U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Archives

ALASKA: Bristol Bay seal suit: Endangered listing could disrupt Pebble Mine permit

February 13, 2020 — On Wednesday, Feb. 12, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers reportedly conceded that there may be a new hurdle on the horizon for Pebble Mine permitting.

On Feb. 6, the environmental group Center for Biological Diversity filed a lawsuit seeking Endangered Species Act protection for Lake Iliamna harbor seals, one of only two harbor seal populations living exclusively in fresh water, whose population now numbers about 400, according to the center.

“Alaska’s unique and imperiled freshwater seals need federal protection,” said Kristin Carden, a scientist at the Center for Biological Diversity. “The Pebble Mine threatens the very survival of the Iliamna Lake seals and the fish species they depend on to survive. Even if the mine is stopped, climate change will drive these rare and beautiful animals toward extinction.”

Subsistence hunters in the region harvest lake seals. The center advises that its lawsuit would not interfere with subsistence hunting or fishing by Alaska natives. Whether it may affect commercial fisheries in Bristol Bay remains to be seen.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

Controversial mining company coached Alaska’s governor to lobby White House

December 23, 2019 — A mining company secretly collaborated with the governor of Alaska to lobby the Trump administration to move forward with a mining project that Environmental Protection Agency scientists warned could devastate the world’s most valuable wild salmon habitat, according to newly released emails obtained by CNN.

Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s office was given detailed talking points, ghostwritten letters and advice on lobbying strategies by Pebble Limited Partnership executives, emails show. Dunleavy and his office then used that material, sometimes adopting the company’s language word for word, in an effort that culminated in President Donald Trump promising favorable action on the mine, according to emails.

One striking example of the governor using Pebble’s language is an official letter Dunleavy sent to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in April about the length of a public comment period on the mine’s draft environment impact statement.

Read the full story at CNN

ALASKA: Corps corrects end date for Pebble project comment period

May 22, 2019 — The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has corrected the closing date for the extended comment period for a draft environmental review of a proposed copper and gold mine in Alaska’s Bristol Bay region.

The corps earlier this month said it was extending the comment period from 90 days to 120 days and said it would end June 29.

However, John Budnik, a spokesman for the corps, said by email Monday that a formal comment period cannot close on a weekend. He says the new close date is July 1.

Read the full story at the Associated Press

ALASKA: Patagonia, Whole Foods, and others speak out against Pebble Mine in Bristol Bay

April 26, 2019 — A coalition of more than 200 businesses that includes Patagonia, Hy-Vee, Whole Foods, and PCC Markets drafted a letter this week to speak out against Pebble Mine, a proposed open-pit copper, gold, and molybdenum mine at the headwaters of the world’s largest sockeye salmon fishery in Bristol Bay, Alaska.

The letter from the group, known as Businesses for Bristol Bay, was addressed to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Anchorage and requested that the Corps suspend its review of the permit application from the mining group, the Canada-based Pebble Limited Partnership.

Echoing the concerns of many, the Businesses for Bristol Bay said the process is incomplete and that officials are trying to rush the permit through.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

ALASKA: Sullivan restates concern that Pebble comment period may be too short

April 19, 2019 — As a series of public hearings on the controversial Pebble mine came to a close in Anchorage on Tuesday, Sen. Dan Sullivan reiterated support for extending the period during which Alaskans can comment on the federal government’s draft report of the mine’s impacts.

Sullivan met with senior officials with the U.S. Army Corps recently, his staff said Tuesday.

“At that meeting, Senator Sullivan reiterated his view that the Corps should extend the comment period if necessary to ensure that the viewpoints of all Alaskans are taken into consideration on a project of this size and complexity. This is a general legal requirement of the federal permitting process,” Michael Soukup, an aide, said in a statement.

Sullivan raised the same concern in February, telling reporters the agency’s 90-day comment period is inadequate.

Read the full story at Anchorage Daily News

ALASKA: Pushing back on Pebble: Scientific community and Bristol Bay leaders offer testimony

April 3, 2019 — Nobody was fooling at the Alaska State House Resources Committee hearing on Monday, April 1, to address concerns about the proposed plan for Pebble Mine in Bristol Bay.

“If Pebble goes in, the Bristol Bay Sockeye brand and the entire Alaska Seafood brand will be tarnished,” said Norm Van Vactor, CEO of the Bristol Bay Economic Development Corporation. “The state of Alaska has invested millions into building these brands and establishing Alaska as a premium brand in the marketplace. That brand is based on pristine habitat, sustainability, and high quality, not open-pit mining districts and acid mine drainage.”

Bristol Bay residents, fisheries leaders and scientific experts offered testimony about a range of inadequacies in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers draft Environmental Impact Statement, as well as the economic, social and environmental value of Bristol Bay’s salmon watersheds that would be at risk under the proposed plan.

“They did not assess the risk appropriately. The draft Environmental Impact Statement is misleading about the probability of a [catastrophic tailings dam]failure,” said Dr. Cameron Wobus, a senior scientist at Lynker Technologies who authored a report on tailings dam failure scenarios.

The draft’s 20-year time line, scientists say, is too short to evaluate the long-term risks. A 100-year analysis would have been more transparent, because the tailings dam has a 1 in 5 chance of failing over a century.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

New Tech Makes Scientific Data Cheaper And Easier To Secure

September 18, 2018 — To understand what climate change is doing to the Pacific Ocean scientists need data.

Lots of it.

