1 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Draft Bristol Bay Watershed Assessment Record of Public Comment Meeting New Stuyahok, Alaska - Thursday, June 7, 2012

[00:00:08.17] _001 Dennis Andrews

Good evening. My name is Dennis Andrew and I am the Tribal Council President and I also sit on Stuyahok Ltd board and also BBNA. Just a few days ago I testified in Seattle, and what I

would like to see EPA do is stick with the schedul e and don't change it for testimonies. I think it is very very important. Also, what we want you to use 404(c) that we have been working on with the communities and another real big one is that we want to work with EPA in BB basin. We are not against EPA we want to work with you guys and I support the assessment. What is really important is that this country here, the Nushagak and the Naknek River, the salmon it is a real huge watershed. Our kings go up the Koktuli, both forks there. It's totally unacceptable for a big project in the headwaters of the Mulchatna, Koktuli and on the Nankek Kvichak side. This project is so huge; if it ever goes you could even see it from the moon. We cannot have that. It is our way of life here. Some of my trips, I went to EPA office in DC, and stuff that I've told them. This country is our dinner table. We have been surviving from way back, from early 1900's, from our old fishermen from sailboat days, all the way back. Our same fish still come back to these waters. To top it off, this salmon here, all the five species here, feeds the ocean also, not just the rivers. There are 40 million salmon that do come up and not just fish we are talking about our caribou and our moose, our ptarmigan, our berry picking. As we speak today, herring season has gone by. Bird season. They have been gathering eggs and stuff and now we are waiting on the kings to show up to survive through the winter. Like I said strongly, we support the assessment, what you guys did, and we want to thank EPA that they came out with the assessment. I want to thank you for coming to New Stuyahok and other villages, but as I said before, don't change your schedule. Stick to your schedule. Thank you.2 Sound files_002 and _003 Mary Hanson (Elder speaking in Yupik)

Translator [00:04:45.11]: I interviewed her before the meeting. Basically she talks about the same things she talked in Yup'ik. She rec ounts many years ago living above the Mulchatna. She recounts moving around to many places like the Swan River area. They lived off the land and they ate everything from it, and they used wate r. They gathered wild ferns, sour duck, wild celery and when berries were in season, they berries that were first harvested were the blueberries, followed by the black and red berries. They harvested in the springtime, April, they harvested ducks and woodland birds, geese. And in the spring time, before they migrated, upriver, they gathered pikes from creeks and streams and they also gathered whitefish and these were prepared, dried. They also gathered beaver and ground squirrels and she said we are here because our land and water were so pure. When my six children were young, we used to go to Lewis Point and there I subsisted salmon. In my day, she watched sailboats. Back then the pay was very little, but her Dad got bas ic necessities such as flour, sugar, coffee and tea. She mentioned also that the reason they are here today is because they lived off the land and today her children and grandchildren still live off the land.

Sound file _004 Natashia Neketa (Elder in Yup'ik)

Translator: [00:02:17.26]: All her life, she raised eight kids who are adults now. She worked very hard and worked hard on salmon. All of Stuyahok know, most of Koliganek and Ekwok know of this strong woman. She could run skiffs, we call boats with motors skiffs. She could go anywhere and gather wood. She put up fish and even went back and forth to Lewis Point with her family. She did that because she worked on salmon, she subsisted and she commercial fished. After commercial fishing was over there would still be fish she would return back to the fish campgrounds and quickly work to subsistenc e fish. She would fillet them, hang them, the works and then she said that she has a very heavy heart for our future on account of Pebble Mine, because she doesn't want Pebble Mine to go through. Many of us who work on salmon, we work really hard to keep our way of life. If Pebble goes through, we will have no fish to keep

us alive. Most of us are alive because our sa lmon kept us alive. We didn't have jobs many years ago, but we were rich if we had fish. We ice fished too.3 Sound file 005 Gust Blunka (Elder in Yup'ik)

Translator: [00:00:27.01] Some elders do not feel comfortable speaking - it’s not our culture to be up front: As long as I could remember, my parents relied on fish. My kids are adults now; they work on fish, salmon. I am very happy EPA support our fish and water and I believe we must keep our water clean.

Sound file _006 Massa Gumlickpuk (Elder in Yup'ik)

Translator: [00:03:16.25] As long as I could remember we ate fish as children. I lived here and when there was no school, we would migrate upriver and above the Mulchatna in search of food. Our salmon made us who we are now. When school opened here in Stuyahok we began living here. We raised our kids - me and my husband had six. Me and my husband, we used to transport to Lewis Point. We would put up salmon there and before I would leave we would put up dried pike, beaver, dried moose meat. My hu sband gathered from the land on foot. He was

a fisherman back then and he commercial fis hed. Today, because my children watched me putup fish they follow our footsteps. I have 20 grandchildren, 19 and three others that are greatgrandchildren. I want to thank EPA for keeping our waters safe and please keep fighting for our younger generation so they can have salmon in the future.

Sound file _007 Nick Wyagon (Elder in Yup'ik)

Translator: He was born in 1923 or 24. He was our first ancient singer and drummer, but now he is so aged he can’t hear very good. This is what he had to say: We are in perilous times in regard to the Pebble Mine. What our ancestors talked about is here. Greed. Those people talked about how we will have to pay for our water. It's here. Water is so important - we dig wells now for water. Me and my family spent many years putting up fish, salmon. I was a sailboat fisherman. My wife was a subsistence person. We survived on salmon. I was born in Nunamchuck(?) in 1923 and I was raised there. We used to relocate up the main river or anywhere above Mulchatna. I have a cabin up at the Mulchatna. It is used by my sons and great-grandsons when they gather fish and game. My ancestors had full access to all of Alaska. We lived, gathered and survived on this land, even to this day.4 Sound file _009 Natalia Wassilliey (Elder)

Hi. My name is Natalia Wassilliey and I am 66 years old. Grandma of 20 grandkids, the youngest will be 2 next month. Seven great grandkids. That is why I am sitting here now, to keep our lands and rivers the way that God gave them to us. The way they have been for generation to generation so that we could do our subsistence way of life. Berry picking, moose and caribou hunting, mostly fishing. Right now we are getting excited for the kings to come up our river. For everyone works together cutting fish. To dry, salt or vacuum pack for the winter. We do not waste anything, because we fish. Around here it is gold, gold to us which we treasure. When we fill our dry rack, we go walking and help one another. If we see another lady, whether it is an elder or a young lady, we stop and help. Sometimes without even asking we stop we ask for an Ulu(?) knife and we help them. We work as teamwork. If Pebble Mine goes through, we might as well kiss our subsistence way of life away. Even though they say nothing will affect our land or water, it will. Drainage will go to our water, which comes down the Mulchatna. Fish and the wildlife drink water and use water. Like right now. It's been raining for two days and the river has gone up. Our creeks will overflow. Nobody can say fish don't go to this or that river. It can't be stopped it can’t be fixed. If the Pebble Mine goes through and the drainage goes down to our water, nothing will stop it. It will go all over. In the future I hate to see a big ugly empty pit, which they leave once they take out the entire gold etc. Since it's not their land, they don't care how they leave it, because they are not from the surrounding area. If we went to their land and tried to do the same thing, they wouldn’t like it. They would try not to have us do the same thing. So please leave our beautiful land like it was even since before I was born u to now. I want my kids and grandkids to be able to enjoy our beautiful land and live off of it forever like we did. When I do attend Pebble Partnership meetings; that does not mean I am for Pebble. I go to learn more. Money tal ks. Even if it does go through, I want to know what we could do to help our kids and grandkids in the future. When I do go to Pebble Partnership and come back, I hear people say, "Oh, you are for Pebble." I tell them that is not true. I speak out and tell them that I oppose it. I oppose in their faces. I want to show a painting that was done by my granddaughter who is si tting there. She is seven years old, she said, Grandpa, you and my Nana, you put fish on the table and they are up there. And that brown up there is where we dry our fish and there are houses, a red one, and we have puppies back there in the cage. That goes to show you that even kids know something about our fishing. Thank you very much.5 Sound file _010 Sacally Wonhola (Elder in Yup'ik)

Translator: All of our elders here look after our youth as a whole and we have been talking with our kids and letting them know about the future and how they should behave and how they should grow up. You mention that in 1963 they would travel to spring places. Back in 1963 he went over to Newhalen, and not sure if he had been there before, but at the intersection from where the airport is to the store, there is a post office on the right hand side as you come into Newhalen. There were caribou and moose in abundance in that area. Now lately, there isn't any more moose to be seen in that area. He mentioned that we had five Russian guests who came down, and the salmon runs that they had and the bears that they had back in their day were was mining projects going on in Russia. But since they started development in that area, they no longer see salmon or bears. They inquired as to how we planned to stop the Pebble Project and how we are going to take care of the land. He also mentioned that our youth today are brought up in the technological world. They are taught the subsistence way of life, but today, most them o longer speak the Yup'ik language, and we should return to that.

