Northern Dynasty Minerals, the parent company of Alaska-based Pebble Limited Partnership reports that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers accepted Pebble’s request to initiate an administrative appeal process to the Pebble Project and a negative Record of Decision issued by its Alaska District in November 2020. On January 19, 2021, Northern Dynasty submitted a Request for Appeal to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Pacific Ocean Division Engineer. A subsequent letter from the Corps of Engineers confirmed that the request for appeal is complete and meets the criteria for appeal.
A final Environmental Impact Statement was published for the proposed mine in July 2020 finding that Pebble wouldn’t have measurable effects on fish populations or fisheries in southwest Alaska. The Corps of Engineers, however published a record of decision on November 25, 2020 denying Pebble the key permit citing that its compensatory mitigation plan is non-compliant and the project is not in the public’s interest under the Clean Water Act.
In a press release from Northern Dynasty, the company believes the key aspects of the decision, including its degradation finding, its public interest review findings and the rejection of the compensatory mitigation plan are contrary to law, unprecedented in Alaska and unsupported by the administrative record. A full version of Pebble’s RFA can be seen here.
The administrative appeal process from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers should conclude within 90 days, but may be extended depending on the circumstances.