TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – The US federal court in Alaska on Thursday released an order recognising that the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) had agreed not to take the next step to advance its Clean Water Act Section 404(c) regulatory process regarding south-west Alaska's Pebble project until at least January 2, 2015.

Project promoter Northern Dynasty Minerals subsidiary Pebble Limited Partnership (PLP) had two cases of pending litigation in US federal court regarding EPA actions.

The first case, for which the state of Alaska was complaintiff, challenged the EPA's statutory authority to pre-emptively impose development restrictions on Pebble before it had submitted a proposed development plan for review by federal and state regulatory agencies.

The second case charged that the EPA had not complied with the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA) and the Administrative Procedure Act in preparing the Bristol Bay assessment study, upon which the Section 404(c) regulatory process was largely based.

The purpose of the EPA's agreement was to ensure that both parties in Pebble's FACA litigation had sufficient time to brief the court and for the court to decide on PLP’s preliminary injunction motion before the EPA took the next step to advance its regulatory process.

Thursday’s order applied to the FACA case and also stated that, should the federal court not issue a decision on PLP’s preliminary injunction motion before January 2, parties to the litigation would work together in good faith to negotiate an extension to the stay.

Mining Weekly Online on Monday reported that following a public comment period that ended on Friday, the EPA’s docket containing all comments and submissions regarding its ‘proposed determination’ to restrict the use of certain watersheds in Southwest Alaska as potential disposal sites for mine waste from the world-class Pebble copper/gold/molybdenum deposit had, by Monday, received 160 184 comments, and counting.