https://www.miningweekly.com

Scathing report faults EPA’s handling of Alaska's Pebble project

Pebble, Alaska.

Pebble, Alaska.

Photo by Northern Dynasty Minerals

7th October 2015

By: Henry Lazenby

Creamer Media Deputy Editor: North America

  

Font size: - +

TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – An independent review of the US Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA’s) decision-making process regarding potential mining in south-west Alaska's Bristol Bay watershed has concluded that the agency’s actions were not fair to all stakeholders, raising concerns about alleged possible misconduct by the EPA.

Former US senator and secretary of defence William Cohen on Tuesday released the findings of a report following a year-long in-depth investigation into the EPA’s actions regarding Canadian project developer Northern Dynasty Minerals' Pebble base metals project, owned through subsidiary company Pebble Limited Partnership, and the agency's efforts to issue the first-ever 'pre-emptive' veto in the 43-year history of the Clean Water Act (CWA) to halt or limit development of the deposit.

“The decision about whether to build a mine in this area, as well as the process used to make such a decision, is very important to Alaska's environment, economy, people, fish and wildlife. It requires regulatory authority to be exercised in the fairest way possible. After a very thorough review, I do not believe the EPA used the fairest and most appropriate process,” Cohen stated.

The report was prepared by a team of independent investigators employed by The Cohen Group and law firm DLA Piper. The investigation team reviewed thousands of EPA documents secured through Freedom of Information Act requests and interviewed some 60 individuals involved with the EPA or its controversial review of the Pebble project.

The 346-page Cohen report raised concerns about possible EPA misconduct, including that the EPA might have predetermined the outcome of its review before conducting the Bristol Bay Watershed Assessment (BBWA) and that EPA officials might have had inappropriately close relationships with environmental activists.

Cohen urged US Congress and the independent office of the EPA Inspector General to use their individual subpoena powers to further investigate the alleged EPA misconduct outlined in his report.

The EPA Inspector General and several Congressional committees were already looking into the EPA's actions regarding the Pebble project. In October 2014, a federal court judge in Alaska had approved the Pebble Partnership's motion for a preliminary injunction that forbade the EPA from taking any further steps to advance its proposed veto, pending the outcome of litigation alleging that the federal agency violated the Federal Advisory Committee Act.

Meanwhile, Cohen also suggested that US lawmakers consider taking action to ensure that all significant development projects in the US, including Pebble, were evaluated through the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) permitting process.

"As we look to the future, I urge policymakers to consider requiring the use of the permit/NEPA process. This process, which entails compliance with NEPA and other regulatory requirements, an environmental-impact statement (EIS) and input from the EPA, other relevant agencies, and the state of Alaska, will supply the gaps in information which the BBWA left outstanding.

“This decision is too important to be made with anything less than the best and most comprehensive information available,” Cohen stated.

FLAWED ASSESSMENT
At the heart of the Cohen review was the question over which process was appropriate to make a determination to permit, limit or ban development of the Pebble deposit.

The EPA chose in July 2014 to proceed under Section 404(c) of the CWA to limit development within the Pebble deposit area. The EPA undertook its Section 404(c) action before the Pebble Partnership had even filed a permit application, but after the EPA had conducted an assessment of the potential effects of mining in the region, mainly on fish.

According to the Cohen report, the state of Alaska and the Pebble Partnership had argued that the EPA should have used the process that was usually employed when assessing the effects of potential development – the permit application process.

“The fairest and most appropriate process to evaluate possible development in the Pebble deposit area would use the established regulatory permit/NEPA process to assess a mine permit application, rather than using an assessment based upon the hypothetical mining scenarios described in the BBWA as the basis for imposing potentially prohibitive restrictions on future mines,” Cohen stated.

To date, the Pebble Partnership had not submitted a permit application, resulting in the EPA relying on hypothetical scenarios rather than the characteristics of a mine as it was actually planned to be built and maintained.

The EPA had proposed restrictions based on its BBWA conclusion that an “unacceptable adverse effect on fishery areas” would result from development that would cause estimated losses of habitat greater than those associated with the hypothetical 250-million-ton mine it had evaluated.

Since that time, litigation had ensued and there was currently an injunction in place, temporarily barring the EPA from further proceedings.

Cohen found that the EPA had relied on the BBWA in its proposed determination despite having acknowledged that there were significant gaps in its assessment and that it was not designed to duplicate or replace the permit/NEPA process. The agency’s decision to pre-emptively use Section 404(c) also hindered the involvement of two key participants – the US Army Corps of Engineers and the state of Alaska.

The Pebble deposit is a low-grade mineral deposit containing mainly copper, molybdenum and gold-bearing rocks. The deposit has been described as one of the world’s largest copper resources. The Pebble Partnership has estimated the deposit to contain about 80.6-billion pounds of copper, 5.6-billion pounds of molybdenum and 107.4-million ounces of gold.

Edited by Chanel de Bruyn
Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor Online

Comments

Showroom

Hanna Instruments Image
Hanna Instruments (Pty) Ltd

We supply customers with practical affordable solutions for their testing needs. Our products include benchtop, portable, in-line process control...

VISIT SHOWROOM 
Booyco Electronics
Booyco Electronics

Booyco Electronics, South African pioneer of Proximity Detection Systems, offers safety solutions for underground and surface mining, quarrying,...

VISIT SHOWROOM 

Latest Multimedia

sponsored by

Hyphen, Eva mine, ferrochrome price make headlines
Hyphen, Eva mine, ferrochrome price make headlines
27th March 2024
Resources Watch
Resources Watch
27th March 2024

Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):

Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format

Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):

All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.

Already a subscriber?

Forgotten your password?

MAGAZINE & ONLINE

SUBSCRIBE

RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA

SUBSCRIBE

CORPORATE PACKAGES

CLICK FOR A QUOTATION







sq:0.186 0.221s - 90pq - 2rq
Subscribe Now