Sound file _011 Timothy Wonhola

First of all I'd like to thank everybody who is sitti ng in here. I know many of you come from long ways and I appreciate what EPA has tried to do in each and every village that they have visited. Each resident that they visited are representing t heir village. I really r eally really cherish the water systems that we have around here. I chai red the watershed from its grassroots for six years as the chairman. Now Nunamta come into place to see that it became a tool for our future generations yet to come. It makes me happy to be part of that and to be part of an elder in this village now. Because there is so many thi ngs in life that we would really really like to have. One thing we really want is well bei ng of our families and well being of our surroundings and well being of our nature that we walk in for many years. We have kept it clean from our parents parents that gave it to us and thought about it. We learned from our parents how to take care of things and they in turn take care of us. We need to do that to the younger generations yet to come. I cherish the water so much. Because we have the feeling that nothing would be alive. We have so many things in common, everywhere I look in here. Clean water and the EPA can provide that. One thing that we know we live on laugh on perish on.6 There is three things we know on this planet. One of them is water. The other one is land. The third one is air. Without them there is nothing. That is why we need to cherish what remains. I would really like to see that happen. I really appreciate you coming from long ways to hear us out. Because once the mine goes through there will be so much banging of the dynamite that is blasting and for what 100 years. And if those things happen there will be nothing around the mining areas. Zero. The subsistence way of life that I cherish so much would be gone. For the younger generations yet to come we need to have that in place. Just like what Harvey Samuelsen taught me. No matter what happens, around your region, don't ever let the mining go through. Today I cherish his testimony on that. To pass on to the other generations yet to come. I really really appreciate all the important people who come to sit on behalf of behalf of New Stuyahok and on behalf of the other villages because this village is the first that would be impacted by the mine. There is other mines that we need to talk about besides Pebble in this region. I am also one of the state park members. I also cherish that, because in the park system there is so much fish that goes into spawning grounds as well as the Nushagak and the Kvichak and it would be so ugly to see that big mountains of tailings go, because the others used to tell me, one of these days this river will turn red and I know what red is - it is the orange color of tailings. That is what they used to s peak about the elders. Even in our church systems, our religion, water is blessed everywhere. We need clean water. It is a renewable resource. I really cherish those things and I thank you for coming and listening on my behalf. From my parents although they are long gone, I still cherish them. I cherish what is to come for future generations because I have a grandson now who I really love. He keeps me going.

[00:07:21.28] Jasmine Kritz

Hello. My name is name is Jasmine Kritz. I am 19 years old and the oldest of 8 children. I grew up moving back and forth between Togiak and Aleknagik and I currently reside in Dillingham. The fish has been a very big part of my life. At a very young age I was taught by my grandparents how to split fish and the proces s of drying fish. Unfortunately, if the Pebble Mine is approved and carried through with, I will no longer be able to continue to split or put away fish, let alone teach my own children or grandchildren one day. No matter how safe they say Pebble Mine could be, there is always the possibility of an earthquake happening or any

other kind of natural disaster that could cause a leak from the waste the mine has made. I am afraid that my generation could be the last to see the beautiful fish that BB has. If the Pebble7 Mine is approved. Please do what is right so we can keep on subsistence and commercial fishing for the rest of our lives. Thank you for listening.

[00:10:11.07] Heidi Kritz

Hello, good afternoon. My name is Heidi Kritz and thank you for giving me this opportunity. I am 17 years old and I am from Dillingham, but I was raised in Togiak and Aleknagik. Growing up in a traditional family, I was taught how to tell the difference in fish and how to process them properly. My sister and I started with trout and as my grandmother said, as you got older, you graduated to better eating fish like reds and more recently kings. At the start of my 8th grade year, I was asked what I knew about the Pebble Mine and I didn't know anything. This is when I learned that it would be the largest mine in North America, it would be seen from space and it would be right on the headwaters of BB. I actively became involved in a group called rebels to Pebble. I continued to spread the word on the effects this mine could bring to the environment and the native people. If this mine goes through our people would be devastated, because it runs the risk of destroying the most important part of our culture and our livelihood. Destroying the land we come from won't just affect my genera tion, it will affect many generations that come after mine. Please use your authority to protect our land. Thank you.

[00:12:17.00] Kimberly Williams

Thank you EPA for the Assessment of potential impacts on the salmon ecosystems in BB. My name is Kimberly Williams and I am the Executiv e Director of Nunamta Aulukestai, which is Yup'ik for caretakers of our land. Nunamta is a non-profit corporation whose membership includes ten Alaska native village corporations and 10 tribes located in the BB region of Alaska. Nunamta's mission is to establish a framework to collaborate in the mission of protection of lands and natural resources. I am the third chief of the Curyung Tribal Council, and I thank EPA for sitting down with my tribe in government to government consultation. It is too bad that the state of AK can't do the same. I would like to speak of the irony that the state of AK wants more time for public comment. You have scheduled eight public meetings and a 60-day comment period so that we the public could speak to the assessment and we will get another opportunity to comment at the peer review of the document. The state of AK should be looking to EPA for the right way to get public comment. The state attorney general Geraghty complains that 608 days is inadequate. He had the audacity to ask for four months for the public and state to address the technical and legal merits of this assessment. Yet, the audacity of industry representatives who express their alarm that the public isn't given sufficient time to respond. How ironic and how hypocritical. For the la st 24 years, the mining companies have been exploring for copper and gold on the state lands in the headwaters of BB, hoping to develop the largest mine of its type in North America. They have drilled 1200 bore holes some more than a mile deep and used fragile tundra and wetlands as their waste dump; criss-crossed subsistence areas with tens of thousands of helicopter flights and removed millions of gallons of water from streams and ponds that support spawning salmon and other freshwater fishes. They have done all that with the states permission without public notice, without inviting public comment and without public hearings. While AK regulators have permitted industrial scale exploration, they have never asked the public to comment on whether the state should permit in the headwaters of the world’s premier sockeye salmon fishery, nor have they asked the tribal governments who the federal government recognizes. Nor have they asked the indigenous people who are Yup'ik and Dena'ina, who are real people with an intact and thriving salmon based culture, which this assessment recognizes and sets out to get our comments about a mine scenario that could produce billions of tons of toxic waste that could be stored forever, held back by an earthen dam. Thank you for gathering the science and a mining scenario to address the potential impacts that a large scale mine will do to our salmon streams and the impact it will have on us as a people. We are represented by trustees for AK, and we went to court seeking, and here I will use some of the attorney generals own words "an adequate opportunity to address the technical and legal merits of the state exploration permit." The issue is on appeal to the state supreme court and the state adamantly insists th at the public has no right to even know about such permits in advance, let alone comment on them. The state systematically avoids any public notice before it grants mining exploration and water permits. They asked you for 60 days? They never asked us. Never. Even when the state does allow public comment, as it did for the Rock Creek gold mine near Nome. The comment period is half as long and the state is downright stingy in granting more time. It allowed the public just three extra days to comment on Rock Creek and they approved the project and then were forced to shut it down when the warnings from the critics proved accurate. Had the state been doing its job for the past two decades, it would have by now its own full record of public participation on the very issues raised by your draft assessment, and it would have undertaken its own analysis of whether exploration and development are in the best interest of the state. The state would not need 60 days to comment on the draft; rather they have been doing everything in their power both9 politically and through regulation to grease the wheels for development. They are ready to defend their rigorous permitting process and are quick to tell EPA "hands of Alaska" because their rigorous permitting process is out there. But I am here to say, their use of a marine land classification in their own Bristol Bay area plan is their way for them to make it easier for permitting. We all know in this room that there are no walruses around the Pebble site, so the marine classification used by the state is worthless. So, if the state of AK is interested in seeking public comment, through their exploration phase of the Pebble deposit, which is a large scale mine that gets addressed in your assessment, they would already know and conclude that mining at this scale would cause a loss of spawning and rearing habitat for both anadromous and freshwater fishes. The loss of wetlands that support migratory birds and habitat for other large game. I would like to speak to other comments that have been given around the region. It is not your role to solve for jobs in our region, nor is it your job to solve the declining population or the closing of the schools in our region. Your role is clean water and the protection of these waters. The regulations need to ensure that we have clean water. Thank you for doing this assessment and doing what the state of AK should be doing. Tell them that the comment deadline is July 23. Thank you.

