Clean water advocates believe a seafood consumption survey among Wrangell residents might help in their push for higher water quality standards.
Together, the Wrangell Cooperative Association and the Southeast Alaska Indigenous Transboundary Commission will conduct a survey in Wrangell to determine the quantity and types of seafood community members consume.
The goal of the survey is to update the region’s outdated fish consumption rate, said Esther Aaltséen Reese, WCA tribal administrator. The metric is used by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the state to help determine water quality standards, as seafood is one of the ways people are exposed to contaminated water.
Currently, the state of Alaska uses an old, federally determined fish consumption rate of 6.5 grams per person per day, equal to roughly one bite of fish, in developing its water quality standards. This number came from a national survey in the 1980s — a survey that did not include Alaska or Pacific Islands, said Guy Archibald, SEITC executive director.
Archibald said there have been efforts to get Alaska to change its fish consumption rate for 30 years. He also mentioned that because the state is so large, there might need to be regional values and water quality standards, as fish consumption likely varies throughout the state.
The upcoming survey will ask Wrangell residents how much seafood they consume. Seafood includes everything that comes from the water: fish, shellfish, mollusks, herring eggs and beach greens.
WCA and SEITC are hoping to conduct the survey starting in May and continue it throughout the year. The demographics of those surveyed will reflect the age and other characteristics of the community, Archibald said. While participation in the survey is voluntary, participants will be offered a $50 gift card toward groceries or fuel upon completion.
Seafood consumption surveys have been conducted in Kodiak and Cook Inlet communities, but this survey will be the first in Southeast Alaska.
“Historically, tribes have been one of the few entities to be able to make changes with water quality,” Reese said, noting that tribes in Washington, Oregon and Idaho recently succeeded in updating their seafood consumption rates using similar surveys.
The survey comes at a time when concerns over water quality in Southeast Alaska are growing. Reese noted that Ketchikan has had major concerns recently — residents have observed changes in seaweed growth and fish populations and worry that it’s due to cruise ship traffic.
Concerns have also been growing over mining operations in the headwaters of the Stikine in British Columbia. Reese said part of WCA’s work with SEITC is to raise awareness. “Mining on the Stikine is extremely troubling,” Reese said.
Archibald said the higher the water quality standards in Southeast, the higher the water quality criteria British Columbia must meet at the border. SEITC placed the Stikine as one of America’s top 10 most endangered rivers in 2019.
In February, SEITC filed a 112-page brief with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, arguing that Canadian mining operations are threatening their right to a healthy environment and that Canada has failed to adequately consult tribes of the Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian nations.
Reese noted that the border between British Columbia is a colonial border — a border never existed when only tribes inhabited the land. She wants the tribes to be included in permitting reviews of the mines.
Red Chris, a large gold and copper mine located in the headwaters of the Stikine, is of special concern. The mine is owned in part by Imperial Metals, a company that also owned Mount Polley, a mine that had a tailings dam failure in 2014, resulting in hazardous tailings and materials polluting surrounding bodies of water. The Red Chris mine is bigger than Mount Polley.
If Red Chris fails, Reese said it would have catastrophic consequences for Wrangell and other communities near the Stikine. The mine is about 130 miles northeast of Wrangell.
According to Salmon Beyond Borders, an Alaska-based campaign that works to defend transboundary salmon rivers, there are over a dozen British Columbia gold-copper mines proposed or in development in the Stikine-Iskut watershed.
The Red Chris mine plans to extend mining operations until 2057 by expanding and shifting mining practices.
Archibald also mentioned that in addition to higher water quality standards for British Columbia to meet, the seafood surveys could help bring about changes to regulations on cruise ship waste, Alaska mines and contaminated site cleanup regulations.
But Archibald noted that all SEITC and WCA can do is provide data, and they have no control over whether the state will act. Reese was optimistic that the results of the survey might help apply pressure to get water quality standards updated.
“I want to encourage people to eat more wild fish — it’s healthier, it’s higher quality and it’s available. I don’t want to insinuate that there’s anything wrong with the fish. I want to ensure it stays this way by having adequate water criteria,” Archibald said.
The survey is funded by the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs with a grant of about $130,000, a budget that Archibald said has been difficult to stay within, as surveys like this typically take $500,000 to pull off.
Archibald noted that ideally this survey would have started a year ago, but that it was delayed due to new rules requiring approval from the EPA and an institutional review board. Previously, surveys have only needed approval from the EPA.
Wrangell is a guinea pig in Southeast Alaska for surveys like this, especially with new regulations making the process more difficult. But Reese noted that WCA is excited about paving the way for other tribes and sharing any of the experience and knowledge they gain.
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