(Submissions welcome. Contact Protect Imuruk by email)
BIG RISKS, BIG CONCERNS
For thousands of years, Inupiat families have relied on the Bering Sea-to-Imuruk Basin Waterway for hunting, fishing, and gathering berries and greens. These subsistence practices remain essential to their survival.
A Canadian company called Graphite One has proposed a mine near the Imuruk Basin that features a 3-mile-long by 2-mile-wide operational site footprint. Their 1.1-mile-long, 1,340-foot-deep pit would be the largest artificial excavation in Alaska history.
The Bering Sea-to-Imuruk Basin Waterway is vital to five species of salmon. The nearest spawning stream is just 1.5 miles from the proposed mine site.
To protect their main subsistence area, residents of Brevig Mission and Teller have insisted that the company NOT use the Bering Sea-to-Imuruk Basin Waterway for any barging operations.
Families are concerned that waves from barges could alter salmon migration patterns and upset their fish camp nets. The waterway is narrow and shallow in places and often has turbulent, erratic flow. These factors increase the risk of oil spills.
The company desires a “temporary” construction pad the size of nearly 4 American professional football fields at water’s edge on Imuruk Basin. This would permanently alter the environment there.
Tribal members have stated that trading short-term, single-generation employment for a “forever” hole filled with the mining company’s waste products is a very bad deal!
One local elder has stated, “We can’t eat money.”
The company wants to build a 19-mile-long road leading to the proposed mine. Inadequate consultation with local tribes has increased the risk of damage to ancient cultural sites.
The company plans to build an 850,000-gallon oil tank at the mine site on constantly shifting permafrost. Arctic ecosystems are experiencing increased natural permafrost degradation, which increases the chances of fuel container failures.
The company plans to transport 14,000 gallons of fuel daily across nearly 50 miles of remote roads for its proposed 24/7, 365-days-a-year operation.
Research and industrial tracking demonstrate that remote mine sites have an increased vulnerability to infrastructure failures and fuel spills, which would allow hazardous fluids to penetrate deep into local rivers and floodplains.
Tribal members have stated that unforgiving Arctic winter conditions will lead to inadequate response times for any accidents.
Published studies state that remote mining operations can suffer from “institutional voids,” characterized by weak local regulatory presences and insufficient external enforcement.
The mines’ voluminous amounts of unnaturally warm wastewater from the proposed operational mine pit create risks for fish and wildlife in and around the Imuruk Basin.
The company proposes to permanently divert water from 12,000 feet (2 and ¼ miles) of steep, naturally flowing mountain streams away from its proposed pit. Stream diversions are prone to failure and require constant maintenance beyond the mine life.
Critical failures of dams, stream diversions, and fuel containers would pollute critical habitat.
Graphite One wants to blast its pit into the base of the Kigluait Mountains. Operational noise and vibrations from detonations have been known to cause critical displacement of waterfowl, fish, fur-bearing animals, and marine mammals.
Graphite One says it may take up to 50 years to stabilize the pollutants it generates. That would be thirty years beyond the 20-year mine life.
Bering Straits Native Corporation (BSNC) has invested 2 million dollars of shareholders’ money in the mining company. According to its website, it has another 8 million available. BSNC says they bought “a seat at the table.” Yet, they acted without consulting the affected tribes. Brevig Mission, Teller, and Mary’s Igloo have been given no seat at the table, even though the table is in their own kitchen.
Tribal members are calling for BSNC to use ethical and transparent investment strategies that improve the quality of life for all shareholders. BSNC should disregard practices that value profits over shareholders’ food security.
The federal government has awarded 37.5 million dollars to this private, foreign company.
The federal government is working to narrow the official regulatory definition of what constitutes protected waterways under the Clean Water Act. This will further remove protection for wetlands and result in significant risks to Native peoples’ food security.
The tribes of the Bering Sea-to-Imuruk Basin Waterway have discovered that Government-to-Government consultation has been inadequate and close to non-existent.
THE PEOPLE OF THE BERING SEA-TO-IMURUK BASIN WATERWAY NEED FINANCIAL, POLITICAL, AND LEGAL PROTECTORS!
