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Tim Sohn is a freelance journalist based in New York and a Correspondent for Outside Magazine.

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"Operation Hollywood," a behind-the-scenes look at action film Act of Valor and the active-duty Navy SEALs who star in it.

"The Novelist," an interview with octogenarian writer James Salter, unrivaled prose stylist and all around legend, in Outside Magazine. 

"Artists in the Convent," a New York Times piece about a struggling Brooklyn parish that's opened its doors to artists.

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"Graveyard Shift," a look at midwestern skiing at Paoli Peaks, Indiana, Skiing Magazine; read it here.

"The Life and Death of Shane McConkey," Outside Magazine; read it here.

"Gold Fish," a feature on the salmon fishermen of Bristol Bay and their fight against the proposed Pebble Mine, Outside; read it here.

"Everyman's Everest", a first-person account of my climb of Aconcagua (22,834 feet), Men's Journal; read it here.

 

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Friday
May212010

BP's Problem now Pebble's Problem?

DateFriday, May 21, 2010 at 10:25AM

As oil continues to gush into the Gulf of Mexico and we continue to await the environmental disaster sure to unfold along the Gulf coast, people in Alaska have been thinking not just about the past--the Exxon Valdez spill--but about the future of the Pebble Mine. What the spill has laid bare is the potential for catastrophic accidents, no matter how much we are assured that the technology is "fail-safe" and the plan reasonable.

As articles like this one in the Tundra Telegraph are beginning to point out, it's a question of risk tolerance, and, in light of the BP debacle, the potential for any damage, even if it seems statistically unlikely, is too much. And then there's the cost issue:

Who pays in the event of a major catastrophe? The current bonding rate for performance and reclamation does not even touch the potential damages to such an eco-rich region. The state of Alaska by default will be underwriting this whole misadventure.

Others agree. Jack Caldwell, a retired mining geologist who blogs at ithinkmining.com, has posted about what incidents like the Gulf spill teach us about the blind spots of such corporations, particularly when dealing with the "perpetual" timeframe. He writes:

Does Alaska have the law, and does Anglo American have the money to close the Pebble Mine waste facilities to remain stable for 1,000 years, a long time, or in perpetuity?    If the state has not the law, and Anglo has not the money, it is only a matter of time before the wastes spill down the rivers to the sea, like the oil spills from the ground to the oceans.  It is but a matter of history repeating and elementary statistics.  That is unless Anglo can hold back the forces of nature forever.... Extreme accidents do occur–even to big companies who have statisticians to calculate the odds, but not money enough to pay the costs.

Of course, some of the "costs" of such an accident go well beyond what any amount of money can repair.

AuthorTim Sohn | Comment1 Comment |

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