International agreements are not based on trust and a handshake \u2014 they\u2019re based on binding commitments, enforceable treaties and other specific measures to hold each side accountable. President Ronald Reagan once quoted the Russian saying, \u201cTrust, but verify,\u201d to emphasize verification procedures were necessary to ensure both sides complied with arms control treaties.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Today, the State of Alaska is \u201call trust\u201d but \u201cno verify.\u201d British Columbia is mining at the headwaters of the Taku, Stikine and Unuk watersheds. Any small error could irreparably damage our fisheries. Even though headlines have recently referred to a \u201cStatement of Cooperation,\u201d there has been no support in Southeast Alaska where we will bear the brunt of B.C.\u2019s mining development risks with no benefit.<\/p>\n
While the Statement of Cooperation is largely focused on increasing Alaska\u2019s participation in B.C.\u2019s mine review process, there is no guarantee of protection, as shown by Mount Polly and the Tulsequah Chief Mine.\u00a0Alaska would not have an equal seat at the table with any decision-making power. Nothing in the statement is binding or funded. <\/p>\n
After the Mount Polley mine disaster and the continuing pollution from the Tulsequah Chief mine, how can Alaskans trust the B.C. permitting process? We need to protect our water and our fish.<\/p>\n
Monica Southworth,<\/strong><\/p>\n Juneau<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" International agreements are not based on trust and a handshake \u2014 they\u2019re based on binding commitments, enforceable treaties and other specific measures to hold each side accountable. President Ronald Reagan once quoted the Russian saying, \u201cTrust, but verify,\u201d to emphasize verification procedures were necessary to ensure both sides complied with arms control treaties.\u00a0 Today, the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":14,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-27472","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-letters"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27472","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27472"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27472\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27472"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27472"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27472"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=27472"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}