Saving Seafood

ALASKA: Pebble Mine, halted by EPA order, gets support from national development groups

December 2, 2025 — Developers’ efforts to overturn the cancellation of a vast gold and copper mine planned for southwest Alaska are getting a boost from national mining and pro-business groups, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

On Nov. 24 and Nov. 25, the Chamber and the National Mining Association filed separate friend-of-the-court briefs in the lawsuit brought by the developers of the proposed Pebble Mine against the Environmental Protection Agency, which vetoed the mine.

Neither group has intervened in the case against the EPA, but the briefs represent the groups’ support for the proposed mine and offer legal arguments that Judge Sharon Gleason could consider as she debates whether to move the project forward.

In 2023, the EPA invoked a rarely used “veto” clause of the Clean Water Act to say that there was no way that the proposed Pebble Mine could be developed without significant harm to the environment. The large mineral deposit is located at the headwaters of Bristol Bay, the most abundant sockeye salmon fishery in the world.

The administration of Gov. Mike Dunleavy, which supports the project, and the proposed mine’s developers, filed separate lawsuits in federal court to overturn the rejection, as did two Native corporations that work as contractors for the developers. Those cases have since been combined.

Read the full article at Alaska Public Media

US Chamber of Commerce enters Pebble Mine legal fight, backs challenge to EPA veto

November 26, 2025 — The US Chamber of Commerce has stepped into the long-running legal fight over the Pebble Mine project, filing an amicus brief on Tuesday in federal court that signals a major escalation in one of Alaska’s most contentious development battles.

The Chamber, the country’s largest business advocacy organization, submitted its motion to US District Judge Sharon Gleason, asking the court to accept its friend-of-the-court filing in support of Northern Dynasty Minerals, the Canadian parent company behind Pebble.

The move gives Pebble a powerful new ally as the company continues to challenge the Environmental Protection Agency’s 2023 veto of the mine under the Clean Water Act. That veto, which halted the project before it could advance toward construction, cited the potential for catastrophic impacts to Bristol Bay’s world-leading sockeye salmon fishery. Pebble’s supporters argue the EPA far exceeded its authority and imposed a precedent-setting blockade on domestic mining projects, while opponents, including environmental groups, maintain the watershed is too valuable and too vulnerable to risk.

Read the full article at The Alaska Story

ALASKA: Pebble mine project sticks to proposal in battle to lift veto

August 27, 2025 — Despite encouragement from Trump administration officials, the company behind the controversial Pebble mine in Southwest Alaska hasn’t yet submitted a revised proposal that could unblock the stalled copper-gold project.

Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd. hasn’t advanced an “updated submission” for its proposed Pebble mine, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said in a status update posted online Monday, adding that “there is nothing currently before the agency to that effect.”

The EPA update follows last month’s decision by the U.S. Justice Department to effectively uphold a veto on the project, dashing hopes that the Trump administration would roll back regulatory hurdles. The absence of a revamped proposal comes despite government officials advising Northern Dynasty that project changes could prompt the government to reconsider. An EPA spokesperson said there were discussions with agency leadership about a potential further submission that would inform any reconsideration.

Read the full story at Bloomberg

ALASKA: An Alaska-Grown Solution to Safeguard Bristol Bay

August 5, 2025 — The 20-year saga to safeguard the world’s largest wild salmon stronghold from becoming the future home of North America’s largest open-pit mine has taken a new turn.

On May 20, 2025, the Alaska House Speaker Edgmon (I-Dillingham) and Representative Josephson (D-Anchorage) introduced a bill into the Alaska State Legislature to prevent large-scale mining proposals, like the proposed Pebble Mine, from posing serious threats to the 15,000 jobs that rely on Bristol Bay’s salmon populations.

A Special Region Worthy of Safeguards

The immense value of Bristol Bay’s fisheries has long been recognized, especially by Alaskans. At the urging of local residents and fishermen, in 1972 Alaska State Legislators enacted the Bristol Bay Fisheries Reserve to safeguard the region’s commercial, subsistence, and sport fisheries.

The current law requires the Alaska Legislature to grant final authorization of any metallic sulfide mine plan within the reserve. House Bill 233 amends the current law to entirely prohibit metallic sulfide mining—also known as hard-rock mining—within the reserve.

In the years since the Bristol Bay Fisheries Reserve was enacted, science resoundingly states that hard-rock mining is incompatible with the region’s highly productive fish habitat. This bill is a common-sense solution created in response to the economic and scientific realities of the region. “We are thrilled to see our lawmakers pursuing an Alaska-grown solution to the Pebble problem. Safeguarding Bristol Bay’s prolific fishery and the 15,000 jobs and $2.2 billion of economic value that it supports is a no-brainer for a prosperous future for our state,” said Nelli Williams, Alaska Director of Trout Unlimited, and longtime resident of Anchorage.

