BBDF Press Release: Bristol Bay Defense Fund Launches $100k Ad Campaign Urging EPA to Veto Pebble Mine and Finish the Job
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 22, 2022
Press Contact: Grace Nolan, grace@team-arc.com
Bristol Bay Defense Fund Launches $100k Ad Campaign Urging EPA to Veto Pebble Mine and Finish the Job
New television, print, and digital ad campaign urges EPA to veto Pebble Mine and finish the job by this summer’s fishing season
**VIEW TV / PRINT / DIGITAL ADS **
(Washington, DC/Alaska) – Today, the Bristol Bay Defense Fund launched a new $100k digital, print, and television ad campaign that urges the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to veto Pebble Mine and finish the job of protecting Bristol Bay. The ads will run in Washington, DC and Alaska, with a large presence in Juneau, Alaska. The ads state “EPA has the power to provide immediate protections for this critical watershed and kill Pebble Mine for good by this summer’s fishing season” and “Two-thirds of Alaskans agree it’s time to end the threat of Pebble Mine through EPA’s Clean Water Act authority or an Act of Congress–whatever it takes to get it done.”
These new ads build on a nearly year-long effort to encourage the Biden administration and EPA to finalize 404(c) Clean Water Act protections and “finish the job” to protect Bristol Bay before the start of the next fishing season. Recently, the EPA indicated it will issue a revised Clean Water Act 404(c) Proposed Determination (PD) for Alaska’s watershed by May 31, 2022. This would be a significant step backward and threatens to further delay the timeline requested by Tribes, fishermen, and Alaskan communities. Both President Biden and EPA Administrator Regan have publicly committed to protecting Bristol Bay, and they have the power to stop Pebble Mine by summer.
“The Biden administration and the Environmental Protection Agency must “finish the job” and put in place durable protections for Bristol Bay. We have asked EPA to finish the Clean Water Act 404(c) process by the summer on numerous occasions, but the agency could further delay the process, ignoring the requests of Tribes, fishermen, and Alaskan communities. Our salmon runs sustain our way of life and feed Americans from coast to coast while contributing billions to the American economy. EPA must use its power under the Clean Water Act to protect Bristol Bay and end Pebble Mine for good,” said Alannah Hurley, Executive Director of United Tribes of Bristol Bay.
Additional Background:
Bristol Bay and its pristine landscape are home to some of America’s most important and valuable waters, including record-shattering salmon runs that provide nearly 60 percent of the world’s wild sockeye salmon. The Bay and its salmon play a central role in the cultural and spiritual identity of tribes in the area and employ tens of thousands of people in commercial fishing, hunting and sportfishing, outdoor recreation, and tourism.
For decades, Tribes, fishermen, and the people of Bristol Bay have lived with the cloud of Pebble Mine over their head. Pebble Mine is a proposed massive open pit mine at the headwaters of the Bay that would produce up to 10.2 billion tons of toxic waste that would contaminate the site forever, threatening to destroy the entire watershed, the salmon, and the Indigenous communities that have called this area home for millennia.
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