The new report, produced by the Army Corps of Engineers, is a radical departure from the Obama administration’s Environmental Protection Agency project, which essentially blocked progress at the mine due to environmental concerns by citing the potential for permanent damage to the pristine Bristol Bay. basin.
The Pebble Mine project has been a lightning rod for controversy for about two decades and has been widely attacked by numerous interest groups in Alaska and the lower states, and it also faced opposition from many Alaskans.
The new Army Corps report is a huge win for project developers, illustrating the Trump administration’s opposite approach to the project by the Obama administration, and echoing other major environmental reversals it has ordered in other findings from the previous administration.
Perhaps the most surprising finding of the new report is that the colossal mine and its development would not be expected to “have a measurable effect on the number of fish and produce long-term changes in the health of commercial fisheries in Bristol Bay.”
The Bristol Bay basin and area are considered one of the world’s largest salmon fisheries, producing nearly half of the world’s annual wild red salmon catch. Its ecological resources are also compatible with 4,000-year-old indigenous cultures, as well as some 14,000 full-time and part-time jobs, according to the 2014 EPA report.
Andy Wink, executive director of the Bristol Bay Seafood Development Association (BBRSDA) said there is no precedent for a mine like the Pebble proposal that coexists with wild salmon.
“If this administration values the food and job security of the United States, then our federal agencies should carefully review this project and do everything possible to protect Bristol Bay and its 14,500 seafood and fishing jobs,” said Wink.
Tom Collier, the CEO of the Pebble Limited Partnership, the developer of the project, said in a statement Friday that the report shows that “returning salmon will not be damaged, subsistence fishing will not be damaged and the commercial fishing industry will not. it will”. be harmed. “
Collier said the next steps for the project include the final decision by the Army Corps on the application to develop the mine and a state permitting process. He said the project, which would involve a multi-million dollar construction phase and hundreds of millions more dollars in annual activity, could serve as an economic boost for Alaska.
A spokesperson for Pebble, owned by Canadian company Northern Dynasty Minerals, told CNN that the current plan for the mine differs from the hypothetical plan evaluated by the Obama-era EPA and includes a water management strategy, fish habitat models and mining facilities that are in different places.
Dennis McLerran, the former head of EPA Region 10, who produced the report that previously blocked the pebble mine, told CNN that the new report is “contrary to information received by EPA from the world’s best fishery scientists. “
The proposed project would involve an open pit mine, a natural gas pipeline, a 270 megawatt power plant and new access roads, according to the report.
The report outlined some environmental impacts, including the removal of 99 miles of riverine habitat for mine construction.
Local leaders of indigenous groups and a commercial fishing organization issued a joint statement, saying that the new Army Corps report ignores the science and that “the proposed gold and copper mine will devastate the waters of Bristol Bay and its fishery. of World class”.
Environmentalists say they will continue to challenge the project in court.
“The Army Corps is hampering this regardless of science or what the public wants, and they know it,” said Joel Reynolds, lead attorney for the Nature Program at the Natural Resources Defense Council. “Pebble Mine is a failed investment and an environmental disaster waiting to happen.”
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