JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — The US Environmental Protection Agency took unusually strong action Tuesday, blocking a proposed mine heralded by its backers as the world’s most important untapped copper and gold resource due to concerns about its environmental impact on a rich aquatic area in Alaska. ecosystem that supports the world’s largest sockeye salmon fishery.
The move, applauded by Alaska Native tribes and environmentalists and condemned by some state officials and mining interests, deals a heavy blow to the proposed Pebble mine. The intended site is in a remote area of the Bristol Bay region of southwestern Alaska, about 200 miles (322 kilometers) southwest of Anchorage.
The mine site is only accessible by helicopter and snowmobile in the winter, developer Pebble Limited Partnership said in a permit application with the US Army Corps of Engineers. As proposed, the project required a mining fee. extraction of up to 73 million tons per year.
An appeal by the Pebble association of a separate denial of a key federal permit has not been resolved.
In a statement, Pebble Limited Partnership chief executive John Shively called the EPA’s action “illegal” and political and said litigation was likely. Shively has pitched the project as key to the Biden administration’s push to meet green energy goals and make the US less dependent on foreign nations for such minerals.
Pebble Limited Partnership is owned by Canada-based Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd.
The Pebble deposit is near the head of the Bristol Bay basin, which is home to an abundance of salmon “unrivaled anywhere in North America,” according to the EPA.
Tuesday’s announcement marks only the 14th time in the roughly 50-year history of the federal Clean Water Act that the EPA has flexed its powers to prohibit or restrict activities over their potential impact on waters, including fisheries. EPA administrator Michael Regan said the agency’s use of his so-called veto authority in this case “underscores the truly irreplaceable and priceless natural wonder that is Bristol Bay.”
The veto is a victory for the environment, the economy and the tribes of Alaska’s Bristol Bay region, who have fought the proposal for more than a decade, said Joel Reynolds, western director and lead counsel for the Council of Defense of Natural Resources.
The mine would have endangered the region’s salmon fishery, which provides 15,000 jobs in the area and supplies about half of the world’s sockeye salmon, Reynolds said. The 2022 harvest was more than 60 million fish, state officials reported last year.
“It is a victory of science over politics. For biodiversity on extinction. For democracy over corporate power,” Reynolds said.
The EPA, citing an Army Corps of Engineers analysis, said discharges of dredged or fill material to build and operate the proposed mine site would result in a loss of approximately 100 miles (160 kilometers) of stream habitat. as well as wetlands.
The Pebble society has argued that the project can coexist with salmon. The association’s website says the deposit is in the upper reaches of three “very small tributaries” and expresses confidence that any impact on the fishery “in the unlikely event of an incident” would be “minimal”.
Alaska Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy called the EPA veto a dangerous precedent that could affect future development in the state, while state attorney general Treg Taylor called the agency’s action “lawfully indefensible”.
“Alarmingly, it sets the stage for halting any development projects, mining or non-mining, in any area of Alaska with wetlands and fish-bearing streams,” Dunleavy said.
Republican Senator from Alaska Lisa Murkowski He said he was opposed to the mine but the EPA veto should not be allowed to jeopardize future mining operations in the state.
“This determination should not serve as a precedent for targeting any other projects in our state and should be the only time EPA uses its veto authority under the Alaska Clean Water Act,” Murkowski said in a statement.
Washington Democratic Sen. Maria Cantwell called the EPA action “the final nail in the coffin for the Pebble mine” and the culmination of a tough battle.
“Now, we will have a thriving salmon run in Bristol Bay for generations to come,” he said.
Tribes in the Bristol Bay region in 2010 petitioned the EPA to protect the area under the federal Clean Water Act. Alannah Hurley, executive director of the United Tribes of Bristol Bay, said calling the EPA announcement “good news” is an understatement.
Tim Bristol, executive director of the SalmonState group, praised the EPA’s decision, saying it “may be the most popular thing the federal government has ever done for Alaska.”
The EPA decision is the latest in a year of back and forth over the project that has spanned administrations.
Leila Kimbrell, executive director of the Alaska Resource Development Council Inc., called the decision “a dangerous abuse of power and federal overreach.” The National Mining Association, citing high demand for minerals and fragile global supply chains, said domestic mining “has never been more important.” He said the EPA’s decision is “in stark contrast to national and global realities.”
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Whittle reported from Portland, Maine.
