September, 06 2022, 08:00pm EDT
Bristol Bay Defense Fund Celebrates More Than Half a Million Public Comments Urging EPA to Protect Bristol Bay, End the Threat of Pebble Mine Now
Today, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) concluded its comment period on the Proposed Determination (PD) outlining potential protections for Bristol Bay. More than half a million people- including a record 30,000 Alaskans and 2,500 Bristol Bay residents-spoke out to once again resoundingly reject Pebble Mine.
DILLINGHAM, Alaska
Today, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) concluded its comment period on the Proposed Determination (PD) outlining potential protections for Bristol Bay. More than half a million people- including a record 30,000 Alaskans and 2,500 Bristol Bay residents-spoke out to once again resoundingly reject Pebble Mine.
Over the last decade, and seven federal comment periods, Americans including Bristol Bay residents, Tribal members, commercial fishermen, sportfishermen, conservation advocates, chefs, investors, businesses, faith-based groups, and more have raised their voices nearly 4 million times to urge the EPA to protect Bristol Bay from the threat of Pebble Mine.
The end of the comment period brings the EPA one step closer to finalizing 404(c) Clean Water Act protections for the region. The federal agency will now consider public input and should release a Recommended Determination (RD), followed by a Final Determination, which provides comprehensive protections for the headwaters of Bristol Bay this year.
For more than a year, the Bristol Bay Defense Fund has called on the EPA to "Finish the Job" of protecting Bristol Bay by this summer's fishing season. The clear and consistent call has been met with numerous delays to the 404(c) Clean Water Act process.
In response, Tribes, commercial fishermen, and conservation groups issued the following statements:
"During the busiest season of the year, amidst a record-breaking salmon run, the people of Bristol Bay once again made it clear that EPA must finalize strong protections for our watershed and end the threat of Pebble Mine for good," said UTBB Executive Director Alannah Hurley. "Year after year, in every comment period and hearing held, over 95 percent of all comments and testimony call on the EPA to protect the pristine waters of Bristol Bay. Waters that sustain our indigenous way of life, provide half the world's sockeye salmon, and contribute thousands of sustainable jobs year after year. The science and record are clear, EPA must finalize strong protections for our headwaters by the end of this year."
"While thousands of fishermen and processing workers were working hard to deliver a record-breaking 59.5 million wild sockeye salmon to the market, we also made the time to submit comments to the EPA on their Proposed Determination for the Bristol Bay region. Yet again, this pristine watershed has allowed us to feed the world, but as long as we are threatened by Pebble Mine, our industry suffers. We cannot allow one more fishing season to pass with the Pebble Mine looming over our heads. The EPA must take into account the hundreds of thousands of public comments from Tribes, fishermen, and members of the community and finalize Clean Water Act protections by the end of this year," said Katherine Carscallen, Executive Director of Commercial Fishermen for Bristol Bay.
"It is no surprise that half a million people submitted comments to the EPA telling them to finalize Clean Water Act protections--especially after this summer's record-breaking fishing season made it clear how important protecting this special place really is. Tribes, fishermen, and communities worldwide have shown up and supported durable protections for Bristol Bay every single time the EPA has asked us to. We've done our part; it's now up to the EPA to finally finish the job and defend Bristol Bay from the threat of Pebble Mine," said Tim Bristol, Executive Director of SalmonState.
"EPA has a wealth of compelling reasons to veto the Pebble Mine," said Joel Reynolds, Western Director and Senior Attorney for NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council). "This summer an all-time record of 78.4 million wild salmon returned to Bristol Bay, and over half a million people submitted comments demanding EPA action now. It's time for the EPA to finish the job that it began over a decade ago to protect this national treasure--and the people and wildlife it sustains."
Additional Information:
On August 10, 2022, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game released the final daily run summary for the 2022 fishing season. An estimated 78.4 million sockeye salmon returned to the Bay and its rivers, breaking the previous record of 67.7 million sockeye salmon set in 2021. These record-breaking numbers are due to thousands of years of Indigenous stewardship and sustainable management that has kept the region unpolluted and pristine.
