect be thoroughly explored, take a look at how the mine operators propose to operate and let regulators make decisions then based on reality and not the hysteria being generated by Pebble opponents.

It would be the fair way, one good for the people of the region and for the state as a whole.