The parent company for the Pebble Project got a big bump in its stock price on Thursday, after a letter from regulators noted that the schedule for the permit was being met and that issues were being satisfactorily resolved.
The 25 percent increase in stock value for Northern Dynasty occurred after a Thursday, May 28 letter was released from Chris Hladick, Region 10 administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency.
The letter was addressed to Colonel David Hibner, Alaska District Engineer for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Hladick noted that the working relationship between the EPA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers had been productive: “The Corps has demonstrated its commitment to the spirit of the dispute resolution process pursuant to the 1992 Memorandum of Agreement between EPA and the Department of the Army regarding CWA Section 404(q) by the extensive engagement with the EPA over the recent months. The EPA appreciates the Corps’ recent commitment to continue this coordination into the future, outside of the formal dispute resolution process outlined in the MOA,” Hladick wrote.
While to most observers it was merely a cordial letter from one bureaucrats to another, to mining advocates it was a signal that the two agencies had not hit any impasses, and that the environmental impact statement could be on track for release this summer since everything was currently on track, according to the calendar of tasks that needed to be completed.
The Pebble Project is perhaps the most controversial development project in Alaska history, as it is in what environmentalists say are headwaters for the rich Bristol Bay salmon fishery. The project was blocked for years by lawsuits from environmentalists and by the EPA itself, which at one point slapped a preemptive denial of a permit on the company, not allowing it to even apply for a necessary permit.
Let’s be clear on this Suzanne as you are marginalizing a large number of honest sincere conservative Alaskans. The Pebble project is being “blocked” read “opposed” by thousands of us who are NOT THE ENVIRONMENTALISTS you proclaim us to be!! I ,John Henry Slone, born at Old Providence Hospital Anchorage in the Territory of Alaska June 5, 1949 and current resident at 7800 Evander Dr Anchorage Alaska am firmly opposed to the Pebble project and would describe myself as a conservative evangelical christian and a long time conservative registered republican.
Mr. Slone, I think it might be worthwhile for you to take a look at the new project as proposed by Pebble. It looks nothing like the original project that was being opposed to conservatives such as yourself. Any good conservative will be hard pressed to find anything at all to oppose about the new project.
So, then, WHY are you against jobs and lifting western Alaska out of their extreme poverty and lack of an economy? You might not be an “environmentalist” but you have obviously listened to their false arguments against this project. We would have to have the mother of all earthquakes (10+!) for this to affect the fishing industry and then nobody would be worried about mining OR fishing. Look at a map–it is nowhere near any place that could mess with the fishing industry. And if you’ve lived here your whole life, you should have a concept of how truly large Alaska really is and how much complete wilderness is still out there. We are rich in resources–there are no reasons for there to be the situations we see in the villages in western Alaska. The value of jobs, self esteem and living in the 21st century along with the rest of us is worth way more than any other argument. Native villages and those people deserve way more than they have right now! My heart hurts when I think of how they have been lied to and manipulated about this subject and if they are willing to work, why should we supply welfare to keep them in a state of subservience? This was happy news for me!
Do you live in a village in this western part of Alaska that you are so concerned and knowledgeable about.?
Well, this argument didn’t take long to go VFR direct to the good ‘ol ad hominem attack – essentially, if you don’t live here (or there), you can’t comment.
Well done. Sneaky, but well done. BTW, it didn’t work, as what is happening to Pebble is of interest to every single resident of AK. Why? Because every time the salmon fishery fails, locals are in Juneau with their hands out. I would much rather have a second (or fifth) economic engine in SW AK than commfish. How about you? Cheers –
Mr. Sloan, you have been fed a bunch of environmental poppycock over the Pebble Project. Glad to hear you are a conservative, but please consider the agenda of the Left, which is to oppose all resource projects whether they be productive mines, oil fields, gas lines, etc. We need these things to survive. Man-caused climate change is the biggest hoax of the 20th and 21st centuries. Please don’t fall into the trap of Leftist socialism. It seems they already have a firm grip on your mind. You need to do some real research. Some real thinking!
There simple truth is that no copper sulfide mine anywhere in the world has failed to despoil it’s environment.
So much for not reading one resource for another.
Same goes for any yurt, mine, trail, farm, fishery, house, mall, building, road, etc., etc., etc. the world over. Even a seedling growing out of the ground despoils the ground it bursts forward from.
Reductio ad absurdum.
A seedling popping out of the ground = a huge, toxic acid mine?
Taking gold flakes from a river bottom = cyanide leaching mine heaps?
Yurt = condo development?
Sport fishing on a river bank = drag seining?
Scale matters. So does a reasonable sense of scale.
Once again, my wits faint. To quote Art Chance, “better to be thought a fool than to open one’s mouth and remove all doubt.”
Talk about Reductio ad absurdum, you are the only one trying to make false equivalency comparisons. Perhaps understanding the meaning of the words you use will help you in the future.
The fact remains that all copper sulfide mines have poisoned their environments everywhere throughout the world.
Judie, I think that part of Alaska has been doing just fine economically and will for a long time as long as the salmon habitat remains undamaged. That’s already one of the most valuable renewable resources in the world!!
“environmentalists say is the headwaters”? You mean that’s debatable? Maps of Alaska are left-wing radical socialist hoaxes? Oh yeah I forgot–climate change is a hoax, covid 19 is a hoax, the Clintons ran a child porn service out of a pizza shop, Obama is a non-citizen Muslim, and we need another Bengazi investigation.
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