14 DAY TRIAL // The Environmental Protection Agency in the United States has just released a new report suggesting that, according to evidence at hand, it would be best if Canadian mining company Northern Dynasty's Pebble Mine project were not given the green light.
The Pebble Mine project boils down to said company's plans to build a fairly large gold and copper mine in Alaska's Bristol Bay area.
Over the course of three whole years, specialists working with the Environmental Protection Agency tried to determine how a large gold and copper mine operating in this region would harm ecosystems in its proximity, and their results are a tad worrying.
Thus, Anchorage Daily News reports that, should an open pit mine be built in the Bristol Bay area, roughly 24 – 94 miles (roughly 38.6 – 151.3 kilometers) of streams that support red salmon population are bound to be destroyed.
Besides, 1,300 - 5,350 acres (approximately 526 – 2,165 hectares) of wetlands, ponds and lakes also risk being negatively affected by such a project, the same source details.
In its report, the Agency details that this damage done to the environment would result from the construction of the mine alone.
Thus, once the mine becomes operational, ecosystems in its proximity are very likely to be further harmed by it.
Given the fact that, as shown by reports pieced together by wildlife researchers, half of the world's current red salmon population comes from the Bristol Bay region, it is no wonder that environmentalists strongly oppose plans to mine the area.
What's more, it would appear that several native groups are not all that fond of such initiatives either.
“There are clear losses of habitat from the mine footprint and from the mining activities themselves,” Dennis McLerran with the Environmental Protection Agency reportedly said in a recent interview.
“[The mine poses] significant risks to fish and wildlife and the cultures that are there,” the specialist went on to comment on the ecological footprint of one such project.
The report concerning how mining in the Bristol Bay area would affect salmon population and ecosystems in the region does not specifically target the Pebble Mine project. It does, however, fuel opposition against it.