Pebble’s foes say Army’s letter signals its demise; Company says that’s not what letter says

Opponents to Pebble, the big copper and gold project near Lake Iliamna, are claiming that an Aug. 24 letter from the Department of the Army in Washington, D.C. is a final nail in the coffin for the controversial mine.

In a press release, the Army said that a mine at Pebble as currently proposed cannot be permitted by the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers.

However, an Aug. 20 letter to Pebble Ltd. Partnership, the mine developer, from the Corp of Engineers’ Alaska division said the agency is continuing to work on its Record of Decision for the mine and is asking the company to complete a proposed environmental mitigation plan that would offset impacts on wetlands of the proposed development.

David Hobbie, the corps’ Regional Regulatory Division chief, said he wants the mitigation plan within 90 days.

Tom Collier, Pebble Partnership’s CEO, said his company has been in discussions with the agency and had anticipated the corps’ request. Pebble Partnership now has wetlands field work underway near the proposed mine site 18 miles north of Iliamna and along a route for an access road that would be built from Cook Inlet, Collier said.

The company has two field camps supporting 25 people at work. “A number of teams from those camps have been mapping the wetlands in the region for about four weeks now,” Collier said.

In its press release the Army Department said, “As currently proposed, the project could have substantial environmental impacts within the unique Bristol Bay watershed and lacks adequate compensatory mitigation,” which means the project cannot now receive a Section 404 wetlands fill permit under the federal Clean Water Act.

Collier said this is old news because Pebble has not yet submitted its mitigation plan. That is now being developed, as Hobbie.

The Army department’s letter does not say the project is dead only that as currently proposed, absent the mitigation, the corps cannot issue a permit.

However, a prominent group opposing Pebble, the National Resources Defense Council, said the mine developers are unlikely to develop realistic offsets for impacts of such magnitude.

“Real mitigation is death for Pebble Mine because it’s impossible to mitigate the damage this project would inflict,” said Joel Reynolds, senior attorney for the NRDC.

“Pebble Mine would destroy five and a half square miles of wetlands and open waters and harm nearly 200 miles of streams. Now that the corps has finally set the bar that and Clean Water Act and science require, Northern Dynasty (Pebble’s owner) can’t meet it,” Reynolds said.

Assuming that, groups opposing Pebble are celebrating the Army’s letter as a signal of Pebble’s demise. Alaska’s two U.S. senators, Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan, issued press releases agreeing with that.

Sullivan, who is running for reelection, said he has always supported the Army Corps and other federal regulatory agencies in their conduct of project evaluations that are “a rigorous, fair, science-based review – free of politics – that does not trade one resource for another.”

But the senator went on to say, “I support the (Army’s) conclusion – based on the best available science and a rigorous, fair process – that a federal permit cannot be issued.” Sullivan may have jumped the gun because no final conclusion has been reached because there is not yet a mitigation plan.

Collier said, “the letter we received (from the corps’ Alaska district) is a normal letter in the permitting process and we are well into an effort to present a mitigation plan that complies with the requirement of their letter. A clear reading of the letter shows that it is unrelated to recent tweets about Pebble (from Donald Trump Jr.) and one-sided news shows,” a reference to articles in Politico, the Washington, D.C.-based news organization, that Trump Jr. and others close to the administration are pushing for a quick end to the project.

“The letter does not ask for ‘more’ or ‘additional mitigation. This is the first time the (corps) has put its formal assessment regarding mitigation for the Pebble Project on the record. Thus, it is a ‘first’ request, not a new or additional on e, and it is in line with what we expected,” Collier said.

“The White House had nothing to do with the letter nor is it the show-stopper described by several in the news media over the (past) weekend,” he said.

That aside, the letter from Hobbie lays out a big challenge for Pebble in offsetting environmental impacts. Direct and indirect impacts at the mine site total 2,825 acres of wetlands, 132.5 acres of open waters and 129.5 miles of streams.

In addition, direct and indirect impacts of the transportation corridor to the mine, for a road, slurry pipeline to move ore concentrate, a natural gas pipeline and a port on lower Cook Inlet would affect another 460 acres of wetlands, 231.7 acres of open water and 55.5 miles of streams, Hobbie said in his letter.

Acceptable components of a mitigation plan could include mitigation banks that would preserve other wetlands or restoration and rehabilitation of damaged wetlands, although the mitigation must be in the region of the proposed development.