From Businesses for Bristol Bay:
The 120-day public comment period for the Pebble Project Draft EIS has come to an end. As we have for a decade now, thousands of American businesses and hundreds of thousands of individuals submitted their comment letters in support of protecting Bristol Bay and its globally unique salmon fishery. Thank you to the many B4BB business partners that took the time and resources to draft their own comment letters. Some of those comment letters can be found below.
Unfortunately, in a parallel effort, the Trump Administration directed the EPA last week to toss out the only official scientific document that has been done for Bristol Bay (the Bristol Bay Watershed Assessment), and started the process for reversing Bristol Bay’s existing protections. If this seems odd, that’s because it is. On the one hand the administration has asked the American public for comments to ensure it has the best available information in the EIS so it can protect salmon, and on the other hand it is now removing the only existing protections for Bristol Bay. These contradictions are an all too familiar theme with this administration’s work on Bristol Bay; science and facts are being drowned out by politics, resulting in tremendous economic uncertainty for Bristol Bay’s business community.
Taking away the Army Corps’ funding to finalize Pebble’s EIS is increasingly the only immediate option to slow down this rushed and politically-driven process. If your company submitted a comment letter to the Army Corps, then please send your comment letter to your members of Congress with a short note saying that this is an issue you care about. It’s important for Congress to know that businesses across the country depend on Bristol Bay. You can find contact information for your members of Congress HERE.
