On the last day of the legislative session, Alaska Speaker of the House and Bristol Bay representative Bryce Edgmon introduced a bill to ban metal mining in the Bristol Bay watershed – including the controversial Pebble Mine.
House Bill 233 still has a long way to go before it could become law. But, if passed, it would be the region's first state-level restriction on metallic sulfide mining.
There are more than 20 active mining claims across the watershed, home to the world's largest sockeye salmon run. That includes Northern Dynasty Minerals’ proposed Pebble Mine — which remains under consideration after more than 20 years despite local, state and federal challenges.
“The bill itself, I think, is a vehicle to continue the fight against the Pebble Mine,” Edgmon said. “Whether or not it advances or whether it just sits there and makes a very large statement that the region by and large is opposed to the mine.”
The bill, co-sponsored by House Representatives Andy Josephson and Sara Hannan, builds on a 1972 state law that established the Bristol Bay Fisheries Reserve to protect the watershed against oil and gas drilling. In the past few decades, several bills have been introduced to ban metals mining, too, but none became law.
Edgmon says this bill will likely meet a similar fate, but he says it’s still important for the region.
“The purpose of putting the bill in was to basically tell the states, and others, possibly investors — anyone that may be pro-Pebble Mine — that the region is still very concerned about this issue,” Edgmon said. “It hasn't gone away, we are still fighting it.”
Local organizations, including tribal groups and fishing industry experts, have come out in support of the bill.
The United Tribes of Bristol Bay represents 15 federally recognized tribes and more than three-quarters of the population in the region. The organization has been fighting mining operations in the watershed since the early 2000s.
“Our people and our region should not be condemned to decades of fighting mining proposals,” said Alannah Hurley, the organization’s executive director. “And if this bill passes in the next legislative session it is a liberation bill for the people and others who are sustained by this region.”
Hurley says protections so far have been piecemeal, and a bill like this would provide broader watershed-wide protections.
“It also means, for us, the opportunity to shift our focus and our energy from fighting to protect our ways of life to really working towards building sustainable futures for our people,” Hurley said.
The House Fisheries and Resources committees will review the bill when the Legislature reconvenes next January.
If it passes the House, it must then make it through the Senate and be signed by the governor to become law.
