Biden's EPA Proposes Permanent Protection For Bristol Bay, World's Largest Surviving Salmon Fishery
The Biden administration announced Wednesday that it will protect waters in Alaska that are home to one of the world’s biggest salmon spawning grounds, the culmination of a long-running dispute that pitted Alaska Natives against mining interests. The proposal from the Environmental Protection Agency is a potentially fatal blow to a plan to mine in the Bristol Bay watershed for gold, copper and other valuable metals.
Bristol Bay, which sustains an annual run of 37.5 million sockeye salmon, helps support a $2 billion commercial fishing industry as well as a way of life for Alaska Natives, who have vigorously opposed the construction of the Pebble Mine. The EPA’s action, if finalized, may finally put an end to a more than decade-long legal and political tussle over the fate of this corner of southern Alaska as President Biden strives to protect a greater share of the nation’s wilderness.
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Using a rarely invoked authority under the Clean Water Act to protect wetlands from being polluted with dumped waste, agency officials aim to ban the disposal of mining debris within the 308-square-mile footprint of the proposed project.
Over that ore deposit sit waters that teem with coho, chum and, most notably, sockeye salmon. The fish have been a source of food for southwest Alaska’s Indigenous people for generations and today attract big-spending fishing enthusiasts from around the world.
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2022/05/25/biden-epa-bristol-bay-salmon/