[00:18:29.11] Luki Akelkok (Elder)

Hello EPA people. I'm glad you guys are around. I was listening to all the elders and they were saying what I was supposed to be saying. I'm an elder you know. I've here living all my life. We have been fighting this Pebble Mine since it started. We got this Executive Director there and started the Nunamta Aulukestai so we can protect our resources, or land and all that stuff and get involved with that and get an organization started. Then the Pebble Mine came and that is what we have been focusing on since the start of the mine. We have been at it since 2000 or 2001. There are a lot of resources that we are trying to protect. It would ruin all our clean water and land and everybody has the most clean land and water. It is going to pollute the land and then we tell it to the mining company in Reno out there and it was then we learned that it didn't look good. We went to a mine or two and kind of learned more about what would happen if the mine would ever go through. I've been in this from the start and sometimes it has been pretty tough. As I was listening to the elders, they say we got to start working together and have one voice because we don't have one voice. One voice will win. We need to get united and work together. The old people used to work together way in the back. The worked to protect native rights. In the olden days, the old people used to say (talks in Yup'ik). They talk10 about the salmon and it's already declining in the water of the Koktuli River. I've been travelling around up there a lot. It has been declining slowly. When I started there used to be so much sockeye and king salmon up there. I have a cabi n up there where they spawn. You could hear the fish splish splashing all night. Now you can't even hear them anymore. There is only a handful. I also go upriver and talk to those people who are sport fishing. Getting dropped off at Frying Pan Lake. It's changing. There are no more trout and no more kings and you look up there and there is no more testing of salmon. No more of those fish around where they used to be. You don't see so much bears anymore fishing at the river there. When there used to be a lot of fish the beach used to be just lay down with fish and you would see nine or 10 bears up there fishing. Now it is just going away. They call that the place that was a calving area for the caribou. Now I never see a caribou up there in the la st four or five years. Not so many years ago there used to be a herd of 200,000 caribous. That herd declined and now the Mulchatna herd moved up north. They have the collars where they followed them. There is a lot of stuff happening and I heard a lot of comments about Pebble Mine. The land is where we live off of. I started doing that when I was a kid. I used to help my grandparents. I only went to the 5th grade. I had to get out of school to try to put food on the table with the animals. All the resources we have on our land here. Our land is our food. I talked to some of these people and I heard some of the elders were talking way back. They used to fish salmon and the salmon weren't worth much. $100 would buy a whole worth of grubstake but now days it don’t. If the mine ever goes through, how are the people going to survive in the winter? Everybody stock up with

salmon and moose and freshwater fish. Freshwat er fish was never talked about much. They get the those fish, the white fish, and they put them in a cave and get them soft and it gets soft and sour like Tillamook cheese and then they are delicious to eat. They say you don't waste any fish. You put the heads in the ground and make some stinky heads and they are better than ice cream. Then they talked about guts, they mix them with guts. They put some clay with them. I was raised with the elders since my teenage years. I went to fifth grade. I wish I went to high school and graduated college. I don't know what I would be if I went that high. But I've been involved in politics since my younger days. I'm really against Pebble Mine and they don't come and talk to me. Some of them I say hey I know you for years and we need to talk. You know the EPA people are the key people to keep clear water and fresh air and all that. We did Clean Water Act way back and that went kaput. Somebody speaker up and ruined the whole situation. Some of you know who I'm talking about. That was sad. I was involved in the clear water and clean air. You hear most of the important issues from the elders and we don't want Pebble Mine. I guess that is enough.11 [00:27:37.09] Richard King

My name is Richard King. I am from downriver . I would like to thank you guys for coming. The assessment that you have done is really the only br eath of fresh air that we have gotten on this

Pebble Mine chair. You listened to the Nunamta chair and what she said about the state and the timeline for the public comment. The state does not grant us anything like that. We should do a 404(c) now and I read your assessment and I hav e a couple of quick points. On the water reserves for what the mine takes out - and puts back in there - that is not enough for us to navigate the river. On low water years we won't be able to traverse our boats across the sandbars because it’s only ankle deep. One other thing I notice is that you don't declare king salmon as an endangered species. They are the rare st of all salmon. In your own comments, you stated that 30% of them would be affected. Well a lot of them go up into the Koktuli and they spawn there. To lose that species even more would be a bad thing. I always attended the AK forum on the environment; John Shively and the Pebble Partnership were there. They would sit at the head of the room and we were forced by the state of AK to write all of our questions on a card and they screened all of our questions, they screened them all. The state’s request to make the commenting period longer I don't think that is the right thing to do. I think you ought to do 404(c) now. Were any of these people in Anchorage when you were there? Were any of the people in the BBNC room? We had asked him so he knows. We need to do 404 (c) now and that is all I got to say.

New sound file Bryce Edgmon

My name is Bryce Edgmon. I represent the New Stuyahok area as well as Ekwok as well as representing the greater part of the watershed area. A couple thoughts I would like to leave you with today since I have testified before. One is, I've been able to sit through the hearings and as time has gone on, I've been able to grasp the dynamics. Some of those dynamics are political in nature. Certainly the dynamics of the time line being extended is a non-issue. I've been able to observe at the meetings at Dillingham and Naknek that the attendance has been very robust and the people are very engaged and very active. I would argue that if you came out to get local testimony that you couldn't have come out at a better time, because you got12 everybody before both commercial and subsistence fishery season starts and this is the ideal time to get the testimony. In addition, I would argue that the political dynamic that all the entities who want to extend the comment period are well funded pro business and trade organizations that have a great amount of presence in Juneau, Washington DC, Houston, Vancouver BC. Wherever they are they have great access to tec hnical staff, legal staff. They have the ability to provide commentary on short order on anything that might come in front of them. Regarding the state’s request to extend the timeline period, I'm only left to wonder if the reason they need more time is because they have never come out and done an assessment on the watershed themselves. I don't think that they have. As a l egislator, I've ask them to come out and look at the entire area as a whole and a request that has many times over fallen on deaf ears. So I strongly support the assessment, I would request that going through this assessment as I did that there not be any major revisions to this study, that the assessment be allowed to move on into its final form so that it can be submitted to be part of the process. If the Pebble Partnership gets to the permitting stage this fall, we want this assessment done to have the ability to have your agency and all of its resources, technical and otherwise, to have had that broad brush look at the whole area, and to look at it, not only from a cumulative risk standpoint, but also from the ecological value. What is the value of this region, and how does it tie in on this perhaps small footprint that could have devastating impacts all over the entire area if it is allowed to go forward and there is some kind of catastrophe. I will close that I have had some time to reflect on the value of the assessment, and I think the true value of the assessment will rise above the Pebble Mine and any of these other prospective large-scale mineral developments because, as I look at the resources we have here in Alaska to put towards mega projects, whether it be gas pipelines or Susitna Dam or whether it is rare earth mining in southeast or other mineral development projects, our government agencies are strapped. We don't really have the manpower to be able to deal with all these project should they happen at one time, and there is the possibility that they could happen at one time. This assessment can help us in Alaska understand the value of this very highly productive world class watershed, but also lend itself to smaller projects in the future, whether it be extractive mining or any other activity that might take place here. I would like to say thank you very much for coming to ground zero of a project like the Pebble Mine, because they are directly downriver. I want to thank all the elders for testifying today, and I want to give my appreciation for the hard work you have done as an agency in putting this assessment together.13 [00:04:39.00] Jimmy R Hurley

My name is Jimmy R. Hurley and I reside in Ekwok and I am speaking for myself tonight although I sit in a lot of different positions for Ekwok. One thing I would say with this Pebble Project is that with everybody hem hawing and hollering back when things started, you should really appreciate Peter over here who opposed the mine when we were invited by Northern Dynasty. The first guy to stand up and oppose the mine because of the risks. It has been a long battle since then, and I bowed out on some of that stuff because I saw that there were a lot of risks, and I for one own a lot of property up there. I own land (listed several places) and also up close to mines. My concern is that when you implement something, you have to look at the land adjacent to it in this assessment. I have land that is going to be valuable that I will pass on to my kids. We see and we talk about by-catch . We are talking about kings today. As of today there have been 50,000 kings caught in the Bering Sea. No one is talking about that. There is so much to say for or against, maybe jobs and whatever, but even today, even EPA cannot tell us they can stop the mine because there is too much money in this. There is billions and billions of dollars. It's not to say that you ar e going to roll over and play dead, but you have a lot of people concerned about the future and who knows what the future is. If they did stop it, there are other areas over here where there are other mines, so I encourage you to think about that. When you take that home to bed, put it under your pillow and wish hard, but you can't get everything. It is going to be a struggle every wa y, whichever way you are looking. There are elders. My family and my wife’s family, t hey came in the 1800's and traded up and down the river. My grandfather was a good man and he helped all of the people. That is the way it is when you are there to help people who, you have to try. I'm not going to say too much for or against Pebble, but we got to live with it, everyone in the room has to live with it. If we stop it or we don't that is what is going to happen.

