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BLM officials in Anchorage should have a progress report ready to send out in a newsletter within three weeks regarding both the management plan and its environmental impact statement, land use planner Patricia McClenahan said April 21.
While more public meetings are not planned until September, when the completed report will be available, the BLM is accepting questions and comments by e-mail at akbayrmp@blm.gov.
The potential for hard rock mining in the Bristol Bay watershed is already a heated topic. Northern Dynasty, a Canadian firm whose largest investor is the London-based Galahad Gold Corp., has approved a $40 million budget for 2006 exploration drilling and environmental studies at its proposed Pebble Mine in that area.
One proposal being considered by the BLM is to remove the withdrawal of lands withheld under the 1971 Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act. "The main reason to lift the use withdrawal on those lands is the withdrawal was only meant to be temporary, until the resource management plan was written, and that is what we are doing now," McClenahan said.
That prospect sets well with miners like Steve Borell, executive director of the Alaska Miners Association. "It would be appropriate to open those lands (to mining exploration)," he said.
"When these withdrawals went into place, the whole countryside was shut down overnight. They were closed for the purpose of evaluating for the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act and the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act," he said. "As (Alaska Native) village corporation lands have been finalized, these lands should be reopened."
Robin Samuelson, chief operating officer for the Bristol Bay Economic Development Corp., said April 24 that his board favors on-shore oil and gas exploration, but not offshore exploration. A major concern is the potential for an oil spill, which would be disastrous to commercial, sport and subsistence fishing, major arteries in the lifeblood of the Bristol Bay economy.
"We looked at Prince William Sound," Samuelson said. "They had all the best things in place, and lo and behold, they had one of the largest oil spills in the U.S., and devastated the communities and the fishermen."
Samuelson said he spoke with officials of Shell Oil Co. two months ago, when they came to Dillingham seeking support for offshore drilling. Samuelson said he asked how much such exploration would lower the cost of fuel and how many people Shell planned to hire locally. "I said give me something concrete that we could hold your feet to the fire if we support it.
"I think that's what the people of Bristol Bay should be asking these guys. I know what we have to lose. They haven't shown me anything we would gain," he said.
Concern about how potential mining might affect the Bristol Bay watershed also has many residents and conservation groups up in arms.
The city of Dillingham on April 20 passed a resolution opposing large-scale mining and, specifically, the proposed Pebble copper/gold mine near Iliamna.
The resolution voiced concern that the headwaters of the Koktuli River would be the primary and permanent storage site for the tailings pond of the proposed mine and within the area known as the "Ring of Fire," an area susceptible to volcanic eruptions and major earthquakes. "The Dillingham City Council supports and encourages economic development and growth provided that it does not endanger our residents' livelihood and our renewable resources," the council said.
On the same day, American Rivers, a Washington D.C.-based environmental group, declared the Bristol Bay watershed the eighth most endangered river system in America. "Plans for the Pebble mine threaten the largest and most productive wild salmon fishery in the world in and around Bristol Bay," the organization said in a news release.
American Rivers, joined by Alaskans for Responsible Mining, the Nondalton Tribal Council, Alaska Sportsman's Lodge and Alaska Independent Fishermen's Association, urged state and federal officials to block the mine proposal.
"In the long run, turning Bristol Bay into a mining district would threaten more jobs and livelihoods than any mine could ever create," said Scott Brennan, spokesman for Alaskans for Responsible Mining. "That's the fundamental difference between renewable and non-renewable resources."
The AMA's Borell scoffed at such arguments. "There is no way it would threaten any fisheries," Borell said.
"The level of permitting that takes place and the scrutiny a mining operation incurs is huge," he said. "There is no way any mining operation is going to be able to adversely affect the fish."
Northern Dynasty is still working on estimating the resource at the Pebble site. Bruce Jenkins, Northern Dynasty's chief operating officer, said the company would tentatively start the state permitting process in 2008.
The 23-million-acre Bristol Bay planning area includes approximately 3.6 million acres of BLM-administered lands. These are large blocks of land and scattered small tracts.
These lands include 1.7 million acres of unencumbered BLM lands, 979,000 acres of Alaska Native-selected lands, and 915,000 acres of state-selected lands. Due to overselections, portions of the Native- and state-selected lands will ultimately be retained as public land.
This plan will provide a comprehensive framework for managing and allocating uses of the BLM-administered public lands and resources within the Bristol Bay and Goodnews Bay areas of Southwest Alaska. The plan will also provide direction for site-specific activity planning in the future. The work in progress is outlined on the BLM Web site at www.blm.gov/ak/ado/BayRMP01.html.
The plan will serve two purposes. First, it will address emerging regional issues such as oil, gas and solid mineral development on BLM-administered lands. Second, it will put in place a land use plan for management of BLM-administered lands within the bay planning area for the next 10 years that is compatible with those of neighboring land managers.
The process began with a notice of intent in the Federal Register in December 2004. Then formal scoping began in early January and extended until the end of March 2005. BLM held public scoping meetings in the larger communities of Dillingham, Anchorage, Soldotna and Homer, as well as in the smaller communities of Aleknagik, Koliganek, Iliamna and Naknek.
Margaret Bauman can be reached at margie.bauman@alaskajournal.com.
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