Listen to the story:

For many years, tribes in Southeast Alaska have been concerned with nearby mining projects across the border in British Columbia. The headwaters of three major rivers – the Taku near Juneau, the Stikine near Wrangell, and the Unuk near Ketchikan — are in B.C. but flow into Southeast watersheds.

Louie Wagner lives in Metlakatla near the mouth of the Unuk River. He’s concerned about the Eskay Creek Mine, a large gold and silver mine up a Unuk tributary.

“There [are] already two mines working and the third one which could be the second to third largest mine in the world,” Wagner said. “And where they’re going to put their retaining wall for their mining tailings is pretty scary.”

Eskay Creek Mine was an underground mine producing gold from 1994-2008. The mine’s new owner, Skeena Resources wants to start again using open-pit extraction and estimates it will produce 2.8 million of ounces of gold and 80 million ounces of silver over a dozen years. The company plans to build a tailings dam to hold millions of tons of mine waste — forever.

Subsistence users, like Wagner, believe the Unuk River’s ecosystem is too vulnerable.

“During the spring and summer the water is so shallow, it really can’t handle any pollution,” he said. “Doggone, we lose all our wildlife. It’ll be lost forever.”

Wagner is part of the Southeast Alaska Indigenous Transboundary Commission (SEITC), which represents 17 tribes in Southeast and has been fighting the mine’s development and others like it. This month, the commission requested a pause in mining operations, fearing the mine’s waste could contaminate the river. Their worries stem from past events. Ten years ago, a tailings dam broke at B.C.’s Mount Polley mine, spilling millions of gallons of mine waste into a nearby river that supported Southeast Alaska salmon runs. The B.C. government declined to sanction the mining company over the spill.

According to the commission, the B.C. government hasn’t heard their concerns. The commission has been working with attorneys from the nonprofit environmental group Earthjustice. Mae Manupipatpong is one of the attorneys.

“Really the crux of this case is just to ensure that these SEITC member tribes who could be potentially impacted by this project have a voice in the process and are not sidelined just because they are on the other side of an arbitrarily drawn border,” Manupipatpong said.

In an email, David Karn with B.C.’s Ministry of the Environment declined to comment writing that “it would be inappropriate for government to provide any further commentary at this time,” because the proceedings are ongoing.

Earthjustice is looking to a Washington D.C. based human rights organization to help out. They submitted a 47-page request to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to pause the Eskay mine. The request calls the mine’s impacts “serious” and “a foreseeable, imminent, and significant threat.”

Manupipatpong said B.C. law requires informed consent from Alaska’s nearby tribes because their ancestors have historically used the Unuk watershed.

“We’re hoping that the commission can pressure B.C. and Canada to do the right thing,” she said. “Of course, as an international body, they can’t force them to, but we are attempting to use this mechanism just as another way to get B.C. to listen.”

The legality of the transboundary mines has long been controversial. Six years ago, the tribal commission filed a 215-page petition with the Human Rights Commission asking the group to investigate transboundary mines. Then, two years later, they filed another petition focused on six mines near the Taku and Unuk rivers. The Human Rights Commission agreed to look into the matter and found last year that the transboundary mines could violate the rights of Southeast tribes. This February, the tribes submitted another request to the commission asking for a formal hearing. Now, Southeast tribes want the Eskay Creek Mine paused.

The state of Alaska has put the issue on the back burner. During former Governor Bill Walker’s administration, Lt. Governor Byron Mallot was tasked with seeking better communication with B.C. In 2015, Alaska and B.C. signed a memorandum of understanding to increase the state’s role in transboundary mine decisions. However, those discussions haven’t continued – at least not publicly.

A few years ago, the tribes conducted a study documenting their ancestral use of the watershed. It was financed by international conservation group, Re: Wild. Since then, Re:wild has been backing the tribes’ efforts. Re: wild works in over 80 countries and touts well-known actor Leonardo Dicaprio as a founder. Nina Hadley is also with the organization.