[00:09:13.20] Norm Anderson (Elder)

Thank you. First of all I would like to thank New Stuyahok for allowing me to testify on their tribal lands. I'm originally from Naknek. My church name is Nicolayo. I'm the Economic Development Program Manager for the BBNA. I’ve been there about five years. Prior to that I was on the BBNA board of directors. We established the EDC program. For those of you who14 don't really have the scope of what BB is, we have over 40,000 square miles, 31 villages, and 29 that are inhabited. About 10,000 native shareholders. We are led by the BBNC. Recently, the partnership of all the BB's, the health, housing, economic development and other corporations partnered up and put together the BB regional visions project. In this project, we travelled to each of the village twice and talked to the people about what they wanted to see in terms of education, economics, energy and commercial and subsistence fishing. This was to see how our corporations and associations could work together. It had nothing to do with mineral or hydrocarbon, although some of the villages thought we were gearing up for that, it was to put together strategic plans for our corporations, for our comprehensive plans for our tribes to work on. We needed to have the impetus to lay things out in programs before us. When it does come down to minerals and hydrocarbons, the cumulative impacts really need to be studied because, if we do have an influx of populations that come in here, our social programs are going to be impacted significantly. We don't have health care facilities to take care of more people. Are hospitals are being cut down. The federal funds, energy programs, educational programs, our schools are being cut. We have villages that are closing schools. Programs and budgets, police are being cut. All of the programs that affect us on a daily basis are going to be impacted because of the population increase. All of these people who do come in are going to be wanted to be subsistence or commercial hunters, and that will impact us as the competition for moose and caribou and fish increases. Everyone wants to come to BB and the draw for those who don't come out here to make it their mainstay, do so for commercial or support reasons. We are home to some of the largest animals and their numbers are significant, because we as native people were only taught to take what we need, as we live a subsistence lifestyle. It is crucial; it is the way we were taught. The reason we have plenty of lean water and berries and stuff is because we gingerly and carefully live in harmony with the land and only take what we need. We don't destroy the land where we get our berries, because we know that is where the animals feed. We can go back to the traditional places and hunt culturally for what we see around us. The abundance of food we shared today was what we referred to as our country food. It is a main part of our lives. If we were to go home and look into people’s freezers, you are not going to see chicken or pork. You are going to see berries and fish and that sort. It is the most important part; it is the common denominator for everything

we do in BB is to be assured that we take care of our land and our waters and our air. It is a very important part. I'm going to keep my comments like my Mom, short and sweet, because I think it’s important that as we get closer to ground zero you can hear the tension in the air, and I want to hear more comments from local people. Again, I want to thank New Stuyahok for the15 opportunity to visit, and I know as you flew in here that you saw how beautiful this country was and we want to be sure that seven generations from now they have that also. Thank you.

[00:14:31.27] Joe Chythlook

Good afternoon. You have heard from me a couple of times. I am Joe Chythlook. Chairman of BBNC board. Born and raised in this area. I share many of the same concerns that our people have. One point that I want to bring out is that Pebble Partnership claims that by talking the way we do, that we are trying to scare people. I want to say that ever since I was 2-3 years old I was scared of white people. It's nothing new. Anyway, we have a right to be afraid of what is happening, because we live in this land. Any risks to our livelihood, our lifestyle and our subsistence foods, our commercial fishing foods and all of our other foods that these people have shared with you today are all part of our cu lture. If there is any risk that you guys have identified and I'm glad that you have. I have spoken to several of those at other meetings this week. One of them is our king salmon. This river here is the main producer of king salmon in BB. If anything were to happen up in the headwaters to destroy that, a major subsistence food that we all love up and down river, even from Aleknagik where I am a tribal member, would be

lost. This is a concern that we all share. Then as far as the timeline for the assessment. I think we all agree, and I have heard most of the people who testify agree that your timeline is something that needs to happen as soon as possible. We have been in this battle long enough. We want to see something start happening that can assure Alaska native people in this area that our waters, our way of life will continue to be protected. For some of the young people, that the elders spoke about here, I have three grandkids, and it just so happens that my boy married some gal from Oregon. I asked my grandson where he came from the other day when I was in Anchorage visiting, and out of the blue, without me thinking, he said he was half American! What I'm trying to teach him is that being Alaska Native is just as American as anybody else. We have been here in America for many years. We thank you for your efforts to help us and I hope I you will put your assessment into practice as soon as possible.

[00:18:27.29] Wally Gust (Father Deacon - Elder)

I am Wally Gust. I am a Deacon with the c hurch here and you have heard Kim’s report to the state of AK and it is falling into deaf ears. I have notes here from 2007 from some of the youth16 that you see here. These are notes that they had written to the state of AK. You heard Kim say and I will say again, the state is not listening, so EPA I am going to ready briefly if I can go through these quickly and if I can't I will let you know. Dear representatives, I am in second grade. I want our land left alone. Dear state representatives, don't hurt our animals and our fish

and our land. Don't run our waters because we want to drink our water and we want animals to eat. Hi. My name is Malia (?) and we live in New Stuyahok. We don't want the state to let the Pebble Mine come here at New Stu, because we could eat and because we cook all of our stuff and have water and just get big if we have water from the river. I am a student at New Stuyahok; I know you want the mine to go through because of the money. Dear State Representatives, Please don't ruin our water and our animals. We could swim in the water we

could dive in the water. Please don't ruin our fish and our land. Even the moose and the animals. Please don't ruin our land. We want to go hunting for moose and so I can have some fish. I get emotional. These are from kids from five years ago and the reason that I bring this up is because the state is not listening to us. As a government to government relationship here, I ask that EPA exercise their authority to use their veto power so that we can put a halt to what is happening in our backyards. I will read one more here. Dear State, Why do you want to ruin our land in Alaska? If you ruin our land, we won't have any animals in Alaska. We will miss our fish and I will miss ice fishing and hunting. We won't be able to make animals. We live in New Stuyahok in Alaska. Why do you want to have the mine to come to Alaska and have money? I will miss picking berries in Alaska. These are testimonies from our kids back then. Our state representatives don't care about our land. We want to drink the water, swim, hunt and go fishing. I am sitting here with a bottle of water container. Should this mine goes through, the water that we drink when we go out hunting and ice fishing we will not be able to dip into the water and to drink it. We live a simple lifestyle. We drink the waters of the river. Think what it would look like if the tailings were to go into the river. This (bottle) is what we would be drinking out of. The money that we get from wages or from other means will be spent on water containers. We will be drinking water out of plastic. So please I am begging that you exercise you authority to veto the Army Corps of Engineers permitting process. Take into heart what you just heard. I not only read these to you from fi ve years ago, but I am presenting them to you now so that these kids who wrote these five years back, will have something to tell their children when they are parents and grandparents in the future. Thank you.17 [00:26:04.05] Annie Fritze

I am Annie Fritze. I am originally from New St uyahok. I live in Dillingham. I want to thank New Stuyahok, my home town, for hosting this event. I am a small business owner, relying on the beaver, river otter and other fur bearing animals to help sustain my skin sewing business. I am also a lifelong subsistence user and a mother of three children and four grandchildren who are here today with me, who enjoy our salmon, moose, caribou and other animals and plants. Since time immemorial, this magnificent and mostly untouched region has been home to many of its indigenous peoples residing along the streams and rivers for centuries and even the millennia. They follow the traditional way of life in subsisting off the land and mostly it's valuable natural resource, its salmon. Each year more than one million salmon return to the rivers and streams, where the salmon hatch and spawn for t he next cycle of life. So long as the salmon return to the Nushagak River to nourish its land and water and its people, all other animals will find haven and sustenance here too. The spawni ng and dying salmon help create the soils for berries, plants, grasses, shrubs and trees to take root and complete the miraculous circle of life. Water is very very important to us. Without clean water, life would not live. Of concern, is the development of one of the world’s largest open pit mines located near Iliamna and Lake Clark. This mine will lay on the headwaters of the Koktuli River, which flows into the Mulchatna, which flows into this beautiful Nushagak River, which then flows out to the Bristol Bay. Land and water have always been central to the lives of the people, providing a life of subsistence, opportunities and largely responsibility. Please act on 404(c) to protect our federal waters that mean so much to us. Thank you very much.

