The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in August granted a modified permit for Coeur Alaska’s Kensington gold mine project in Southeast Alaska, allowing the project to move forward immediately after being stalled by years of litigation.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in June that Coeur Alaska had a valid 404 fill permit from the Corps to dispose of tailings from the mine in Lower Slate Lake. The Corps then called for public comment on minor modifications to the permit. However, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in July asked for a substantial delay in the issuance of the 404 permit to re-evaluate the tailings disposal plan and consider another option.
The EPA action raised concerns as to whether the Supreme Court’s decision upholding the permit would be the final word in the long-standing dispute and whether the agency would veto the Corps’ recent decision to re-issue the permit. The state, however, has been informed by the agency that it will not veto the permit.
Alaska’s state and congressional leadership welcomed the Corps’ decision to move forward with the modified permit.
“The Corps made the right call,” Governor Sean Parnell said. “They recognized this project has been approved through the right processes, and there’s no reason for delay.”
Senator Mark Begich said, “I am pleased to hear that, after reviewing the facts and more than 8,500 public comments, the Army Corps of Engineers made the right decision.” Begich added, “the amended permit confirms my belief that the disposal of tailings in Slate Lake is the environmentally-preferable option, and when the project is complete will actually leave the lake with improved fish habitat.”
Senator Lisa Murkowski pointed out that “Kensington will provide hundreds of badly needed jobs and tax revenues while having a minimal effect on the environment.”
In July, Alaska’s two U.S. senators, the state, RDC and others urged the Corps to follow the Supreme Court’s ruling and make the necessary modifications to the permit so the project could proceed.
Murkowski and Begich sent a lengthy letter to the Corps detailing the senators’ concerns with possible EPA intervention in the permitting of the mine, despite the Supreme Court ruling. The letter included detailed legal analysis refuting the EPA’s arguments and pointed out factual errors in the agency’s case, including the opinion of the senators and others that no substantially new or significant information on the mine has surfaced to prompt additional review.
“Because we care about the environment and also the people of Alaska, we found it profoundly distressing to have the EPA suggest yet another tailings disposal option…, especially in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court decision which specifically recognized the thorough review of alternatives undertaken in the permitting process leading to the Lower Slate Lake Corps 404 tailings permit,” Murkowski and Begich said.
After mine closure and reclamation, Lower Slate Lake will boast substantially better fish habitat and aquatic life than what currently exists. Under the Lower Slate Lake option, only 0.4 acres of wetlands will be lost over the long term, compared to a loss of 102 acres of wetlands and a permanent eight-story high tailings pile under the Paste Tailings Facility (PTF) option the EPA wanted the Corps to consider, following the Supreme Court decision. PTF is merely a variant of a fully-analyzed and already rejected dry stack option.
A second letter, signed by Murkowski and Begich along with 10 Senate colleagues, similarly called on the Corps to reject any further delay and raised concerns about the potential precedent of allowing EPA to challenge Corps-issued permits.
“We have signed this letter because of the far-reaching implications that decisions related to Kensington Mine could have – not just in Alaska, but throughout the United States. At the heart of the debate is whether a project that has complied with all environmental laws, that has gone out of its way to institute training and local hire of Native Americans, and has withstood years of legal challenge and won in the Supreme Court, can now be killed through additional bureaucratic delays,” the 12 senators wrote.
RDC, which filed an Amicus Brief before the Supreme Court in support of Coeur Alaska’s efforts to develop Kensington, wrote the Corps last month, warning that a new EPA review would result in yet another substantial delay, another winter without jobs for many Alaskans and potentially jeopardize the project since the permit would be vulnerable to appeals and more litigation.
In a letter to the EPA, William Martin, President of the Central Council Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska, insisted tribal citizens are not trading jobs for pollution. “We are confident that all of our cultural, environmental and subsistence concerns have been adequately addressed,” Martin pointed out. “If we thought this mine would harm our traditional way of life or harm our ancestral lands and resources, we would be its most vigorous opponents. But we are not. We agree with and support the permit previously issued.”
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