Alaska voters choose mine over fish, defeating measure to protect salmon-rich streams

For months, Alaskans have been debating, in effect, what is their more valuable resource: the salmon that fuel a $300 million-a-year industry, or the copper and gold located in the watershed of salmon-rich Bristol Bay, metals that could be worth up to $300 billion. Yesterday, in a statewide referendum on a measure to put new limits on mining, that industry won, by a margin of 4 to 3.

The fishing industry worried that the proposed Pebble Mine could cause irreparable damage to the salmon population. Proponents argued that Measure 4 would create additional legal hurdles to jump through, while not changing the environmental standards already in place. (Los Angeles Times map)

The referendum was, as William Yardley writes in The New York Times, "an initiative intended to increase protections for streams where salmon live." The debate was among the most expensive in state history. Elizabeth Bluemink writes in the Anchorage Daily News that "fundraising by the two sides for TV, radio, print, mail and other advertising had hit at least $10.6 million." The issue appeared to become clouded by the substantial debate between the two groups. (Read more)

Yardley points out that "while the metals are a finite discovery, the fish have replenished themselves for millenniums" and many who voted no on Measure 4 felt that legislation designed to protect streams from mining pollution already existed and further legislation was unnecessary. (Read more)

UPDATE, Aug. 28: Bluemink reports that voters in the Bristol Bay area, downstream of the proposed minE, overwhelmingly voted in support of Measure 4. (read more)