Read the full article at Fish Alaska Magazine

Legal fight over Pebble mine could drag on after DOJ departures

July 30, 2025 — A legal battle over the proposed Pebble mine in Alaska could drag on through next year as top attorneys leave the federal government, according to legal filings the Department of Justice submitted Tuesday.

Adam Gustafson, the acting assistant attorney general for DOJ’s Environment and Natural Resources Division, told a district court in Alaska that the Trump administration needs more time to respond to the mine developers’ challenges.

Pebble Partnership, a company wholly owned by Northern Dynasty Minerals, is suing the U.S. government for blocking its plans to build copper, gold and molybdenum mine in Alaska’s Bristol Bay watershed. EPA issued a rare veto of the project in 2023 under the Clean Water Act, warning it would harm the Bristol Bay watershed and fisheries there.

Read the full article at E&E News

ALASKA: Trump’s EPA reaffirms Biden-era Pebble Mine veto

July 25, 2025 — The Environmental Protection Agency is sticking with its veto of the proposed Pebble Mine project in southwest Alaska.

Northern Dynasty, the parent company behind the Pebble project, is still suing to get the veto overturned. A document filed in that lawsuit early this month said the company and the EPA were in settlement talks, and that the Trump administration said it was open to reconsidering the Biden-era veto on the controversial mining project.

But on July 17, attorneys in the case filed another document to update the judge. It says that negotiations between the company and the EPA did not reach a resolution, and that the Trump administration will continue to back the veto.

Read the full article at KDLG

ALASKA: Mine developer and EPA fail to reach agreement over Pebble copper and gold project

July 22, 2025 — A possible settlement agreement between the Trump administration and the Pebble copper and gold prospect in Southwest Alaska did not pan out, according to a recent filing in a federal court by Pebble Limited Partnership.

That means the legal case brought by Pebble against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency continues. Pebble is seeking to overturn the unusual 2023 decision by the agency, known as a veto, that stopped the project.

“Those discussions were productive but the parties did not reach a negotiated resolution,” said the status report from Pebble, filed Thursday.

Earlier this month, Northern Journal reported that EPA was negotiating a deal that could have ended the lawsuit between Pebble’s owner company and the federal agency.

Conservation groups characterized the lack of a settlement as a sign that the administration of President Donald Trump is standing by the agency’s decision, which was made under former President Joe Biden.

Pebble last week said in a statement that with no settlement reached, it is asking the court to set a briefing schedule for a summary judgment to have the EPA decision quickly withdrawn.

Read the full article at Anchorage Daily News

Alaska salmon groups hail legal filing on Pebble Mine

July 21, 2025 — Salmon fishers, Tribes, and associated businesses in Bristol Bay, Alaska, U.S.A. have welcomed a recent legal filing regarding Pebble Mine, claiming the Trump administration is backing their opposition to the development of Pebble Mine.

“We thank President Trump for defending this one of a kind natural resource from short term exploitation by foreign controlled interests,” SalmonState Executive Director Tim Bristol said in a statement. “Bristol Bay’s world class salmon runs generate upwards of USD 2.2 billion (EUR 1.9 billion billion) in economic activity, are a vital source of clean, nutritious food, and represent one of the great hunting and angling destinations on the planet. Simply put, Bristol Bay is the biggest and the best and it’s clear the President knows this based on his wise decision today.”

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

In court filing, Trump administration hints at a lifeline for embattled Pebble project

July 14, 2025 — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency took a rare step under former President Joe Biden to block development of the Pebble mine, Alaska’s largest known copper and gold deposit, which for years has fueled controversy over its potential impacts on one of the world’s largest salmon runs.

Now, under President Donald Trump, the agency is giving its past Pebble decisions another look and negotiating a deal that could end a lawsuit filed by Pebble’s developer — an announcement that’s boosted the company’s stock price this week.

Administration officials “have been actively considering the agency decisions” and are “open to reconsideration,” according to a recent court filing submitted by U.S. Department of Justice lawyers. The three-page document does not elaborate, though it references the past decision by the EPA and a separate decision by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to deny Pebble a key permit.

Read the full article at the Northern Journal

EPA ‘open to reconsideration’ of Alaska’s Pebble mine — DOJ

July 8, 2025 — Some Trump administration officials are open to reconsidering its prior opposition to the contentious Pebble mine in Alaska’s pristine Bristol Bay watershed, which is a prime salmon habitat, according to federal lawyers.

Attorneys with the Department of Justice said in recent court filings that EPA officials are considering a veto the agency issued in 2023 under Section 404 of the Clean Water Act that halted the open-pit copper and gold mine. The mine has drawn considerable pushback given it would be built near the world’s largest sockeye salmon fishery.

“Agency officials remain open to reconsideration, and Defendants and [Pebble Limited Partnership] are negotiating to explore a potential settlement,” Adam Gustafson, acting assistant attorney general for the Environment and Natural Resources Division, wrote in a Thursday legal filing.

Read the full article at E&E News