The Bristol Bay region of Alaska has had a sustaining salmon fishery for thousands of years. The area is filled with different Alaskan wild animals, the people of the region have this unique culture like no other, and the amount of freshwater in the region is only dreamed of in the Western United States. The proposed Pebble Mine, the largest proposed open pit mine in the world, would be built at the headwaters of the largest salmon fishery in the world. In this paper I focus on how water is becoming a scarce resource globally and also the connection of head streams and down streams of a watershed, focusing on the Bristol Bay watershed. Members of the region contribute to my research showing their value towards water and also are able to give their thoughts on some aspects of the proposed Pebble Mine. If contamination of our precious resource, water, occurs, the region will be a distant memory, a culture, civilization, and way of life vanished and what was once beautiful is replaced with tailings ponds holding 10 billion tons of toxic waste and an ugly, monstrous open pit, all of which will be there in perpetuity.