Recently, 122 organizations representing millions of members sent a letter to EPA Administrator Michael Regan and EPA Region 10 Administrator Casey Sixkiller. The letters urge these EPA leaders to promptly issue a Final Determination that provides comprehensive protections for Bristol Bay and the people who depend on it.
For two decades, Tribal groups have led the fight to protect Bristol Bay from the threat of Pebble Mine. If fully built, Pebble Mine would produce up to 10.2 billion tons of toxic waste that would remain on-site forever. Bristol Bay salmon sustains the cultural and spiritual identity of the tribes in the area, provides more than 50 percent of the world's sockeye salmon, supports an economy valued at over $2.2 billion, and employs 15,000 people in commercial fishing, and thousands more in hunting, sportfishing, outdoor recreation, and tourism.
NRDC works to safeguard the earth--its people, its plants and animals, and the natural systems on which all life depends. We combine the power of more than three million members and online activists with the expertise of some 700 scientists, lawyers, and policy advocates across the globe to ensure the rights of all people to the air, the water, and the wild.
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'This Is What We're Funding': At Least 50 Children Killed in Israeli Strikes on Jabalia
"Civilians and civilian structures... must always be protected in accordance with international humanitarian law," said the head of UNICEF. "Yet these principles are being flouted over and over again."
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The United Nations children's agency on Saturday condemned the Israel Defense Forces' "indiscriminate strikes on civilians in the Gaza Strip" after at least 50 children were reportedly among those killed in attacks on Jabalia refugee camp in the northern part of the enclave.
Northern Gaza has been under siege since early October, when Israel resumed its attacks there, claiming it was targeting Hamas militants.
The current situation in northern Gaza has been called "apocalyptic" by leading humanitarian groups in recent days, with women and children making up the majority of the hundreds of people killed, and Israel imposing a near-total blockade on humanitarian aid.
Now, said Catherine Russell, executive director of the U.N. Children's Fund (UNICEF), "the entire Palestinian population in North Gaza, especially children, is at imminent risk of dying from disease, famine, and the ongoing bombardments."
In addition to the attacks on residential buildings this weekend in Jabalia, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported that an attack on a healthcare center in Gaza City injured at least six people, including four children. The facility was participating in a polio vaccination drive, the second round of inoculations for children across Gaza.
"The Sheikh Radwan primary healthcare center in northern Gaza was struck today while parents were bringing their children to [get] the life-saving polio vaccination in an area where a humanitarian pause was agreed to allow vaccination to proceed," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said. "These vital humanitarian-area-specific pauses must be absolutely respected. Ceasefire!"
Russell said the vehicle of a UNICEF staffer who was working on the vaccination campaign was attacked by "what we believe to be a quadcopter while driving through Jabalia—Elnazla."
The staff member was not injured, but Russell said "the attacks on Jabalia, the vaccination clinic, and the UNICEF staff member are yet further examples of the grave consequences of the indiscriminate strikes on civilians in the Gaza Strip."
"Civilians and civilian structures, including residential buildings, as well as humanitarian workers and their vehicles, must always be protected in accordance with international humanitarian law," said Russell. "Yet these principles are being flouted over and over again, leaving tens of thousands of children killed, injured, and deprived of essential services needed for survival."
The Gaza Health Ministry reports that at least 43,341 people have been killed in Gaza and at least 102,105 have been injured since Israel began its assault on the enclave more than a year ago in retaliation for a Hamas-led attack. Women and children make up most of those killed, even as Israel and the United States, the largest international supporter of the IDF, have insisted the military is targeting Hamas.
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Rights advocates were energized by the "gold standard" poll results, but called on progressives to continue working to turn out voters.
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Political observers expressed shock Saturday evening as the Des Moines Register released its final poll before Election Day showing Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris leading Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump by three points.
