Twenty-two years ago I first came “into the country” to Alaska via the Al-Can Highway through the Yukon Territory. This was taken in 2010. The scenery is beautiful, and the land is harsh, and the mosquitos plentiful, and the economics mostly mining in these parts. (Click on the picture to see a larger photo on a picture page.)
The Red Dog Mine, in Alaska’s Northwest Arctic Borough, is one of the world’s largest zinc and lead mines. It is owned and operated by Canada-based Teck Resources Ltd., one of Canada’s largest mine companies, which itself is now partially owned (17.5%) by the Chinese sovereign wealth fund called China Investment Corp. Teck partners with NANA, the Alaska Native Regional Corp., which provided rights to the land. The mine provides jobs to a remote and landlocked area with little or no economy outside of health care and government. Teck touts its 500 plus jobs and economic benefits for the region and local residents, though it is a major polluter, and the mine’s discharge of wastewater has been at the center of a years-long battle with residents of a small coastal village called Kivalina.
I visited Red Dog in 2008. It is an impressive site. I also have met some of the opponents of the mine. There are no easy answers here. I wrote a paper on the mine and examined its health impacts, and my paper largely agreed with a study done for the permitting (not enforceable) that the mine actually provides net health benefits to the region, such as good jobs and a stable economy, despite its other health impacts. Mining is not clean or simple, and the global economic system is dependent on it. Here is how the mine looked in 2008, prior to an application that sought to expand it, with the Aqqaluk proposal, which is basically an expanded mine of the current project. (And for the record, I am opposed to the planned Pebble Mine; I am not an advocate of party line thinking.)
During my six years in Alaska from 2004 through 2010, by far the most protracted and controversial of many simmering resource development battles was the fight over the so-called Pebble Mine. This area is upriver from Lake Iliamna, a short plane ride west of Anchorage. The proposed copper and molybdenum mine is touted as holding some of the world’s largest deposits of copper. But building it would also create a massive open pit operation in the headwaters to one of the world’s most productive sockeye fish hatcheries, and were a spill to occur, the consequences would likely be devastating to the fishery. The battle was heated, dividing even mostly resource-friendly Republicans like former Sen. Ted Stevens (who spoke out against it during my time there), mainly because of the incredibly rich fishing resources downstream that provided good jobs to many Native communities with a renewable resource (tasty sockeye salmon).
I will not get into the debate, which embraced the vitriol and emotion I associated with the “War on Terror” and the “with us or against us” mentality that coincided during my years in Alaska. Regardless of what I say, this project has seen two of the world’s largest mining companies, Anglo American and Rio Tinto, walk away from their stakes during the last year, leaving the remaining company called Pebble Partnership high and dry, without the major financial backing it needs to pull this off. I think the science strongly shows this is not the place to build such a huge mine. Regardless of my opinion, without big money, big mines cannot be developed. And the U.S. EPA is against it. These pictures were taken during my site visit there in 2005, when I worked in Anchorage. I hope these pictures provide a window into one of the hottest battles ever seen in the 49th state. (Note, all pictures were taken with my consumer-grade Canon digital camera–not bad for the tough little workhorse.)
I found these pictures among the many hundreds I took while living in Anchorage. These were all taken during a bitter cold spell in 2009-10, when temperatures plummeted to about minus 10 fahrenheit and colder. It was great for taking images. I remember getting some skin damage on my extremities on one outing. Now that it is spring in Seattle, I shutter to think I lived through this year after year, even with the beauty. That is my feeling today. It is one of joyous happiness.
I visited Kotzebue, Alaska, just north of the Arctic Circle, in 2008. It was a fabulous trip to the largest city in northwest Alaska. I ate beluga whale and was treated with great hospitality by residents. This was a work trip, and one of my most memorable visits to Bush Alaska during my six years living and working in the Great Land. Other photos from the 49th state can be found in my web site’s Alaska gallery.
What Beautiful Light 