Tiny Native Village Community Faces Efforts to Turn River into Mining District
By Hal Shepherd
It could be the largest uranium deposit, or, you know, cluster of deposits on American soil, and a bunch of these could be land on the Elim native reserve. Elim could become the 'Uranium Capital of America'.
~ David Hederly, Panther Minerals
Mining companies are once again taking an interest in rich uranium deposits at the headwaters of the Tubutulik River near Nome. The Native Village of Elim and the Norton Bay Watershed Council have protested a Hardrock Exploration Mining Permit Application within the Boulder Creek-Fireweed areas.
The Canadian Mining company Panther Minerals hopes to expand on exploration activities at the site they undertook 15 years ago. The Native Village of Elim has been steadfastly opposed to such exploration and has requested that permits submitted to the Bureau of Land Management and the Department of Natural Resources to explore for uranium be denied.
The community of Elim depends on the Tubutulik River Watershed, which is the property of the Elim Native Corporation, for subsistence resources to sustain its cultural, traditional, and economic well-being and way of life. Drilling in the State-owned Boulder Creek area, however, threatens the downstream Watershed with dangerous levels of uranium and other contaminants, posing significant threats to the health of humans and wildlife.
After a Government-to-Government consultation between the agency and the Native Village of Elim, the BLM, which manages a small portion of the land within the mining claims area, denied Panther Minerals exploration application. As a result, the dispute has moved to the State arena. A major area of contention in that application is Panther Mineral’s request for a Temporary Water Use Permit to pump 10.9 million gallons of water each summer for the next five years from the Tubutulik and several of its tributaries. These same tributaries experienced a fish die-off several years ago due to high temperatures and low flows.
Due to the large amount of water to be removed from the biologically rich watershed, the tribal entities argue that, before approving the application, DNR should consult with the Native Village of Elim, which has long sought to protect fish, aquatic life and habitat, and spawning areas in the Watershed to ensure the continued health of subsistence resources and related cultural practices. The people of the Elim community have inhabited the Tubutulik River watershed and nearby locations since time immemorial and have unparalleled, traditional ecological knowledge of its waters. This knowledge is invaluable and should be considered by State decision-makers when reviewing and issuing any rights to use water for mining activity.
In fact, the Alaska legislature recently enacted HB 123 in recognition of Alaska’s 229 federally recognized tribes and their “unique role in the state’s past, present, and future.” According to the tribal organizations, DNR should, therefore, take this opportunity to provide for meaningful Government-to-Government consultation with the Native Village of Elim before any permit to use water is authorized.
Similarly, the mere 10-day period provided by DNR to submit comments on the ambitious mining exploration plan is insufficient. It is imperative that the agency provide meaningful public notice and comment opportunities, allowing the public to review and provide input on temporary water use. The Elim community and the public possess a critical interest in the unique and irreplaceable water and fish resources found in rivers like the Tubutulik and must be allowed to weigh in at the outset on water withdrawal and return-related issues, such as adequacy of applications (e.g., tributaries named, withdrawal and return points identified, chemicals used), adequacy of baseline information about fish populations, whether authorized quantities are reasonable, whether best practices for withdrawal and return would be followed, and whether—and to what degree—harm to aquatic life and habitat would be avoided or mitigated.
Even if DNR decides to approve the exploration application, it should take this opportunity to limit the use of temporary water to situations where the harmful impacts are truly temporary and minimal. Therefore, any temporary water use should limit the duration to a maximum of one year, with the potential for, at most, a single one-year extension. This would be a substantially shorter timeframe than the five years proposed by Panther Minerals which cannot reasonably be understood as temporary.
Claim owner David Hederly Smith illustrates the enormous impact the planned future uranium mine will have on sensitive subsistence resources by speculating his hopes that:
“It could be the largest uranium deposit, or, you know, cluster of deposits on American soil, and a bunch of these could be land on the Elim native reserve. Elim could become the 'Uranium Capital of America'.”1
Because Elim is defined as having a subsistence economy with a cash overlay, such industrialization of this remote village would not only destroy not only its subsistence economy, but the village’s culture and traditions. Instead, the Elim community has the right to a clean environment and to give or withhold consent for any action affecting its lands, territories, and rights.
Ben Townsend, Boulder Creek Claim Owner Speaks Out on Prospect of Uranium Mine, KNOM (May 29,2024).