Keep corporate polluters from destroying Bristol Bay!

Last year, the Clean Water Act permit for Pebble Mine was denied. But the company behind the project is still pushing for it -- at the expense of the Indigenous communities that call Bristol Bay home.

The EPA could step in to protect Bristol Bay from the threat of large-scale mining polluters. But it has barely begun to take action. Will you demand the EPA stop all threats to this iconic region?

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Dear Administrator Regan:

I write to thank you for seeking remand and vacatur of the Trump Administration’s decision to withdraw EPA’s 2014 Proposed Determination issued under Section 404(c) of the Clean Water Act. Given U.S. District Court Judge Gleason’s recent ruling in Bristol Bay Economic Dev. Corp. v. Pirzadeh, et al. reinstating the 2014 Proposed Determination, I now ask the EPA to take immediate action under Section 404(c) to finish the job it started in 2014 and protect Bristol Bay from large-scale mining like the Pebble Mine.

This request echoes and amplifies the letters sent in October 2021 from United Tribes of Bristol Bay, Bristol Bay Native Association, Bristol Bay Native Corporation, and Bristol Bay Economic Development Corporation urging EPA to complete the Section 404(c) process before the start of the 2022 Bristol Bay fishing season.

Last season, Bristol Bay shattered records and celebrated the return of 66 million salmon. Integral to that extraordinary run is the environmental sustainability of the region—something the science unequivocally confirms that the proposed Pebble Mine would jeopardize. Bristol Bay is home to the world’s largest wild sockeye salmon fishery, supplies 57 percent of the world’s wild sockeye salmon, generates $2.2 billion annually, and supports 15,000 American jobs.

But salmon are more than the economic engine of the region: Salmon are life in Bristol Bay. As they have for millennia, the wild salmon returning each year to Bristol Bay ensure Alaska Native communities’ ways of life. Salmon feed its people, anchor its culture, sustain its wildlife, and are indispensable to both the practical and spiritual wellbeing of Bristol Bay’s indigenous peoples. Given what’s at stake, there is no question that EPA has the support of the people to move diligently and quickly under Section 404(c) to protect Bristol Bay from large-scale mining like the Pebble Mine. And given the clear science and existing administrative record supporting immediate 404(c) action—coupled with both the Ninth Circuit’s decision concerning the Trump Administration’s 404(c) withdrawal and Judge Gleason’s order granting EPA’s motion for remand and vacatur—there is no question that EPA’s decision to resume the 404(c) process is the right one.

I look forward to seeing swift EPA action and a robust administrative process that ensures the people of Bristol Bay can begin the 2022 fishing season with durable 404(c) Clean Water Act protections in place.

Sincerely,

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