A controversial film about a metals mine near Angoon was posted online Thursday. That’s following months of touring film festivals and a threat of legal action.
“Irreparable Harm” takes a critical look at Hecla Mining Company’s practices at Greens Creek Mine on Admiralty Island.
The 20-minute video was commissioned by the Southeast Alaska Conservation Council, or SEACC, which claims the mine is polluting Hawk Inlet with heavy metals like mercury.
The film takes its name from legal language, repeated in the video, by the mine’s chief spokesman Mike Satre. He describes the environmental standard under which the mine operates inside Admiralty Island National Monument.
“We can meet all of our permits but if a decision is made that we are having ‘irreparable harm’ then we would lose our ability to lease monument lands,” Satre said in the film.
SEACC’s staff scientist Guy Archibald uses the film to point fingers at regulators.
“It’s my belief that the mine will do what’s required of them,” Archibald said in the film. “They’ve done everything that the state and federal agencies have asked them to do. They’ve even gone above and beyond. It’s the state agencies whose duty it is to protect the public trust that’s not requiring the mine to do what they should be doing.”
Absent from the narrative are regulators defending the mine’s permits. Archibald said in an interview Thursday that wasn’t the filmmakers wish.
“When doing the movie, we asked various agencies if they wanted to participate in the movie, if they wanted to put their point of view on the record in the video,” Archibald said by phone. “And for various reasons they declined.”
Hecla Greens Creek Mining Company’s spokesman Mike Satre criticized the film in a written statement.
“The film completely mischaracterizes the safe and responsible operations of the Hecla Greens Creek mine,” Satre wrote in an email. “Accusations made in the film have been refuted multiple times by state regulatory agencies. We remain committed to working with these agencies to minimize our impacts while continuing to provide benefits to our surrounding communities.”
This film also faced a legal challenge.
Earlier this year, lawyers for the mining company sent a cease-and-desist letter claiming the film’s use of a Hecla promotional video violated copyright law.
Attorneys from the Electronic Frontier Foundation in San Francisco defended the use of Hecla’s footage under the “fair use doctrine.” The mining company’s legal threat was withdrawn.
