by Daysha Eaton

The proposed Pebble Mine in southwest Alaska will require a number of major infrastructure projects to support the operation. The projects are among the details revealed when the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers made the company’s permit application public.

“The size difference compared to our early estimates of 12.7 square miles is now at about 10.7 square miles, so we’ve been able to make the facilities in and around the proposed mine site more compact,” said Pebble Limited Partnership spokesperson Mike Heatwole. “We are proposing a natural gas pipeline from the Kenai Peninsula across Cook Inlet and then under Iliamna Lake in order to get natural gas to our mine site in order to run our electrical generation.”

In addition, the application shows the company wants to build roads, an ice-breaking ferry and a port on Cook Inlet, to transport minerals out.

The Army Corps will select a third-party contractor to administer the environmental impact statement process, then they will move into the scoping process, which is where the public can weigh in.

Alannah Hurley with United Tribes of Bristol Bay, a group opposing the mine, says the permit application confirms their concerns.

“There is no way that the current application will not impact salmon,” Hurley said. “We are still talking about tons of toxic waste that would have to be stored forever at the headwaters of our watershed. Miles and miles of road and pipeline, a mega-port. It is still a mega-mine.”

She says even as the project moves into the permitting stage the resistance to the proposed Pebble Mine isn’t going anywhere.

“You know this is really a national issue, it is a global issue and we need people from across the nation to weigh in and help us protect this global resource for future generations,” she said.

The permitting process should begin to unfold over 2018.

by Jenni Monet

At the start of the Navajo Nation’s new winter legislative session, President Russell Begaye made it clear which issue sits high on the leadership’s agenda. Begaye signed a proclamation aimed at raising awareness of human trafficking in and around the border-towns of the sprawling reservation.

“We just want to announce and proclaim the month of January as Human Trafficking Awareness Month,” Begaye said as he assembled with other Navajo leaders outside council chambers.

In August, Begaye enacted a tribal council resolution to criminalize the sex slave trade within the reservation borders — what the International Labour Organization estimates is a $150 billion industry worldwide.

“(There’s a perception that) trafficking only happens in places like Asia, or Russia or Eastern Europe — places like that…but it does happen in the United States, and it does happen on Navajo Nation,” Begaye said.

While there are many advocates who pushed for the human trafficking resolution, it was Council Delegate Nathaniel Brown who first formally introduced the measure in April.

On this morning, Brown was among several who turned out to raise awareness about an issue that — for the Navajo Nation — is lacking in any real discernible data and is also difficult to detect.

“The next thing we need to do… we would like to have all our Navjao departments to be educated on what is human trafficking, where to call once they identify it, so we can begin to start saving our children,” Brown said.

The Navajo Nation represents the only federally recognized tribal government to amend its criminal codes to prosecute the international human trafficking trade in the tribal courts.

The proposed copper and gold Pebble Mine could bring needed jobs for Native people in southwest Alaska. The open pit mine plan stalled during the Barack Obama Administration because of its size and its threat to the environment, including a prolific and fragile salmon fishery. Now, a new administration and a company promising a smaller, safer project are giving the mine renewed momentum. That also revives worries among Native commercial fishers and others who want to preserve the important and pristine resource. Go here to read and listen to Daysha Eaton’s five-part series Alaska Water Wars.