Alannah Acaq Hurley

A Formidable Bay

Located off the southwestern coast of Alaska, Bristol Bay and its watershed—roughly the size of Ohio—contain 25 million acres of pristine forests, wild rivers, lush wetlands, tundra, and biodiverse ecosystems stewarded by Indigenous peoples since time immemorial. The area, only accessible by plane, is habitat for nearly 200 bird species and scores of mammal species, like moose, lynx, wolverines, and grizzly bears. IUCN has labeled the region “an unparalleled ecological and economic resource of global significance.”

Bristol Bay is also home to the most productive salmon ecosystem in North America, including the largest sockeye salmon run in the world—with some 50 million fish spawning there each year. Salmon are a keystone species that play a vital role in the functioning of the larger ecosystem, and are a primary food source for bald eagles, bears, and whales. They are also a major source of food, livelihood, and cultural sustenance for local Indigenous communities, which are some of the last intact salmon-based cultures in the world. Additionally, the region produces approximately half of the world’s wild sockeye catch, with an annual revenue of $2.2 billion and 15,000 employed in the industry.

A Terrible Idea

Bristol Bay’s watershed is also home to vast, untapped mineral and ore reserves. In 2001, Canadian mining company Northern Dynasty Minerals obtained mineral leases to significant copper and gold deposits located at the headwaters of the bay. The company proposed an enormous project focused around the construction of the largest open-pit mine in North America, if fully developed. The proposed “Pebble Mine” would feature a 2.5-mile-wide and 600-feet-deep mining pit, with new construction of 100 miles of road, the world’s largest earthen dam for waste containment, an on-site powerplant, and a nearly 200-mile natural gas pipeline.

The environmental impacts of the development would be devastating to Bristol Bay and the life that it supports, including the perpetual storage of 10 billion tons of mining waste over the mine’s lifetime, the annual removal of 35 billion gallons of freshwater from salmon spawning rivers, and the destruction of nearly 100 miles of streams and 2,100 acres of wetlands. The project’s toxic runoff would cause the acidification of streams near the mine, mass salmon die-offs, and the eventual degradation of thousands of acres of wetlands and forests.

A Quiet Champion

Alannah Acaq Hurley, 40, grew up in Saguyaq (Clark’s Point) in Bristol Bay. Her grandmother, Mancuaq, instilled in her traditional teachings rooted in a spiritual connection to the bay. Growing up, Alannah understood that her Indigenous culture was intrinsically connected to her people’s sacred lands and waters, and the threat of mining and other forms of development was a constant, looming presence. Today, she continues to practice the Yup’ik traditions of hunting, fishing, and gathering in her ancestral homelands.

Forming a Bulwark

In the early 2000s, local communities along Bristol Bay began to organize in opposition to the newly-proposed Pebble Mine project. While in college, Alannah volunteered and worked with local groups during her summer breaks, spreading awareness about the proposed mine in towns and rural communities, many of which were only accessible by boat or bush plane. These early organizing efforts yielded multiple requests for the government to engage in the issue and ultimately led the EPA to begin an environmental assessment of the mine’s impacts in 2011.

Following college, Alannah returned to Bristol Bay to play a larger role in organizing efforts. In 2013, local tribal leaders selected her to serve as executive director of the United Tribes of Bristol Bay (UTBB), a new consortium of federally recognized tribal nations. Under Alannah’s leadership, UTBB organized Indigenous opposition to the project and coordinated their work with national environmental groups, commercial fishing associations, and others, recognizing that a broad, nonpartisan coalition was essential to the campaign’s success. As Alannah states, “What united us was an existential threat that, if we didn’t work together, we wouldn’t have anything left. This unity was absolutely critical.”

After more than decade of advocacy, the effort saw progress when the EPA published its assessment of the project, finding that the Pebble Mine would “jeopardize the long-term health and sustainability of the salmon ecosystem,” and proposed permanent protections for the bay. Alannah and her team shared the EPA’s findings throughout local communities, tying the survival of Indigenous cultures to the protection of Bristol Bay. In response, Northern Dynasty Minerals (NDM) filed a lawsuit that significantly delayed government action against the project.

In 2017, during the first Trump administration, NDM also filed an application with the US Army Corps of Engineers for a major federal permit for the project—a critical step in the approval process. In response, UTBB’s work went into overdrive—the team organized heavily in the Bristol Bay area, conducting dozens of community meetings during the two-year permitting process. When the US Army Corps released the draft environmental impact statement, UTBB mobilized along with the coalition of allies and national NGOs, submitting nearly 700,000 comments in opposition to the project. Alannah became a well-recognized spokesperson for the local tribes, lobbying elected officials, creating alliances with national Indigenous groups, and engaging state and federal agencies in consultation with UTBB’s tribal leaders. By the time she testified before Congress in late 2019, she and UTBB had successfully solidified widespread bipartisan opposition to the Pebble Mine. The work paid off in November 2020, when the US Army Corps denied the project’s water permit, citing “unavoidable adverse impacts” to the local waterways and wildlife.

Seeing an opportunity to conclusively terminate the mine project under new EPA leadership within the Biden administration, UTBB redoubled its efforts. In 2021, following successful litigation, the EPA continued consideration of protections to the bay that would stop the Pebble Mine permanently. This required restarting the review process that had been conducted 10 years earlier. The process required two years of community consultations, virtual town hall meetings, and another round of public comments. Alannah’s leadership helped ensure that local opposition did not waver—over the course of the EPA’s work in Bristol Bay, more than one million comments were sent to the agency supporting protections for the region.

A Long-awaited Victory

After completing its updated environmental assessment, in January 2023, the EPA used its veto authority to cancel the Pebble Mine project, thus protecting Bristol Bay’s ecosystem—as a “globally significant ecological and cultural resource”—from billions of tons of toxic mining waste. The EPA’s veto—only the 14th in its history—prevents construction of one of the world’s largest-ever mining projects at the headwaters of Bristol Bay. The historic decision safeguards millions of acres of Alaskan forest, tundra, and wetlands that support one of the world’s last salmon ecosystems; and it protect an Indigenous people’s way of life that is sustained by the pristine lands and waters of Bristol Bay.

Today, as UTBB combats other proposed industrial encroachments into the Bristol Bay area and defends the EPA veto in court, Alannah and the coalition are working to codify protections of Bristol Bay into law through state and federal legislation. She, like her ancestors, remains dedicated to a sustainable, thriving Bristol Bay for generations to come.