Northern Dynasty Minerals, owner of the Pebble Mine prospect in Western Alaska, says the US Army Corps of Engineers’ “perfunctory rejection” last month of the mine’s mitigation plan “is emblematic of the lead federal agency’s recent permitting decision at Pebble, arguing it is contrary to law, unprecedented in Alaska and unsupported by the administrative record.”
Northern Dynasty is preparing a “request for appeal” of the Corps’ Nov. 25, 2020 denial of the proposed copper-gold-molybdenum-silver- rhenium mine.
The appeal will be submitted in January and will argue that the mitigation requirements for Pebble are contrary to policy and precedent, and the agency’s rejection of it is procedurally and substantively invalid.
“The US Army Corps of Engineers issued a finding this summer that Pebble would cause ‘significant degradation’ to aquatic resources in the project area, and on that basis issued mitigation requirements that were both extreme and unprecedented in Alaska,” said Northern Dynasty President and CEO Ron Thiessen.
“Although we believe the USACE’s ‘significant degradation’ finding to be contrary to law and unsupported by the administrative record as established by the Environmental Impact Statement (“EIS”), we set out in good faith to meet their demand for in-kind and in-watershed mitigation at a very high and unprecedented ratio for Alaska – and after a tremendous amount of professional effort and investment, we did it,” he said.
“For the USACE to summarily reject a CMP that is directly responsive to its requirements, to do it on the basis of what we believe to be largely minor and arbitrary deficiencies and without giving the proponent an opportunity to respond to those alleged deficiencies or otherwise amend its application is, we believe, without precedent in the long history of responsible resource development in Alaska.”
The Pebble Project as proposed would impact 3,650 acres of wetlands and other water bodies, as well as 185 miles of streams.
To compensate, the Pebble Partnership proposed the creation of a 112,445 acre Koktuli Conservation Area on state-owned land in the Koktuli watershed – preserving 27,886 acres of wetlands, 1,174 acres of other waters and 814 miles (1,967 acres) of streams in the immediate vicinity of the Pebble Project.
This is exactly the type of mitigation that is usually accepted by agencies.
The Pebble Partnership’s plan was prepared in collaboration with HDR Alaska – a leading aquatic resources consulting firm in Alaska, whose experience spans the preparation of dozens of Clean Water Act- compliant compensatory mitigation plans for oil and gas, mining and other resource and infrastructure development projects in the state.
The company said more than 1,000 person-days of field work were spent this summer gathering baseline data and other technical information to meet the Corps’ mitigation requirements. In addition, the Pebble Partnership met with Corps officials to confirm its view that the proposed mitigation area would meet the agency’s stated requirements for in-watershed and in-kind mitigation.
“We expended considerable financial and professional resources delivering exactly what the US Army Corps asked us to deliver on compensatory mitigation,” Thiessen said.
Unfortunately for Pebble, this summer a secretly recorded tape with Pebble mine executive Tom Collier was released to the media. In it, Collier made it appear that he had politicians and agencies eating out of his hands. This act of environmental espionage embarrassed the permitting agency, which may have influenced the ultimate decision.
Collier resigned soon after his leaked conversations made international news.
Also, unfortunately for Pebble, the Biden Administration is brining onboard an army of environmental justice warriors, including Gina McCarthy, who was in charge of the EPA when it preemptively prevented Pebble from even applying for a permit.
Enough with the propaganda on behalf of Pebble Suzanne!!
Happy to be wrong – but like to bet against the appeal being successful.
Like I’ve said many times before, the Hunter/Dickensen … Northern Dynasty Minerals …Pebble Limited Partnership management was an albatross around Pebble’s neck.
Under any other management teams, ANY OTHER, Pebble would have had a better chance of getting permitted.
It’s going to happen eventually. Do the math. In the interim we stagnate.
Biden isnt president, yet…
The fight is far from being over until congress and the senate gavels into session. Even Biden supporters do not Really want Biden as their president, because of the voter fraud occurring last month, a Biden presidency will show that even Biden legitmate votes didnt matter and werent needed as Trump votes didnt matter when a leader can win without the votes of people but by the dominion voting machines and mail in ballots.
Thank you to President Trump for stopping this mine.
Alaska needs the revenue and this will be a great source for the next 50 years. Build Pebble!
Pebble is on state land, and Alaska is desperate for economic development. Right now we are a dairy farmer still entirely dependent on the weekly milk check yet we have shot most of our cows. So I am very glad, if somewhat surprised, that the Pebble investors are sinking more money to do this appeal. Given the impending White House change there must be a point at which Pebble dollars can no longer be called an investment; it becomes a cause I suppose. But the two Pebble fellows who were so easily duped by environmentalists have no business being in any business as they did a terrible disservice to the state and the mining industry, and to all Alaskans. What was it that Forrest Gump said about stupidity?
Hunter/Dickinson is a private corp and owns … Northern Dynasty Minerals which is public and owns … Pebble Limited Partnership.
Those two clowns each hold enough shares in all three to be immune from getting “fired”. They can or have simply moved “Uptown” to NDM or H/D or both.
Some of the plank owners are on two or all three boards, taking turns. H/D has other irons in the fire, other companies they own, and this same top management infiltrates every board. They usually allow some locals on the lowest tier boards, but only for PR … as they probably have to sign an agreement to cast their votes with the majority.
An incestuous relationship if there ever was any.
Google “Hunter Dickinson Inc”………………..and see for yourself.
They read all the comment sections, including MRAK. So let me say to them … I had informal “we will assist your efforts as much as we can” from several BLM and Dept of Agg, personnel, to start a trial project for Pebble … to terra-form using some, or all of the largest, inert tailing pile, to create several feet of topsoil around Pebble and along the upper river valleys.
There is so much good data from around the world, where good cropland was created in the middle of sand deserts, that grants to test it at Pebble were very probable.
The largest tailing pile will be inert sand, which could be easily sprayed around with 8 inch piping. That “sand” would create enough surface area in the ground to support a higher order of plant and animal life, than what’s there now.
The crushing process can also generate pea-gravel for increasing the salmon spawning grounds.
Reality is that I’m at the bottom of the totem pole, so I understand why nobody ever listens to me. Ahahahahahaha!
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