Ballot Initiative Four - Vote Yes 4 Fish

Ballot Measure 4, the anti Pebble Mine measure on the ballot this Tuesday in Alaska has succeeded in one respect, it has fired up the pro-mining propaganda machine in the state and beyond. 

Although Prop 4 just applies to the Bristol Bay area, not one word about the Pebble Mine or Bristol Bay is mentioned in the wording of the measure. As a result opponents have been able to mobilize support and funding by portraying Measure 4 as a threat to existing mining operations and the Alaskan economy.

Of course this is not the case.

Are you wanting to know what Ballot Measure #4 is all about, why current regulations don’t adequately protect salmon, how toxic levels would be determined, and who the opponents are?  This section has answers to general questions about the initiative itself.

 Via: Alaskans for Clean Water LINK

Foreign mining interests have pumped 10 million into the campaign and a new poll shows Ballot Measure 4 might be going down to defeat. LINK

Two major papers in Alaska have endorsed Measure 4.

Put aside the exaggerations.

The truth is that the heart of the initiative is in the right place -- protecting Alaska's salmon fisheries against pollution from new mines.    

The legal language in the measure needs fine-tuning. We know that. Voters should approve it, and hand the new law over to the Legislature to clean up the rough edges.

BOTTOM LINE: Yes to Ballot Measure 4, to keep big new mines from dirtying salmon streams.

Via The Anchorage Daily News LINK

As Alaskans consider Ballot Measure 4 on Tuesday, they must look to the future and think about gold.

Not the gold that would be removed from Pebble Mine by foreign corporations, Anglo American and Northern Dynasty Minerals, for outsiders' profit, but the aquatic gold found in the precious salmon-rearing watershed of Bristol Bay, the thousands of fishing-related jobs, and the $250 million fishing industry that feeds Alaskans and their families.

Via: The Juneau Empire LINK

 

Comments

[TSPEY]

MC,

Thanks for posting this all-important issue facing Alaskans. The passage of BM #4 will send a strong message in our long road ahead against Pebble Mine.

To all Alaskan's out there, please vote YES on the Clean Water Initiative Ballot Measure #4 this Tuesday, August 26th.