[00:29:28.03] Brian Fritze

This piece of fish right here, it takes water. Water is so important. There is a story I was told while going to school. It consists of three young men who they were almost out of fish and they couldn't get any food and they were wondering what was going on. They had one piece of dried fish left. One boy broke it up and the oldest boy, he went out to get food. He didn't come back, he ran out of food. The third brother, he went out and he was lost, he didn't have food. The last brother, he took the dried fish and he looked at his grandmother and he said I'm going to find my brothers. He found his brothers and he only saw skulls that remained on the side of the mountain. There is a cannibal that lived up there. You take the food away from us and the18 water that is important to this fish and then what we will have? Nothing. No food, no water. This mine will devastate us. It is important to us to have the water. In our tradition, we were taught orally and by watching and learning. Rec ently, my mom, she had broken her wrist, so I had to learn how to cut fish, because my younger si ster wasn't around or my older brother. She taught me how to make the water just right with the salt and make the fish strips, how to cut them down, how to fillet them. I have a lot of re spect for the women now, because that is a lot of work! Everything it boils down to is that this water is important to us. We go up every year and we go caribou hunting, me and my cousins. We don't take water with us because we know we can drink right out of the river. We go up the Mulchatna. Since we were 14 we have been travelling like this. We don't need to bring water with us. We could get it straight out of the ground as long as there is not beaver. Water is so important. It makes our fish and our food. Thank you.

[00:33:36.23] Randal A. Hastings

Randy Hastings. I appreciate and thank you for coming. I would like to thank you for listening to the seven tribes and working on this assessment. I strongly agree with it and I hope you push for it. Since I have lived here, 32 plus years, travelling up and down the river, I have noticed that ever since the mine started doing expl oration up in the Koktuli, the fish and game have been depleting more and more every year. So there has been some point of effect from exploration. It tells me that if the mine goes through it is going to kill everything. It will be devastating. Most everybody in this community and everyone I know who lives in rural areas live off the land as I do. Fish and game, berries and vegetation is our main staples of food. I appreciate everything you are doing and all of your hard work. Thank you.

[00:35:18.06] Anuska Oyaluk (Elder)

My name is Anuska Oyaluk from here in New Stuyahok Alaska. I remember when I was a little girl growing up, I used to be with my Daddy and my Mom. I know we would travel by canoe, we would travel by sled, we would go by foot. I remember lots of elders here in New Stuyahok a long time ago. We used to help them out, sharing our native foods. My daddy would talk to me and help me to try and understand them when they would talk to me in Yup'ik. Then we had no airport here in New Stuyahok. Then when I grew up, I remember when I was sick. No airport. I19 remember that when I was getting out they brought a helicopter. I was sick for a long time when I was a little girl. They took me some of our water, so I could drink our clear water. Long time ago our water used to be dirty. I can’t remember when they took me to the hospital in Anchorage and I never woke up. I was so sick. Finally, I wake up myself. Where am I and they told me I was in the hospital in Anchorage. For years I finally came back to New Stuyahok in 1965. We used to go most the time in a skiff, go cast and way up the year I follow up to the Koktuli and the Swan River, way up there. For maybe four days we are out in the fish camp. We keep on going and going and pretty soon we hardly see caribou, moose and where are the animals? Then we see one thing, I think that moose was along upriver at fish camp. I did not like to see like this anymore. Then when I first hearing about the copper mining, I was hurting. Because I did not like to hear about the copper miner. It might not work out that way. When I first hear it, but I think about animals long time ago. I used to see close by. Summertime, when I go to fish camp. The animals were really close by when I played down at the beach in the wintertime. Now I look for many years now and where did the animals go? They are not here close by any more. I reach back our ancestors, because I remember I grow up when we used to go picking berries. There was not berries growing very much. Hard work to find bears. We go out for that too. I think that one year or two years, we keep on going and going for like summer time is coming. We go all over. Finally the berries are growing after the berries are really growing we pick the berries. That way of my life. I like to eat native foods. I grew up like this when I was a little girl. I did not want to hear about any more copper mine. I am really against the copper mine. I think about more fish and animals that are all over. We used to help our elders many years ago until I grow up. Sometime, we think about having our fresh, clear water. That is our way of life and it is lost in a dark cloud. Please try to keep the clear water here in New Stuyahok for many years ago. We fi nally find some. I'm glad you guys are here. Thank you very much.

[00:45:29.06] Evan Wonhola (Elder)

First off, my name is Evan Wonhola and I am a council member. I graduated from school in 1973 and lived in New Stu all my life. Right after I graduated, I said to myself that I would live off the land and Sacally, one of the elders who spoke earlier, said I'm the youngest of the Wonhola boys. When I was growing up I said that I would be very familiar with the Mulchatna River system. It's where I trapped; it's where I hunted, and where I fished. I know that area like the back of my hand. I know the Koktuli, the south fork and the north fork, and I also know20 where my parents came from in Koliganek. They dog sledded over the mouth of the Swan River right next to where the Pebble site is. The one thing when I look through your assessment, the Swan River is also a flyway from the swans, the geese and all the ducks. It is a habitat area for the birds. One thing I wanted to stress - I noticed that after the Pebble Mine came in, because I was always fascinated by Mulchatna, my elders stated before, like Greg Moxie, an elder who is deceased, in fact he is now buried in below Stuyahok River - the old Stuyahok site - he stated to me before he died, that was God's country up there. I was fascinated by what that area would bring. While I trapped and hunted all those areas up there I've stepped foot on all those mountains. One of the deceased elders said - and it finally came to me after he was gone - that he used to say this is in Yup'ik (speaks) Our land here, even though there is a lot of money there is no value to the land (Yup'ik) There is no comparison to money. This land is precious. We were on our way to Lewis Point, I love to go there every year and bring my family. The grandkids that I have are looking forward to splitting fish, looking forward to packing fish. We do our subsistence way of life down there. But one thing that I wanted to bring out is that we do have graves down there. Our elders who were there before us. They were so close to the edge of Lewis Point that we had to move those graves to up the hill. We have been in our subsistence way of life for years and years. I feel that if the mine went through, this village will be one of the first ones to be affected. It is only 15 air miles from here to the mine. That is of concern for this community. I read in the assessment that one of the things that I questioned during the meeting in Ekwok, because I am familiar with the area, was that the NF and SF Koktuli - the mine is going to be in the middle. There is a lot of fresh

water that comes out of that mountain on the north side and the south side. It's a concern because it is a spawning area for the king salmon and other species, mostly king. My kids are really looking forward to going down to Lewis Point, and I told them we are going to be leaving after today’s hearing. They are learning how to split fish. My grandson is going hunting like I used to. He could walk for miles without me carrying him. Just to take one moose home or in Lewis Point he goes after fish. He takes that fish head and takes it back to the camp where we subsist. I want to say that I support the timeline that we are going by right now, and I thank EPA for coming out and hearing what we have to say. We are concerned. I have always listened to our elders; I am familiar with that area. That is my stomping area. Greg Moxie - now deceased - his very words before he got deceased - God's c ountry up there. Around here is trash. Up there is God's country there is wildlife abundan t. A lot of caribou, moose and spawning areas. Now, I can only recall only four spawning areas, but I support the EPA 100%. I'd like to see a delay in the mining because of our kids. Thank you very much.21 New sound file _013 Sally Gumlickpuk

I would like to thank EPA for working on the watershed assessment and for listening to the people of the region. My name is Sally Gumlickpuk . I am originally from New Stuyahok, but I moved to Dillingham. I work for Nunamta Aulukest ai and I would like to submit my testimony. I am testifying for my grandson who lives in the ci ty of Anchorage, but just lives his subsistence food. As soon as he came, he was eating fish in seal oil, and seagull eggs and (?) strips. We have practiced our subsistence ways for generations and want to continue doing that for the next seven generations to come. To keep on doi ng that, we rely on the clean water and the environment. So I urge you to keep with your ti meline as they people of the region have taken time from their busiest time of the year preparing for subsistence gathering and the coming fishing season. Again thank you EPA for holding your hearings in the village.