“We’re particularly interested in protecting the Alaska – British Columbia transboundary region because it’s among North America’s top ecological hotspots,” Hadley said.

Re:wild credits the region’s Indigenous populations for safeguarding biodiversity for thousands of years. Hadley said that’s one they support “deep consultation” between Canada and the downriver tribes.

“What I mean by that is a formal dialogue between the tribes and the B.C. government that aims to build trust, that aims to build respect, and aims to build that shared responsibility. That kind of consultation is just not happening.”

Time is limited — Skeena Resources completed a feasibility study last year and is waiting on the government to release an environmental assessment. BC already has an agreement with the Canadian tribe, Tahltan Central Government, which owns the territory near the mine.

The post Southeast tribes seek a pause on Eskay Creek Mine near B.C. border appeared first on KRBD.

Tribes near Ketchikan submitted evidence Jan. 30 to the Canadian and British Columbia governments that they hope will give them a voice in transboundary mining discussions. The tribes say the evidence proves they’ve had a historical presence along the Unuk River, which runs through the border. 

Southeast Alaska tribes have long demanded a seat at the table in how Canada manages mining projects that affect lands and waters across its border. 

On January 30, a coalition of the  Lingít, Haida, and Tsimshian Tribal governments submitted testimonial evidence to protect the Unuk River, one of their river watersheds. The tribal group fears the watershed could be damaged by a proposed open-pit gold mine on the other side of the border.

The coalition is called the Southeast Alaska Indigenous Transboundary Commission (SEITC) and represents 15 tribes and tribal groups in Alaska and Canada.

“The border that transects these transboundary rivers is a completely false construct. Nothing in nature respects that line on the map – the water, the salmon, the people, the wildlife, nothing respects that. What happens in the upper reaches of these trans boundary rivers will impact our tribes, our communities, and our tribal citizens,” said Guy Archibald, SEITC’s executive director.

The evidence submitted by the commission, which includes personal testimony from tribal members of Metlakatla and other communities along the border, is meant to demonstrate the Lingit people’s historic presence along the Unuk River. The river, northeast of Ketchikan, is an established wild salmon habitat and holds cultural significance to Alaska Natives. And the tribal governments say it is under threat from Eskay Creek Mine, a silver and gold mining project proposed upriver in British Columbia,.

Essentially, the tribes are alleging that unregulated mining across the border in Canada is conflicting with the tribe’s obligation to protect traditional lands for future generations.

Tazia W’ally Sthaathi Ta Wagner, a member of the Wolf Clan in Metlakatla, testified that she grew up harvesting hooligan, moose and king salmon on the Unuk and plans to protect that cultural right.

“I would love to see us do another community harvest on the Unuk River again and see those bright smiles on everyone’s faces one more time. And to bring hooligan again to our elders, that is what I would really love to happen in the future, for generations to come,” she said.

Skeena Resources, Ltd, the Vancouver-based mining company in charge of the mining proposal, did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

Earthjustice, the organization representing the tribal commission, has also brought a case against the Canadian government alleging that their refusal to consult with Alaska Native Tribes on large-scale mining development is an international human rights violation. The claim was recently recognized by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.

“This isn’t a new right. I mean, these are rights that go back millennia,” said Earthjustice attorney Ramin Pejan. “The ownership of the Unuk River and the territory and the use of that river is integral to their culture, to their subsistence. It goes back thousands of years before these borders were in place.” 

Pejan said the goal is to capitalize on recent Canadian legal precedent to get the country to consult with Alaska tribes properly – the way they would for tribes protected under the Constitution in Canada. Something that Guy Archibald said felt hopeless a few years ago – even from the state of Alaska.

“Alaska signed a [Memorandum of Understanding] with British Columbia to have a trans-boundary working group,” Archibald alleged. “They did that without any consent or consideration of the tribes. It’s bilateral. It’s between Alaska and BC. The tribes are not involved. And the state doesn’t share any of that information with us.”

