At the Alaska Miners Association convention, we strive to identify ways to promote greater understanding of Alaska's miners and mining industry. We kick off each convention with short courses about technical issues facing the industry, thereby sharing how we approach mining and meeting environmental regulations across our membership.
We recently reached out to our colleagues in the fishing industry to engage in a day of shared presentations to build bridges between these two important industries. For our fishing colleagues, we hope to share how the mining community operates and the safeguards the industry embraces. We also hope to learn from our fishing colleagues the issues and concerns they have.
Miners and fishermen have come to recognize that we face many common issues impacting both of our industries, such as ramifications from certain environmental groups petitioning for unwarranted Endangered Species Act listings and implications of regulations administered by federal agencies that don't understand the unique challenges facing Alaska.
We know we must find better ways to coexist because miners like to eat fish, and fishermen need metals to harvest fish.
A major goal for our industry is to help our fishing colleagues better understand the range of environmental and safety regulations that govern how miners operate in Alaska. While they don't make compelling copy for newspapers, the mining industry is governed by anywhere from 60 to 100 state and federal permits and regulatory requirements such as reclamation and closure plans to restore the land to natural conditions, bonding and financial assurance, health impact assessments, water quality standards for treated water, groundwater monitoring, air quality standards, waste management, dam safety certifications and fish habitat protections.
Despite the stringent process regulating our industry, we are still fighting for fair and due process for evaluating projects. Many are familiar with the Environmental Protection Agency's preemptive strike against Pebble -- an issue we watch closely, for it has had a dampening effect on investment in Alaska. Another barrier to investment revolves around private instream flow reservations. This issue has wide-ranging ramifications for all industries across Alaska. The Alaska Department of Natural Resources recently split a decision about IFRs impacting the Chuitna coal project. It is our view, along with multiple other industries across the state, that IFRs should be held exclusively by government agencies who coordinate with each other to make decisions in the best interest of fish.
In all cases, we strongly believe that fair and due process is critical for objectively evaluating the technical and environmental considerations of projects. We need a stable and predictable permitting system to attract future investment in Alaska. This is especially important today as many conversations are focused on diversifying Alaska's economy and our state's revenue streams.
Alaska's large producing mines have a strong safety and environmental track record. We have five hard rock metal mines and one coal mine that provide steady, good paying jobs and revenues to local communities and our state. These operations include Kotzebue's Red Dog Mine, Healy's Usibelli Coal Mine, Fairbanks' Fort Knox Mine, Delta Junction's Pogo Mine, and Juneau's Kensington and Greens Creek mines. These mines are economic engines for their regions.
This is in addition to the hundreds of small placer mining operations across Alaska. Our economic impact study revealed that nearly 1200 people work at Alaska's placer operations and contribute nearly $40 million dollars to the economy.
As with any industry, it's not all sunshine and roses. We seek to learn from past problems and apply those lessons to future operations. Our goal has always been to have a vibrant, growing industry that puts Alaskans to work and diversifies the economy, while making environmental and safety responsibilities an industry-wide priority.
This week, all of this will be on our agenda as we host our 39th annual convention in Anchorage.
It is important to remember that we depend on minerals to support how we live. From smartphones to smart cars to hospitals to fishing plants, we need minerals to provide the building blocks for our products, homes and offices. I invite all Alaskans to learn more about this critical industry at www.alaskaminers.org.
Deantha Crockett is executive director of the Alaska Miners Association.
The views expressed here are the writer's own and are not necessarily endorsed by Alaska Dispatch News, which welcomes a broad range of viewpoints. To submit a piece for consideration, email commentary(at)alaskadispatch.com