reduce the risk and the impacts, but it'll go to permit once they file. >> narrator: if the pebble partnership does get its permit and the mine is built here, in this valley, it will have a much wider impact than a single mine. after pebble, it would harder for regulators to turn down other mining claims. >> if pebble mine is permitted and they develop a port and the road and the power, it would be a game changer for that region of alaska. and there are so many other claims around that i just think it's just step one out of hundreds of mines. so i would see no end to mining in that district; it would go on for a century or two probably. >> it would be a huge and very, very fundamental change in the way of life forever. if this particular mine is permitted, the whole land use in that region would go not progressively but relatively rapidly to a mining district. and the question is, who has the authority to make that decision? because there's no specific permit for changing the bristol bay region into a mining district. >> it could become a mining district. is that good or bad? i mean, if it's d