Then, a door opened back in 2021. That door was the Desautel case – an indigenous American citizen tried in Canada’s courts for killing an elk in British Columbia without a hunting license. The defendant lived on a reservation in Washington and argued that he was exercising his Aboriginal right to hunt in the traditional territory of his ancestors. Archibald explained that the case forced the Canadian Supreme Court to ask a central question.

As Archibald put it, “Do indigenous, non-resident people of Canada – people who live outside of Canada but have ties to traditional lands within Canada – have any rights to those lands? And the Supreme Court said yes.”

Pejan said that the Eskay Creek Mine case is the first case through that door opened by Desautel but it is by no means the biggest. It is dwarfed by the KSM Mine, a proposed project that would be one of the largest open-pit mines on the planet.

If the coalition succeeds, it would be the first time in history that a US-based tribe is granted “Participating Indigenous Nation” status in Canada. The country has never legally recognized US-based Indigenous peoples as stakeholders in the country’s policy decisions. 

“You know, we keep hearing that these resources are so abundant. They’re just infinite. Like the buffalo?” Archibald, an environmental chemist by trade, complained, citing his past as a miner and what he calls “the standard mining company line.” “And on and on. And then we keep making the same mistake over and over and over again.”

For Archibald, the chances to make mistakes are running out.

“Alaska is the last stand,” he said. “These transboundary rivers are the last undeveloped salmon spawning rivers left in North America. If we don’t get it right here, then we’ve run the table. There is no place further to go. So this is the place to make the stand.”

Get in touch with the author at jack@krbd.org.

The post Alaska Native Tribes pressure Canada for rights in Unuk River mining project appeared first on KRBD.

An aerial view of KSM’s Camp 9 on July 29, 2021. Crews worked to develop an access road and a mining camp during the summer of 2021. (Photo courtesy of Seabridge Gold)

Regulators in Canada have granted a two-year extension for the Kerr-Sulphurets-Mitchell mine’s environmental review which will effectively give the project’s owners until July 2026 to find major investors.

Critics of the Canadian mine say it could one day threaten Southeast Alaska salmon. But developers of the KSM haven’t found investors to pay for the project’s construction yet. Its location about 20 miles from the border has made it controversial for those who would live downstream from the metals mine.

KSM promises to be one of the largest open pit mining projects on the continent. But Toronto-based Seabridge Gold which owns the prospect has not found a major backer to build the gold, silver and copper mine.

KSM’s second extension since green light

British Columbia regulators gave tentative approval for KSM back in 2014. But with the caveat that it gets started in the next five years. But as that deadline approached the company applied and received an extension good through 2024.

Seabridge came back again last year saying it needed more time. In filings with provincial regulators, it said the COVID-19 pandemic’s travel restrictions prevented it from bringing potential investors to the remote site.

“COVID did have an impact without a doubt on our project and ultimately, based on our submission, the B.C. government agreed with that,” Seabridge executive Brent Murphy told CoastAlaska in an interview.

Seabridge is what’s known in the industry as a junior. It does exploratory work and pitches investors with the hopes of getting a deep-pocketed global firm as a partner with the wherewithal to develop a prospect into an actual mine.

“There’s still substantial interest in the project,” Murphy said. “Our ultimate goal is for the project to be joint venture with a major mining company.”

And it’s crucial for Seabridge for that to happen before its regulatory approval expires — hence its need for extensions.

Canadian mines built in watersheds that extend into the U.S. are controversial in Southeast Alaska. And KSM is no exception. Seabridge says waste from the mine would be stored in a watershed that drains into Canada. But the mine itself would be in the headwaters of the Unuk River, which flows out near Ketchikan.

Still, Murphy says the company is designing the project to minimize threats to fisheries and other resources.

“If you look at the report prepared by the BC government and the Canadian government, there is no predicted impacts on Alaskan waters,” Murphy said.