[00:02:17.01] Wassillie Andrews

Thank you very much for coming here to our co mmunity. My name is (gave Yup'ik name) and Wassillie Andrews. I too like to welcome you to New Stuyahok. I am a born and raised fisher and hunter and commercial fisherman like my dad was. He was my first teacher in subsistence and commercial fishing. I and my members here in New Stuyahok are very concerned about preserving our traditional and cultural lifestyle. We enjoy using this lifestyle that goes back thousands of years. Hunting for moose and caribou just to name a few. Fish for king salmon and to make trips to hang, smoke and salt fish to be used for cold winter months. Gathering spring plants and also berries. I still use my t eachings about this lifestyle and I look forward to leaving our village here on Sunday and going to our fish camp at Lewis Point. I am a commercial fisherman that turned captain in 1978. Salmon, kings, chum, reds, pink and Coho, also river whitefish, pike, grayling, rainbow, varden and arctic char need clean fresh water. On the post mine it is a major threat that will affect our traditional subsistence lifestyle. The elders, in the early 90's, and I have been a council administrator since the 1980's, 1981 through 2010 as the administrator; I really enjoyed that job for that length of time. The elders stated that this large scale mine would have a devastating effect. It will affect our traditional, cultural lifestyle. I support the protection of BB now, before permitting. I encourage you to use your 404(c) authority to protect BB. Again thank you for coming.22 [00:05:31.12] Sarah McCarr

Hi. My name is Sarah McCarr. I am a community associate for the Pebble Partnership. The Pebble Partnership views the watershed assessment as rushed and inadequate. Rushed because EPA has only spent 11 months on preparing the assessment. Rushed because the first public meetings on this 1,100 page document are being held only two short weeks after the draft of the report was released and rushed because EPA is allowing only 60-days when the people of Alaska are being asked to comment on the matter in the middle of summer. The current draft of the assessment is inadequate because EPA spent only 11 months studying and area of 20,000 square miles, while the Pebble Partnership has spent eight years studying approximately 1,500 square miles. Inadequate because the Pebble Partnership study is nearly 30,000 pages for this acreage and the EPA study is about 1,100 pages. And inadequate because their environmental studies were gathered and analyzed by scientists on the ground doing field research and EPA by their own admission did not spend time analyzing our data.

EPA should return in the fall when Alaskans have more time to review the material so that they can meaningfully comment on this assessment. We support the state of Alaska asked for a 120-day extension on the public comment period. EPA should take the time to do this assessment correctly or stop their work. The current approach is insufficient, inadequate and rushed. Thank you.

[00:07:55.03] Peter Christopher

My name is Peter Christopher, Sr. I am the Vice President for our traditional council. On behalf of the New Stuyahok traditional council, I welcome you to New Stuyahok and I want to thank you for putting out the Bristol Bay assessment. I like the data and the surveys that you put in the BB assessment. I want to let you know that what we do under the Nushagak advisory is that we work with Dept of Fish and Game and determine or they give us the forecast for our BB runs. This year in 2012, we are expecting 32.3 million salmon returns. The two major watersheds, which are the Naknek and Kvichak, is going to receive as high as 15 million salmon. The harvest for that 15 million is going to be 9 million. For the Nushagak, which is this river, the forecast for our salmon is 6.76 of salmon. For the harvest for Nushagak it is 4.65 million. Depending on the processing plants, they usually average 80 cents to a dollar or dollar23 fifty per pound of salmon that we get. They average 5-8 pounds each red salmon. For the kings, they use the major Nushagak. This river is the highest king salmon returns in BB. 25% of that, for example. 100,000 kings was forecasted of that goes up the Koktuli River where the mine is going to be developed at the headwaters. From the studies from the fish and game, and these are their official notes, like 25000 kings would come to the Koktuli. I have done summer research of the little fry’s that come to the mouth of the Koktuli and Stuyahok and Old Man River. The science group from Fairbanks out of the university were able to catch silver salmon, red salmon and king salmon fry’s. The little salmon t hat hatch up there. They stay up in those rivers for three seasons, three years. On the third year at the breakup, these young salmon go out with the ice. On this trip with the scientists it was successful and they applauded me for showing them where to do the samples and where the little fish are. Next, September, they are going to come back and they want to do the upper Nushagak River, the same thing that we did last year. This year’s return is forecast at 32. 3 million and that is pretty good. But some years it is higher - 35 to 40 million that comes to BB. History, a little history of this Pebble Limited Partnership is just formed recently by the Anglo-American and Northern Dynasty. When they first discovered the Pebble - it was the Cominco Company that discovered it in the late 1970 and 80. When they first came here to New Stuyahok, the people here said "We don't want the mine to be developed up there." Afterwards, Northern Dynasty came in after Cominco. They came around to the village and we said the same thing, that we didn't want that mine to be developed in the uplands of the Mulchatna and part of the Naknek Kvichak watershed. When Northern Dynasty come back with Anglo-American out of London based, they formed the Pebble Limited Partnership. We are the true people of Alaska who live here. We haven't moved. Bishop Gregory said we had the best resources on this river. You didn't need to go to the store to buy meat and fish. We have it here. That is what we want to protect and preserve. We have been fighting it for years. It is not new. Fighting the Pebble now. When we did the study with the DNR, one of the things I stated is that either EPA or DNR have to listen to the original people, not the foreign companies that come into our area and try to develop mining industry. We are concerned about the resources and the fishery and I've given you the forecast that we are expecting. It is not only that, as an elder said earlier, our Mulchatna caribou herd has moved away from the Pebble exploration becaus e of the noise factor. It was already stated during the report that the cause of the herd moving away was because of the noise. They moved up to join the Kuskokwim caribou herd. About 25% of the caribous that used to live around the Mulchatna moved up to major upper Nushagak River. We would like to say that we are concerned. Even the village council, the corporation and the city of New Stuyahok has24 written a resolution to the legislature, the delegates and the congressmen Don Young before Ted Stevens also to him - a joint resolution opposing the Pebble Mine. We all signed it from the three community governments and entities. I have a lot more, because I have been on this subject for a lot of years from the start. Thank you again for coming to New Stuyahok and listening to our concerns, because we have been commercial fishing since 1967. I became a captain while I was going to high school in 10th grade because my old man couldn't fish anymore. I provided for my family. The only thi ng I take is 100-150 dollars from fishing. The rest went to my family. I didn't care as l ong as my sisters and my family had money for the winter. Now days, kids and myself know that you couldn't make it on 10-150 dollars, boarding down south. To let you know that I am a commercial fisherman, a hunter and trapper - both rivers - Mulchatna and Nushagak. This is BB watershed table. The resources that we have.

[00:19:32.24] Peter Gumlickpuk

Hello. Peter Gumlickpuk. I am the coordinator for the New Stuyahok Tribal Council. I'm glad you guys came and I hope you work with this 404(c) to make it go through. Why? Glance outside and see how beautiful it is. A renewable resource that goes every year and with this mining that is coming up, will you see that if you come back in ten years? Will you see the renewable resource out there, that girl? We have heard about water, about how precious it is. Anybody that doesn't drink water will die. Our plants will die. Our animals will die. Our little fish that depend on little bugs will die. They call it a hard name that I can't pronounce - they are microinvertebrates. When they die, our little fish will die. When it is developed you hear about hydrology. These microinvertebrates live t here and our salmon depend on them. If the mining goes through, we will have nothing. Little bugs that I study all the time, when I sample and check the creek, will be no more. I fear for my little grandchildren that are growing up. You have seen a lot of testimony on different subjects, but for me, your pictures are so beautiful. Will you see this when you come back? It is God's country out there. When they EIS statements come from Pebble to state, the state will look at it and say, "Wow, looks good." They will give them that permit to do mining. With that 30,000 pages of the stuff that is given to the state they say hey, that looks good. Here we have been fighting to protect this watershed for a year and they say we are working too fast. We aren't working too fast, we are fighting to keep you to do the right assessment for our watershed and I hope y ou guys will continue to work on this. Thank

you.25 [00:24:01.17] Moxie Andrew, Jr.

