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As the Pebble Mine Nears a Decision, Questions Surround its Environmental Review
Hakai Magazine
by Ashley Braun
June 10, 2020 | 1,100 words, about 5 minutes
Documents unveiled by a Freedom of Information Act request show agencies’ behind-the-scenes critiques of the proposed Pebble Mine.
Just months away from deciding whether to permit construction of the proposed Pebble Mine, the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) is wrapping up its environmental review. In early April, USACE received the last round of feedback from a selection of federal, state, local, and tribal groups. Some of that feedback—recently acquired and released by the Bristol Bay Native Corporation (BBNC) using the Freedom of Information Act—is quite pointed.
Reviewing the released critiques, Dennis McLerran, who from 2010 to 2017 ran the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) office in the region that includes Alaska, says that stakeholder agencies think USACE is taking too narrow of a view of the Pebble Mine’s potential environmental impacts, and isn’t addressing fundamental issues with the project even at this late stage.
The Pebble Limited Partnership (PLP) plans to build an open-pit mine in a largely undeveloped stretch of southwest Alaska to extract a fraction of what may be the world’s biggest unexploited deposit of copper and gold. The proposed site for the mine lies under two rivers that drain into Bristol Bay, home to one of the world’s most productive wild salmon fisheries. That geography has contributed to a long and heated battle over the proposed mine, which has gained new momentum under the Trump administration.
The comments released by the BBNC—an organization representing Indigenous people with present or historical ties to the Bristol Bay region—come from a number of expert agencies including the EPA, the US Fish and Wildlife Service, and the Alaska Department of Natural Resources, as well as the Curyung and Nondalton tribal councils, whose members live in the vicinity of the proposed mine. This stakeholder feedback, usually kept confidential, was given to USACE as part of its ongoing environmental impact assessment. The BBNC has been a vocal opponent of the mine since 2009.
The critiques raise concerns about everything from the potential effects on fish to how the mine plans to treat the huge volumes of water it will use during operations and after it is retired.
Reviewing the released critiques, Dennis McLerran, who from 2010 to 2017 ran the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) office in the region that includes Alaska, says that stakeholder agencies think USACE is taking too narrow of a view of the Pebble Mine’s potential environmental impacts, and isn’t addressing fundamental issues with the project even at this late stage.
The Pebble Limited Partnership (PLP) plans to build an open-pit mine in a largely undeveloped stretch of southwest Alaska to extract a fraction of what may be the world’s biggest unexploited deposit of copper and gold. The proposed site for the mine lies under two rivers that drain into Bristol Bay, home to one of the world’s most productive wild salmon fisheries. That geography has contributed to a long and heated battle over the proposed mine, which has gained new momentum under the Trump administration.
The comments released by the BBNC—an organization representing Indigenous people with present or historical ties to the Bristol Bay region—come from a number of expert agencies including the EPA, the US Fish and Wildlife Service, and the Alaska Department of Natural Resources, as well as the Curyung and Nondalton tribal councils, whose members live in the vicinity of the proposed mine. This stakeholder feedback, usually kept confidential, was given to USACE as part of its ongoing environmental impact assessment. The BBNC has been a vocal opponent of the mine since 2009.
The critiques raise concerns about everything from the potential effects on fish to how the mine plans to treat the huge volumes of water it will use during operations and after it is retired.
Read more: https://www.hakaimagazine.com/news/as-the-pebble-mine-nears-a-decision-questions-surround-its-environmental-review/
This is one of the most awful projects ever.