B.C. regulators criticized by Southeast Alaska campaigners

Transboundary mine critics in Southeast Alaska complain that B.C. regulators are allowing the permit to stay active based on an environmental review completed seven years ago. They say  Seabridge should have to redo some of its analysis and go back to the drawing board.

“It was kind of a troubling move by Seabridge, I think, to exploit the pandemic,” said Chris Zimmer, who works with Rivers Without Borders, a Juneau-based watchdog. “What’s more concerning to us here is that BC let them get away with it.”

His environmental nonprofit one of a number of campaign groups that says the B.C. government doesn’t do enough to regulate its mining industry.

“What I saw here is yet another part of a kind of a clear and disturbing history of deference to the industry,” Zimmer said.

He points to the Mount Polley Mine Disaster. In 2014, that mine’s tailings dam in B.C. failed, allowing millions of tons of liquid mine waste to escape uncontrolled into a watershed that drains into the Fraser River, which hosts one of Canada’s most treasured salmon runs.

Imperial Metals, the company that owned Mount Polley, was never fined or sanctioned.

But KSM’s developers say the Mount Polley incident caused engineers to give their dam design extra scrutiny.

“We’re very aware of the tailings ponds, concerns, i.e. Mount Polly, and the other unfortunate incidents that happened around the world,” Murphy said. “We are taking these concerns very seriously. And there are concerns held by both Canadian and American citizens and we’re working through those and we’re trying to be fully transparent on our design.”

Alaska regulators silent on extension request

B.C.’s Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy declined to be interviewed. It referred back to the Environmental Assessment Office’s 27-page report it released granting another extension and its minister’s nine-page report outlining his rationale for the decision.

“I am of the view that an emergency variance that would allow for a certificate extension of two years for KSM would be in the public interest,” B.C.’s Environment and Climate Change Strategy Minister George Heyman wrote in his nine-page decision.

Alaska’s regulatory agencies were involved in KSM’s environmental review a decade ago. But none offered input over Seabridge’s request for more time on its permitting.

“This extension request does not change the project design or affect any potential downstream impacts,” Kyle Moselle, who heads up the Alaska Department of Natural Resource’s office of permitting for mines, wrote in an email to CoastAlaska.

KSM has been compared to the now-stalled Bristol Bay’s Pebble Project in its scale, wealth, job creation potential as well as environmental risk. That’s because like Pebble it would be an open pit design. Its mine waste would be held in a massive tailings pond — created by a dam more than 780 feet high — taller than the Hoover Dam.

But for that to happen Seabridge will need a major investor before its environmental assessment expires in 2026.

The post B.C. gives KSM developers more time to court investors for transboundary mine appeared first on KRBD.

A U.S. Forest Service map of Grant Creek, near the mouth of the Unuk River. (U.S. Forest Service)

The body of a Ketchikan man missing over the weekend has been recovered in Misty Fjords National Monument Wilderness.

In an online statement, state troopers say 52-year-old Derek Kelley was reported overdue Saturday from a boating trip to a cabin on the Unuk River. A chartered helicopter assisting the Ketchikan Volunteer Rescue Squad reportedly found Kelley’s body near Grant Creek on Sunday afternoon.

The body will be sent to the state medical examiner’s office for review. Authorities say foul play is not suspected.

The post Body of overdue Ketchikan boater recovered near Unuk River appeared first on KRBD.

Ketchikan’s borough assembly has waived its right to protest a controversial liquor license in the city of Saxman. The assembly also approved a revised resolution asking Canadian authorities to protect the Unuk River from mine pollution over the border.

Saxman liquor license

The liquor license application comes from a subsidiary of Saxman’s Cape Fox Native Corporation. Dockside Galley, a restaurant near Saxman’s city hall, would like to serve beer and wine and open a liquor store.

If approved by the state’s Alcoholic Beverage Control Board, it will be Saxman’s first liquor license in the predominantly Alaska Native community. 