Good afternoon. I'd like to thank EPA for doing a great job on protecting our environment. Tome it's not too fast assessment, it's not rushed, to me, what I was worried about AngloAmerican, they had their own scientists going out and doing their own studies and frankly, I wouldn't trust them. I'm glad EPA came in with their own assessment. They may use other data elsewhere from scientists, I'm glad you did that. You are getting bad comments from the state and Pebble, but I commend you guys for doing a good job protecting our way of life. Our lifestyle it maybe subsistence, commercial or sport fisherman, but in the long term it's beneficial rather than the short term profit interest of a big company which profit won't come to Alaska it will go to foreign companies. That is not a very good thing. That is for their narrow interests. Anyway, I am Moxie Andrew Jr. I am Stuyahok Ltd, President and land manager. As Pres. of a native corporation who manage their lands for subsistence purposes. We continue to do it today and practice a subsistence way of life. Before, our ancestors, they were somewhat nomadic, they moved up the Mulchatna and here and there. One of the reasons they moved to this location was flooding up in the upper Mulchatna and Koktuli. There is a lot of precipitation and a lot of snow in winters. One of the reasons the elders picked this area is because it was rich environment. There are trees, willows, big gam e, small game. Salmon is the main source it’s why we have such a rich environment. Just li ke my farm land in the lower 48, they get their growth. Here the salmon play a big part of it. They spawn and they die and all of the small and big game and the land and the plants rely on them. It is like a fertilizer for this area, which is very important. One of the elders I spoke with in Koliganek before he passed away, said that salmon is very important, even the salmon fry. Before, they had starvation in this area a few years back, and what they survived on was sa lmon fry, because they had no big game like moose and the salmon fry to keep them from starving. On your assessment one thing I saw that was lacking is about whitefish. When there are low numbers in salmon, the people eat a lot of whitefish. It is sometimes called humpback. We get those during the spring. They are a migrating fish, maybe freshwater, there are little studies. From the lakes in the spring, they move into the rivers and the sloughs. We just got done with that. We kept whitefish if there were no salmon. Like in the sport fishing section, they said that 190,000 trout was caught, what we rely on is whitefish. They migrate just like the salmon, maybe at four or five years of age they spawn. They run up the rivers to the lakes. Tikchik Lakes and others, maybe Swan River. The do go up and spawn. The fall we catch those too. I catch maybe 200 whitefish to put away for the winter and I sundry them. Also, I barter and trade with people who live on the coast for26 seal oil and herring, clams. Some people say they are more sensitive than the salmon when they run up their streams to go spawning. This is by word of mouth. There is little studies on this, but I would like to see more of that in the assessment. People mention caribou, and my concern is migration in calving grounds of the caribou in this area. In this area there are five areas where they have caribou. They are S Peninsula, N Peninsula, Mulchatna, Nushagak and there is one more. There is also one more herd in the Naknek area. The calving grounds are in the upper Mulchatna and the small groups that calve in the Koktuli area, and they are not very far from the mine site. My concern is with calving, because in the 1980's the population was 18,000. In the 1990's it went up to 200,000, and now in 2008, the last time I looked, they are down to 30,000. Some could be due to predators. In 1998 we see caribou limping around they had foot rot, in 1999 they had lung worm. In 2000, 6 out of 10 had bacteria in their lungs or lung worm and we have global warming where in the spring it warms up and thaws and freezes the ground where they had food, possibly the lichen. As Peter mentioned they have migrated up to the Kuskokwim and they are started to calve in the Kemuk mountain area. I don't want to put any more stress on them and be like the lower peninsula where they had to cut off hunting for

caribou. I don't want to see that. I don't want to see more stress on the caribou. That is one of the main food sources that we have. I don't want to see that mine because there are dams, there are tailings deposits, and there may be a pipeline and a road and where they store their tailings. It is too much of a risk. In the assessment you say 1 in 1 million or 1 in 10,000, but accidents happen. I don't want to see that. Accidents do happen, whether it is human or Mother Nature who rules over everything. I don't want to see that. Especially the long term, in perpetuity if they leave the tailings and the dam , who is going to keep an eye on it? One spill and they devastate this whole area. I want to thank you and consider keeping this for our future generations. It's international now; we have a people who come from all over the world who

come to this area.

[00:33:08.01] Rachel Panamarioff

First I would like to tell you how I became me. I am the granddaughter of Simon and Wonhola Sr.; I am the daughter of Evan and Dorothy Wonhola. My name is Rachel Panamarioff. I am a teacher. I will be with the school district in Barrow. For five years, I taught here at home. I'm still getting nervous, because what Wally showed ear lier, that was my group. Last year I was able to teach as a Yup'ik teacher, and that was the most rewarding experience as high school students learned our traditions, values, language and culture. Most of all, they worked with our27 elders every day. Our highlight was when the students learned how to cut fish, split, smoke and can with the help of the elders and school staff. In our subsistence class, students learned how to mend nets, make Ulu's, make ice fishing poles , to even tasting frozen white fish. Every year, my family, my daughters, we get excited to move to fish camp. My whole life, ever since I was a baby, I go. There we are taught our family values through our tradition of cutting fish, and just being there at fish camp. My two older girls, one is 14, the other is 10, already know how to split fish. I do expect my 8 and 4 year old to do as well. Even though my family and I will leave for the school year, we will come back home for the summers more excited than ever to go to fish camp. Even though it was a week before moving, my daughters, they are always packed to go to Lewis Point. If we were to lose this way of life with the mine going through, we will not only lose our traditional way of living, but also our culture and values. Our people will be lost and without an identity. Recently through APIC? and BBNC to Texas as a teacher in a week to work with others on electrical and engineering opportunities so that the younger generation, instead of trying to go and work at Pebble, they will be able to look at other college opportunities. It doesn't mean that I'm for the Pebble personally, but as an educator, I have to teach both the pros and the cons. Thank you for coming.

[00:37:20.16] Lucy A Weedman

First of all I would like to welcome you to our community. My name is Lucy Weedman. I was just thinking about what Father Deacon presented and I get emotional when I think about the mine coming through and destroying our way of life. Anyways, I was born and raised here in BB. New Stuyahok is my home. I consider it to be my home town. It will be one of the villages that would be affected by the Pebble Mine if it does go through on the Nushagak River. I am giving testimony today as a subsistence user. I am an avid subsistence user of the Nushagak River, the fish that it provides and all the other animals that we subsist for here. Our lifestyle, especially today with our economy, everything is getting higher and more expensive. I know we pay for our food that we pay for triples all the time year after year. My family, as well as other families, depends on this watershed. I would also like to point out that Alaska is considered to be one of the last frontiers. I want to also say that BB is one of the richest and purest and most pristine of all of Alaska put together. Only because it doesn't have any existing mines right now, except for the exploration that is going on. Our watershed is pure and pristine and it holds all five species of the salmon we subsist for. It sustained my family as well as other families year round. I want to point out that not only does the salmon rely on the watershed, the other28 animals that we subsist for; moose, caribou and other wildlife we gather is in jeopardy of becoming extinct with the Pebble Mine coming through. We, the indigenous people of this river here will also be jeopardized. Our lifestyle, our way of life, and it won't be no more. I am a grandmother of five and hopefully more. When mining started being talked about a while back, my first thought was wow, there are going to be jobs available for our people here. But I was very uncomfortable with the word mining, so I did my own research. The more I learned about the mining world, I didn't like what I was reading and I didn't like what I found out about what mines could do to our land and especially our water. In mining, you use a lot of the water, lots and lots of water. Our waters are very sensitive, especially for the salmon we rely on. In doing the research on mining, that our watershed, in the whole world you won’t find a pristine pure watershed as we have here. It holds all five species of the salmon that we harvest and we hear about salmon farming. The farmed salmon that we hear about it doesn't even come close to the

salmon that we have here. I'd also like to refl ect today on Luki Akelkok's testimony. He said that the exploration that is going on right now and he mentioned that the other animals out there. My husband and family, we use the upper Mulchatna to hunt. I'd like to reconfirm that the animals and fish that used to be up there are already disappearing. Every bend of that river we used to come across some form of game up there. Now there is nothing. I'd like to thank EPA for doing the assessment and as a subsistence user in this region. I'd like to ask EPA to invoke everything you can to ensure that our watershed is protected to the maximum of what you can do for our region. Thank you again for listening.

