Argentina Amends 2010 Glacier Law to Permit Mining in Periglacial Areas

The Pebble project would require storing tens of billions of tons of toxic waste in perpetuity and would be located at the connected headwaters of the Nushagak and Kvichak river systems. Alannah Hurley, executive director of the United Tribes of Bristol Bay, won the 2026 Goldman Environmental Prize for North America. Her Yup’ik name is Acaq.

Three different Indigenous groups live in Bristol Bay: the Yup’ik people, the Dena’ina people, and the Alutiiq people. "Our homeland has been stewarded by our people for thousands and thousands of years," Hurley said. " Indigenous communities in Bristol Bay have stewarded the land and water for thousands of years.

In 2010 the tribes of Bristol Bay petitioned the EPA to prohibit all mines like Pebble within the Bristol Bay watershed. The EPA finalized protections to stop the Pebble Mine project in January 2023. Northern Dynasty Minerals is the Canadian mining company that proposed the Pebble Mine.

The company, Northern Dynasty, the state of Alaska and a few others have challenged the EPA protections in court, Hurley said. Hurley’s grandmother was Mancuaq and she passed away in 2019. "It’s hard for me not to get emotional talking about her, because even now, even in all the different experiences in my life, everything important, the most important things that have helped me navigate life in a way that has been good and, you know, really grounded in love and respect and kindness came from her," Hurley said.

The Bristol Bay victory remains subject to ongoing litigation under the current administration. Hurley noted that the Trump administration has so far continued to defend the EPA’s action in court while the tribes pursue legislation to address the other 20 active mining claims throughout the watershed.