Local governments have the right to protest liquor license applications within their jurisdiction if it’s deemed not in the public’s interest.

Ketchikan Assembly member Sue Pickrell felt an objection was warranted.

“My feeling with regard to the number of alcohol permits and alcohol-dispensing places and packing stores in Ketchikan — we have enough,” she said during Monday’s meeting.

She was joined by Alan Bailey and Felix Wong.

A three-Assembly member bloc comprised of Austin Otos, AJ Pierce and David Landis voted against protesting the liquor license. Assembly Member Sven Westergard was absent. 

That left it up to Borough Mayor Rodney Dial to cast his first tiebreaking vote. He said he’d defer to the Saxman City Council which had already found no legal reason to oppose the license. 

“The community of Saxman has debated this issue. The folks in Saxman have had an opportunity to speak out on this issue,” he said. “The mayor and clerk have indicated that the public has the option to vote on this issue.”

Saxman city officials testified that some residents are openly planning a petition to hold a referendum to ban alcohol within the city limits. 

Transboundary mining resolution

In other business, the borough assembly approved a revised resolution asking Canadian authorities to better protect the Unuk River watershed from mine pollution. Environmental advocates say pollution from historic and active mines has had ill effects on the wildlife that rely on the Unuk, especially salmon. 

Misty Fjords National Monument, which includes the lower Unuk watershed, is also a popular tourist destination in the summer.

“Misty Fjords is one thing that you should be trying to protect. That’s one of the gooses that’s laying the golden eggs for Ketchikan,” said Malcom Doiron during public comment. He’s best known for naming the Misty Fjords and fighting for their protection as a national monument.

The original resolution was submitted by the Southeast Alaska Conservation Council had called on British Columbia to hold a new environmental review for the proposed KSM open pit copper and gold mine near the Unuk’s headwaters 

It also invoked the UN’s Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, an intergovernmental agreement supporting native cultures. Canada signed onto the declaration in 2016 after a decade of opposing the pact. It requires Canadian authorities to account for policies’ effect on indigenous users who rely on the Unuk — that is, the KSM mine’s effect on downstream Canadian subsistence users.

(For its part, the United States dropped its opposition to UNDRIP in 2011 but only offers qualified support for the measure.)

Assembly member Alan Bailey took issue with the draft resolution’s tone at the assembly’s Nov. 25 meeting. The assembly sent it back for revision, and staff removed the resolution’s references to specific actions by the B.C. government, leaving only a generic call to protect the Unuk watershed. 

Doiron took issue with the toned-down version.

“What you’re going to do if you water this thing down, you might as well save your energy,” Doiron said. “Because the people on the other side of the border are not going to listen to you. They’re going to laugh at you.”

Bailey defended the revision, saying it’s in line with traditional borough language.

“Using reasoned language, we can be forceful, but yet appropriate in tone,” he said.

The revised resolution passed unanimously.

Land use issues

In other business, a resident’s proposal that would require the borough to notify neighbors within two miles of a planned outdoor gun range has been postponed. Current borough regulations require notice to be given to neighbors within 1,200 feet of a proposed outdoor range.

This comes after the assembly shot down a proposed rezone that would have allowed an outdoor gun range in the Ward Cove area. Several residents expressed concerns about noise and stray bullets near the popular Ward Lake recreation area.

The assembly also unanimously approved a developer’s request to defer property taxes on a subdivided tract of land on the west side of the city of Ketchikan. A 2012 state law allows the borough and city to do so in an effort to spur development.

The assembly also denied a proposed rezone in an industrial area of Ward Cove. The owner expressed interest in renting out a unit traditionally used for employee housing to the general public. But borough planning staff, the planning commission and neighbors agreed that the rezone could put future residents in harm’s way and expose the businesses to complaints.

The post Assembly declines to protest Saxman liquor license, approves toned-down Unuk resolution appeared first on KRBD.