Harris was supported by 47% of respondents compared to 44% who backed Trump.
The newspaper's poll, conducted by pollster J. Ann Selzer, is widely regarded as the "gold standard" survey of voters in the state and has been recognized as "predicting" numerous election results in Iowa and giving a potential preview of how candidates could fare in other Midwestern states with similar demographics.
Progressive advocates cautioned against placing too much faith in a single poll—even a widely respected one—and urged Harris supporters to continue canvassing, phone-banking, and taking action to defeat Trump and the far-right MAGA movement.
But the unexpected result in a state that hasn't been considered a swing state in this election, and was widely assumed to be a Trump-supporting state, led political observers to look closely at the poll, which showed significant shifts toward Harris among women.
Women aged 65 and older supported Harris over Trump, 63% to 28%, in the poll. Women who identify as political independents also backed her, 57% to 29%.
Overall, women in the state are backing Harris in the poll by a margin of 20 points, according to the survey.
Lyz Lenz, a journalist based in Iowa, said she believed the poll could be linked to one major change in Iowa since the last presidential election: the six-week abortion ban that took effect in July, banning abortion care after fetal cardiac activity can be detected. Similar abortion bans have been blamed for at least four deaths of pregnant women in Texas and Georgia.
"It's the abortion ban," said Lenz. "Women are furious."
Daniel Nichanian, editor-in-chief and founder of the digital magazine Bolts, said the result could preview losses for state Supreme Court justices who have upheld abortion bans in a number of states, including Iowa.
In 10 states this year, voters will make their voices heard on ballot initiatives regarding the right to abortion care. In traditionally red states including Kansas and Kentucky since Roe was overturned, people have voted to protect the right to obtain an abortion.
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Selzer herself told the BBC that many respondents talked about abortion rights.
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Sean Trende, senior elections analyst for RealClearPolitics, said it would be "foolish to dismiss [Selzer's] poll," but cautioned election watchers against abandoning "all of [their] prior views about the state of the race."
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"Dr. Davis, what do I do?" asks a man frantically, kneeling near his partner as she writhes in pain on the floor.
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The scenario plays out in the latest ad from Progress Action Fund, a Democratic political action committee that's produced a number of viral videos focusing on how Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump's policies and those outlined in the right-wing agenda Project 2025 would impact both men and women's ability to make private decisions.
In the ad, the Republican lawmaker tells the man, "I won the last election, so it's my decision" whether the woman is able to receive the standard care needed to end her pregnancy.
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Watch:
The ad went viral on social media late Saturday, the day after ProPublica reported on Nevaeh Crain, an 18-year-old in Texas who died last year at six months pregnant, when she was diagnosed with sepsis—a fast-moving and potentially deadly condition that can result from an infection.
Because of Texas' six-week abortion ban, which threatens doctors with prison time if they terminate a pregnancy before a fetal heartbeat has stopped, Crain made three emergency room visits and was required to have multiple ultrasounds as she became increasingly ill. By the time doctors confirmed "fetal demise," Crain's organs had begun failing. She died hours later.
The investigative outlet has also reported on the deaths of another woman in Texas—Josseli Barnica—and two women in Georgia, Amber Nicole Thurman and Candi Miller—from state abortion bans since Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022.
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Abortion bans and restrictions like those in Texas now exist in 21 states. Both Trump and his running mate, Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) have expressed support for a nationwide ban on abortion care—a position from which they have both attempted to distance themselves as polls have increasingly shown a majority of voters support access to abortion care.
Other viral ads by Progress Action Fund have been more risqué and have even used absurdist humor to warn voters about Project 2025's proposal to ban pornography and emergency contraception.
With two days to go until Election Day, the "terrifying but important" ad released Saturday shows that "MAGA abortion bans are killing our wives, mothers, sisters, and daughters," said nonprofit progressive advocacy group DemCast.
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