PLP says it’s looking forward to reviewing final EIS on mine

Hurley cites EIS as inadequate, with data gaps, analytical deficiencies

Pebble Limited Partnership’s CEO Tom Collier says the PLP’s project team is looking forward to reviewing the final federal environmental impact statement on the proposed Pebble mine and getting ready for initiating state permitting.

Collier’s comments on Wednesday, July 15, came in a statement in which Collier said that based on conversations with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers the final EIS will be published in the Federal Register on July 24.

The PLP is a subsidiary of Canada’s Hunter Dickinson, a private umbrella group of publicly traded mining companies headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia.

“This will mark one of the most significant milestones for the Pebble Project,” with that document to be used by the Corps as it prepares its record of decision for Pebble.

Collier praised the Corps for its “thorough and transparent with their work” in what he said was “this objective, technical review of our proposed plan for a mine at the Pebble site.”

After reviewing the final EIS, the PLP get ready for initiating state permitting, he said.

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According to the USACE’s John Budnik, the Corps has been providing this date in response to individual queries from journalists and others, but has not issued a formal news release specifying July 24 as the date for publication in the Federal Register.

“Given the comments/statements from other federal agencies, Bristol Bay stakeholders, and Alaska’s senators, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers review of the proposed Pebble Mine has not been thorough,” said Andy Wink, executive director of the Bristol Bay Regional Seafood Development Association. “But maybe a rubber stamp is all you need in Canada, where tailings dams and salmon runs are failing.”

Alannah Hurley, executive director of United Tribes of Bristol Bay, said that Bristol Bay tribes are disappointed that the Corps “is rushing ahead with the premature release of their inadequate environmental review document, despite the data gaps and analytical deficiencies identified by numerous cooperating agencies, including Tribes. We have asked for additional public comment due to the project’s major changes. If the Army Corps insists on barreling ahead, the EPA must step in and stop this project before Bristol Bay becomes an industrial mining district.”

Nelli Williams, Alaska director of Trout Unlimited, said that the full tailings dam studies that Pebble promised are still needed, as well as studies of the PLP’s proposed northern route for the mine’s transportation corridor. The project remains “an unnecessary risk for so many reasons.”

“This process has only confirmed that this is the wrong mine in the wrong place,” Williams said.

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