Bristol Bay Watershed

Bristol Bay watershed and headwaters include Nushagak River, Kvichak River, Mulchatna River(flows into Nushagak River), Alagnak River, Stuyahok River(flows into Mulchatna River), Koktuli River(flows into Mulchatna River), Upper and Lower Tularik Creeks(flows into Kvichak River), Lake Clark, Lake Iliamna(Alaskas largest freshwater lake).These rivers and lakes provide for the world famous Bristol Bay commercial salmon and sport fishing. All five species of Pacific wild salmon spawn in these rivers and lakes. The Kvichak has the largest sockeye salmon return in the world, and the Nushagak has Alaskas, and possible the worlds largest chinook(king salmon) return. Upper and Lower Talarik creeks is the only designated trophy trout area for the region. Other fish species such as Arctic Char, Northern Pike, Artic Grayling, Dolly Varden, world class trophy Rainbow, and many types of White Fish. Along with the wild salmon and trout and many different types of freshwater fish, there is moose, caribou(Mulchatna Caribou Herd numbers over 100,000 and is Alaskas 3rd largest), brown bear, fox, mink, bald eagles, migrating geese and ducks, freshwater seals(1 of only 2 populations in the world), river otter, porcupine, wolverine, and beaver. The wildlife habitat have provided a subsistence lifestyle for the local Alaska native tribes for 1000's of years, and provided billions of dollars for the commercial and sport fishing/hunting industries. Northern Dynasty Mines, a Canadian mining company, announced plans to obtain permits to open the largest open pit gold/copper/molybdenum mine in North America, and to build one of the largest earthen dam to hold toxic waste right at the headwaters of the Upper and Lower Talarik Creeks, and applied for water rights to the Koktuli River. They claim they have been doing studies for years and spent upwards of $70 million on those studies. The open pit mine itself is predicted to be at least 4 miles long and 2.5 miles wide with a depth of 1300 feet. Chemicals, mainly cyanide to seperate gold from ore is proposed, and a tailings dam, roughly 20 square miles would be built to hold these toxic chemicals, right next to the holding area for the mine rock, active rock, which can release sulfuric acid once in contact with air and water will be stored under water. With all these, they claim no net loss for any fish and wildlife in the proposed area. Bureau of Land Management is watching closely on this project, if and when it is permitted, they propose the Bristol Bay mining district, opening more gold and copper mines throughout the region. In my opinion, this is like mixing clorox with ammonia, the two simply cannot co-exist. It is hard for me to believe that some local communities fail to look at the big picture, and endorse this project simply because it can provide jobs for the next 50-60 years. I guess money talks when it comes to wildlife management.