Work on Pebble RFP to begin July 19

Published on July 16th, 2010

By MARGARET BAUMAN

Members of the Alaska Legislative Council will convene in Anchorage on July 19 to decide how to proceed with a request for proposals for $750,000 third-party study of the proposed Pebble mine project, at the headwaters of the Bristol Bay watershed in Southwest Alaska.

The state appropriation, which survived recent budget trimming by Gov. Sean Parnell, is intended to finance an impartial study of probable advantages and adverse affects of developing the massive copper, gold and molybdenum mine on state lands designated for mining north of Lake Iliamna.

Rep. John Harris, R-Valdez, chairman of the Legislative Council, said in a recent memo to council members that it was his intent to appoint a legislative council subcommittee on Bristol Bay mine development, to give direction to the legislative procurement officer, review and score proposals and make a recommendation to the full council for their action.

Harris also said the draft RFP would be confidential until issued, as would the number of responses and details on proposals, until the full council votes on the RFP.

Pam Varni, executive director of Legislative Affairs in Juneau, said that requests for proposals are required by the state for solicitations above $50,000, but that the council could seek an exemption for a sole source contract if council members felt that was the best option.

Opponents of the proposed mine, including Trout Unlimited, have opined that the National Academy of Sciences would be the best one to conduct the study.

"Our hope is that an entity like the National Academy of Sciences can come in and look at all the different factors that would go into developing a mine like Pebble or a Bristol bay mining district - the road, where is power going to come from, the huge influx of people needed to construct the mine," said Tim Bristol, Alaska program director for Trout Unlimited. "They do bring objectivity that you can't question. With something this big and controversial, it seems they are the right group for the job."

While Harris was unavailable for comment, Senate President Gary Stevens, R- Kodiak, and a council member, said there were several issues to keep in mind in determining how to proceed with the RFP.

"The state constitution requires us to use our natural resources for the benefit of all Alaskans," Stevens said. "We have had many successful years of mining (in Alaska). It has created a lot of jobs. We need to use our natural resources as best we can.

"You also have to protect the resources you do have and not let the harvesting of one resource damage another resource. My district is fishing oriented. A lot of people are concerned about the affect of mining on fishing resources. Can they co-exist? Some people say they can, some, it can't."

Stevens said for him, the biggest unknown is the huge dam that would be constructed to contain tailings from the mine. He asked if anyone can guarantee that a dam of that size, in the event of an earthquake, would not release tailings that would damage the watershed.

"We are not entering into this with some kind of preconceived notions," he said. "We have to keep an open mind." Still, he added, "I think there's a real fear of what mining can do."

The state's forthcoming study notwithstanding, the Pebble Partnership announced last week its own series of science panels to examine potential impacts of developing the mine.

Mike Heatwole, spokesman for the Pebble Partnership, said the contract with The Keystone Center in Denver actually dates back a couple of years. "Keystone was commissioned shortly after the partnership was formed two years ago to foster a dialogue," Heatwole said. "They started putting in place a phased dialogue to pursue. They recommended a series of science panel events, but we needed to first complete the environmental baseline document of all the studies we have done over the last five years at Pebble."

Heatwole described the planned dialogue sessions as "an opportunity for scientists to look at the data that has been accumulated over the years so stakeholders can have a broader understand of what we have done."

The Keystone Center's Todd Bryan said in a news release July 7 that his organization would begin the science panels Dec. 3 in Anchorage with a day-long panel focused on responsible large-scale mining. He said the panel would bring together international experts representing the mining industry, academic institutions and non-governmental conservation organizations, to share broad perspectives on responsible large scale mining worldwide.

Two days later, Bryan upped the ante, saying he planned to be in Alaska the week of July 18 to answer questions about the Keystone Center's independent science panels with any groups who wished to meet with him.

Bryan would not say whether The Keystone Center planned to put in its bid when the state's legislative council put out a request for proposals, but he did not rule it out.