[00:43:58.19] Gregory Chunak (Elder – began in Yup'ik)

(Then in English) I hardly catch any fish in my cabin up river. Maybe after big shake. The ground moved around in Anchorage a long time ago. After that the whole river used to be lots of fish. I used to see all kinds of fish. Rainbows, sockeyes, any kind of fish because I have the cabin, way up the Mulchatna below Luki's cabin. I used to see all kind of game. Any kind of animal. Now they are getting lesser and less. Hardly any, maybe come from after that big quake. It's really changed. Before that earthquake there used to be lots. Then we start watching before. If the mine goes through, everything is going to be gone. I used to work with Pebble looking for oil. I used to work down the coast looking for oil. They use water from the lakes. They do the same thing with these mines they will use even more. Pebble will use lots of water. It is no good. If it is bad. We have lots of little creeks up there. I have been travelling to my cabin. It is God's country up there. Really beautiful, but it is changing. The river is29 changing; even the little fishes are going away a little bit at a time. The last spring I go up I hardly see any caribou anymore. Every time I go to the cabin I use to see caribou in the river. Now I don't see them no more. Even moose, even Beaver, no more.

New sound file _014 Gust Choknak (Elder in Yup’ik)

Translator: He is a tribal elder. He told the translator that where the Pebble Mine is located is where the caribou migrated. Now that isn't happening. The water will be contaminated. We all live on water, beaver, muskrats and many other anima ls rely on this fresh water. He noticed now days - he is a moose hunter too - moose liver getting holes. Some of these he is bringing up because it might be the exploration. In the past he didn't see this. In the many years the exploration has been going on, he wonders if it is affecting the moose from the Mulchatna area. We speak to preserve what we have for our children and future generations. Gold comes and goes and that is it. Salmon comes every year. If mining happens it will be like the gold and it will come and go forever.

New sound file _015 Okalena Andrew (talked with translator in Yup'ik)

Translator: This is Okalena Andrew. She is one of the oldest elders in New Stuyahok. She thinks she is 92. She said that I don't want our land spoiled by machines. When I die I want our ways to continue. My husband was a reindeer herdsman. He roamed free all over this area, because he took care of reindeer. She understands why you are here and she says thank you EPA for coming to us.

[00:01:53.20] Margie Hastings

I am Margie Hastings and I am the Secretary of the New Stuyahok traditional council. I am in support of what EPA is doing. We finally have an or ganization that is taking a very difficult step looking at protecting our salmon, our water and our natural resources and our livelihood. We respect our land, water and people. We take only what we need. Mining company works hard to get what they want, even if it means destruction. We teach our children respect. Mining shows disrespect. That is all I have to say.30 [00:03:13.10] Thomas Weedman

I'm Thomas Weedman. I am a resident of New Stuy ahok. I am a subsistence user pretty much since the day I was born. This goes beyond my time. I can relate to my grandmother who passed on at least ten years ago. It was believed that she was 105 and I can relate to the lifestyle she had. I think she was a reindeer herder like some of these elders were saying. I can only imagine how did our elders live so long, so long that they live up to 80 to 100 years. It is very obvious that they were drinking pristine water and the lifestyle of food. Those fish and habitat were untouched by mankind. These were God given. They were so pristine that they can live that long. I want to live that long, but now days we keep hearing all these cancer coming in and I can relate that to cyanide that they want to use to take the gold out of the rocks. That is the easiest way to take the gold out. When we have this cyanide poisoning, it's going to come down our rivers and it will lower our lifespan. I went to a mining meeting in Bethel. It was said to me that cyanide as small as a grain of rice can kill fish. If we have the dumping of water that comes down to these rivers, how many more fish are we going to lose? The wild salmon and the fish we eat throughout the river. I can go out during the winter and even the frozen river, it provides me with water. The fish we eat and all the beaver and the muskrat that they have eaten a long time ago. For me in my perspective, Pebble Mine is a wasteland that is knocking at our doors. That wasteland is going to be taking out our way of life and living. I can just tell all the pros and cons, but for me Pebble Mine will take that living and lifestyle away from us. Thank you.

New sound file_016 Anna Gust

My name is Anna Gust. I don't usually talk in fron t of a crowd, but I just want to thank you for coming to our village and we support you in whatever you are doing. The thing I want to say is that we should preserve what God has created and not try to destroy it, meaning the mine. We should preserve what God has created. If you sampled some strips earlier that was what my family brought, and I also wanted you to taste something that our family enjoys doing - the jerky. If you notice the pictures that you downloaded to your computer, we take pride in what we do.31 [00:01:14.12] Father Alexie Askoak

I am Father Alexie. I am the Priest at the church here in New Stuyahok. What I want to share with you on January 19, we go down to the river to bless the water. For us it is very important that we maintain and keep our waters clean. Another part that I want to share is that every summer, we participate in subsistence gathering with fish. Even my two grandsons are excited to help us out when we are working on fish. I am very supportive of EPA and I'm glad that you are here. In the back of my head I'm always hoping that someone will come that carries something that will help. I asked someone how much weight you carry. He said that this could be it. I encourage all of you to help us out here and to keep our waters clean, so that every year, the church can continue to bless the waters here to make holy water for our people to use.

New sound file _017 Chief Moxie Andrew

I have a celebration for Pentecost if you could read it. It says blessed art thou oh Christ our

God who has revealed the fisherman as most wi se, by sending down on them the Holy Spirit. Through them thou dids't draw them into your net oh, lover of men. Glory to thee. That is the blessing of the nets and blessing them for people to use.

Separate sound file Ryan Brennan



### NOTE: Testimony was taken on Friday, June 8 th 

### , 2012. Mr. Brennan had to unload a barge that was at New Stuyahok, worked all night, and was unable to come back to the public meeting. EPA staff told him that he could submit his testimony at anytime they were still in the community. EPA staff did not have the digital recorder when Mr. Brennan approached them while they were walking around the town and so staff used a ce ll phone camera to record his testimony.

Hi my name is Ryan Brennan and I am from Dillingham, Alaska and I have lived up in this community, New Stuyahok, for the past three years. We are opposed to the Pebble Mine simply because of the natural resources and wildlife that sustain us, help save us quite a bit of money that we can’t afford for food and what not, our way of life for thousands of years. With this pebble mine and where it is at, especially on the fault line, that ring of fire fault line, you know anything can happen. Anything man m ade that we have ever experienced has had32 problems. I was actually. .. In Dillingham couple years ago, Sir Mark Moody where CEO of Anglo American at the time, he said it will never break, never leak. One thing history has told us can be destroyed, anything man made can be destroyed. Mother Nature can destroy it. I had the guy stuttering actually, I said, “what are you guys going to do for us if the dam breaks and you contaminate all our wildlife - our wild salmon and fishery and everything?” He started stuttering, uh uh uh there will be legal issues put in place. I said, I realize you will have legal standbys for it, but that takes time, and if you contaminate our fish and that starts making us sick and what not, our children and everything. Those legal issues take time. We are going to need food now, who is going to take care of that? He could not provide me with an answer. So, yeah, it’s a bad enough scenario. From what I know it is not even American owned, it’s going to be owned by another country, just like our oil. We ar e not really going to profit nothing off of it. They are just going to strip our lands, and we won’t see next to nothing. As for the economy of it, they say will provide jobs and even then its pick and choose who you know type of thing. There is not much opportunity for us locals to get on there. They will hire one or two of us to pacify the laws and then it will be who they want in there and their company people. But Also you know with The wide variety of fishes we have here, reds, kings, dogs, chums, whatever, and trout, grayling, pike, white fish, trout, chums, and all the other animals the wolves foxes and bears and everything that sustain off that. This watershed feeds other nutrients into and other nutrients like berries too. If the Cyanide chemicals, sulfuric acid, whatever they use to strip all that, gets into our environment it’s going to kill everything off. So, It’s not going to be very economically positive for us, it’s going to be Envi ronmentally damaging in severe ways, if there is a natural disaster, this is the last and largest fishery that’s left that’s not contaminated and other kinds of things. So, I am not looking forward to the Pebble Mine, at all. Yeah, it’s just not good.

********* 

### Note: This is not a certified transcript. This record of oral comments was transcribed by Judy Smith, EPA Community Involvement Coordinator fr om audio recordings taken at the EPA public meeting held in New Stuyahok, Alaska beginni ng at 1:00 p.m. on Thursday, June 7, 2012. Every effort was made to transcribe the testimony a ccurately, but there may be errors or omissions because of background noise during the meeting or the sound quality of the recording.