Traditionally, data has been expensive to secure because it involves large equipment and ocean voyages. But the miniaturization of technology and some clever new machines mean scientists are now getting lots of data — sometimes delivered via phone to the comfort of an office chair.

A good example can be found on the deck of the Forerunner, a small Clatsop Community College research vessel that sails out of Astoria.

A deck hand lowers a detector the size of a suitcase into the crystal blue waters of the Pacific. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration fisheries biologist Curtis Roegner is using it to look for a scanner on the sea floor.

“There. Found it,” he said. “OK, so here it’s recognizing that I’ve found one of our scanners and here’s its code number. It’s out there and we could talk to it. And now we could tell it to release from the bottom, pop-it-up and retrieve it.”

Read the full story at OPB

ALASKA: Groups claim feds glossed over public concerns in Pebble mine report

September 4, 2018 — Groups fighting the Pebble gold and copper prospect on Friday swiftly condemned a new federal report summarizing public concerns about the project after a three-month comment period, asserting that the report glosses over key issues.

Supporters of the project shot back, saying the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has undertaken painstaking efforts to gather information before it prepares an environmental review of potential development scenarios.

The Corps released the report on Friday.

Deantha Crockett, executive director of Alaska Miners Association, said the Corps has shown its willingness to listen, allowing a 90-day period to take public input on the Southwest Alaska project, instead of the original 30.

“We’re happy we’re seeing progress (on the project),” she said.

Read the full story at Anchorage Daily News

Whose Fish Is It? Who’s in Charge Here?

August 6, 2018 — Restaurant owners may know that open-faced sandwiches are regulated by the federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA), part of the Department of Health and Human Services. But if a second piece of bread is added on top, it is regulated by the Department of Agriculture (USDA). That’s because the USDA has a very specific definition of a sandwich: two slices of bread with the meat in the middle. So, is a hot dog a sandwich? The National Hot Dog and Sausage Council says no, but the State of California says yes. How about a burrito? Massachusetts ruled that a burrito is not a sandwich, but New York says it is. A cheese pizza is regulated by the FDA, but add pepperoni and it becomes a USDA matter. When you make an omelet, FDA regulates the eggs you crack, but if you pour liquid eggs from a carton, it’s USDA.

Regulations can be confusing, sometimes because of vague wording, but often because of overlapping jurisdictions. It is not always obvious who is in charge. Clean water rules are under the jurisdiction of the EPA, but projects that might affect stream water require permits from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. A salmon or sturgeon swimming in the ocean is under the jurisdiction of the National Marine Fisheries Service, part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce. But if the same fish swims upstream into a river, it becomes province of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, part of the Interior Department.

Pundits have made fun of such regulatory silliness for years. Hillary Clinton joked about the sandwich rules when running for the Senate 18 years ago. At least two presidents have cited the weird pizza rules, yet nobody did anything about the regulatory mess.

Read the full story at The American Spectator

Alaska’s Pebble Mine Project Review Proceeds Over Governor Walker’s Doubts

July 30, 2018 — SEAFOOD NEWS, JUNEAU, Alaska — The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is proceeding with an environmental review of a proposed copper and gold mine located near a major salmon fishery in Alaska, despite a request from the state’s governor that the review be halted.

Gov. Bill Walker, in a letter co-signed by Lt. Gov. Byron Mallott last month, said the company behind the proposed Pebble Mine had yet to show that the project is feasible or realistic. They argued that, at a minimum, a preliminary economic assessment should be conducted to help inform the corps’ work.

But Shane McCoy, the corps’ program manager for the Pebble review, told reporters Thursday that an economic analysis is not required for the corps to do its work.

There are limited situations in which a review would be halted, including cases in which an applicant itself asks to stop, or if an applicant fails to provide the corps requested information, McCoy said. Walker’s request was not one that the corps could grant under its rules, he said.

The Pebble Limited Partnership, which wants to develop the Pebble Mine, has given no indication that it wants to suspend the process, McCoy said.

The corps’ position was explained to Walker directly by the commander of the Alaska district, Col. Michael Brooks, he said. Austin Baird, a spokesman for Walker, confirmed that Brooks and Walker spoke and Brooks indicated that he “would not honor the governor’s request.”

Tom Collier, CEO of the Pebble partnership, last month said the company believes it can “successfully and responsibly” operate the mine. “This is what the Corps will evaluate and we can either meet this expectation or we cannot,” he said in a statement.

Collier called Walker’s request to suspend the review a stall tactic.

The Pebble project is located in Alaska’s Bristol Bay region. Bristol Bay produces about half of the world’s sockeye salmon.

Debate over the project has been politically charged, with critics contending it is the wrong place for a mine and supporters urging the project be vetted through the permitting and review process.

In a statement earlier this year, Walker, an independent, said the Bristol Bay region “has sustained generations and must continue to do so in perpetuity.”

Baird said Thursday that Walker “continues to believe that the Bristol Bay watershed is unique” and that the proposed mine “must be held to an extraordinarily high standard.”

Republican U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who chairs the Senate energy committee, has said she expects “a fair, rigorous and transparent process” that will help Alaskans understand “the impacts and risks, as well as the potential benefits associated with this project.”

The Pebble partnership is owned by Canada-based Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd., which has been looking for a partner since Anglo American PLC announced it was pulling out in 2013.

First Quantum Minerals Ltd. was courted as a potential investor but backed away from the project in May.

The corps has no opinion on the financial status of the Pebble partnership, McCoy said.

This story is by the Associated Press and published by Seafood News. The full story is published here with permission.