Keeper Leads Effort to Protect Salmon Streams
The State of
Alaska recently closed a public comment period on a proposed
rule to allow pollution in salmon spawning areas. This
short-sighted proposal drew almost universal opposition, with
resolutions opposing the rule passed by the Cities of Homer,
Soldotna, Petersburg, the Boroughs of Juneau and Kenai
Peninsula, the United Cook Inlet Drift Association, the North
Pacific Fishermen’s Association, and United Fishermen of Alaska,
to name but a few.
Cook Inlet
Keeper played a leading role educating the public this
wrong-headed proposal, and worked with various groups to submit
comments to the state. Keeper also gathered over 1200 online
signatures for a petition opposing the rule change, and garnered
an additional 270 email comments from concerned citizens.
Keeper will continue to work this issue to ensure the state
does not rollback water quality protections in our prized salmon
streams. For more information, see:
·
Cook Inlet
Keeper letter to ADEC
·
Petition Opposing
the Proposed Rule
·
Trustees for Alaska comment
letter to ADEC
- Alaska Law Rightly Prohibits Mixing
Zones in Salmon Streams
Alaska law currently prohibits mixing
zones in salmon streams because mixing zones allow pollution at
levels above state standards designed to protect fish. The state
says it is simply conducting "housekeeping" to make permit decisions
easier for industry and agencies; the fact is that the new rule will
allow toxic and other harmful pollution discharges in Alaska salmon
streams where none occur now.
- Polluting Salmon Streams Will Hurt
Fish Marketing Efforts
Commercial fishermen market wild Alaska
salmon as coming from pristine, unpolluted waters. Any perception of
pollution in Alaska's waters could seriously impact this marketing
effort.
- The Murkowski Administration Is
Gutting Fish Habitat Protections
The Murkowski Administration has
embraced an extreme anti-salmon agenda since taking office. At the
start of his term, the Governor effectively silenced the biologists
in the Alaska Department of Fish & Game's Habitat Division by moving
them to the resource development agency – the Department of Natural
Resources. Soon after, he and his supporters gutted the primary
state law that protects salmon habitat in coastal watersheds – the
Alaska Coastal Management Program – by effectively removing citizens
and local governments from decisions affecting coastal salmon
habitat. The Murkowski Administration also has pressed hard to allow
pesticide and herbicide spraying around salmon streams. Together,
these sweeping changes are disturbing rollbacks to common sense
protections for our wild salmon and the people and communities that
depend on them.
- More Pollution Threatens Fisheries
Health & Consumer Safety
The State of Alaska does not regularly
sample and test salmon for toxic pollution, so the state does not
have the scientific data to ensure no harm to fish should it
implement this proposal. Research from the Exxon Valdez oil spill
has proved that low levels of hydrocarbons – as low as one part per
billion – can harm fish eggs and smolt. Furthermore, many Native and
subsistence consumers eat large quantities of salmon, and toxins in
the fish can bioaccumulate in human fat cells, leading to health
concerns (esp. for vulnerable individuals, such as pregnant women
and children). As a result, the current proposal to allow more
pollution in salmon streams adopts a "head in the sand" approach to
fisheries health and consumer safety.
Additionally, as Alaska becomes warmer
and dryer, streams that are not glacially-fed (which have increased
water flow as glaciers melt) will have much lower flows. Fish in
these streams will be stressed due to low-flow, high-temperature
conditions, and the fish can then become severely impacted by
contamination from discharges allowed under this proposal.
For further information, please contact Cook Inlet Keeper in
Homer (bob@inletkeeper.org,
907 235-4068, x22) or Anchorage (lois@inletkeeper.org,
907 929-9371).
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