The CEO of a large proposed gold and copper mine in Alaska’s Bristol Bay is denying reports that prominent conservative opposition to the project, including from Donald Trump Jr., has turned the White House against the project.
In a letter made public Monday, the Army Corps of Engineers asked the developers of the proposed Pebble Mine to take additional measures to compensate for the effects the mine will have on wetlands and streams before it can be permitted. The move could push a final decision on the mine until after the election. Democratic nominee Joe Biden has said he would halt the project.
Opponents of the project are suggesting the mitigation requirements are so significant that it would essentially block the project from moving forward.
“Real mitigation is death for Pebble Mine, because it’s impossible to mitigate the damage this project would inflict on Bristol Bay, its Tribes, and the people whose livelihoods and well-being depend on it,” said Joel Reynolds, a senior attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council’s nature program.
However, Tom Collier, CEO of Pebble Limited Partnership, the mine’s owner and a subsidiary of Canadian-based Northern Dynasty Minerals, says the company has been preparing for weeks a plan to address the Army Corps’ concerns.
“A clear reading of the letter shows it is entirely unrelated to recent tweets about Pebble and one-sided news shows,” Collier said in a statement Monday. “The White House had nothing to do with the letter nor is it the show-stopper described by several in the news media over the weekend.”
Nonetheless, the Army Corps’ letter comes after a weekslong campaign against the project waged by prominent conservatives, including Trump Jr. and Nick Ayers, former chief of staff to Vice President Mike Pence. That political pressure has also included Tucker Carlson, who ran a segment against Pebble Mine on his Fox News show, featuring Bass Pro Shops CEO Johnny Morris and GOP donor Andrew Sabin.
“I don’t know the argument yet, but I would certainly listen to both sides,” Trump said earlier this month when asked about his son’s opposition to the project. “My son has some very strong opinions, and he is very much of an environmentalist.”
Alaska’s Republican senators in a statement on Monday backed the Army Corps’s decision not to issue a permit to Pebble Mine as proposed.
“I agree that a permit should not be issued,” said Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who leads the Senate Energy Committee. “And I thank the administration for its commitment to the protection of this world-class watershed and salmon fishery.”
Sen. Dan Sullivan also supported the decision, and he said it was based on “the best available science and a rigorous, fair process,” rejecting suggestions from Pebble proponents that politics have tainted the review.
Just last month, it had appeared the Pebble Mine project was headed for a speedy approval. The Army Corps of Engineers issued a final environmental analysis last month, ultimately finding the mine, which would be the largest in North America, poses no serious risks.
A senior administration official, however, told the Wall Street Journal the White House’s National Economic Council has been reviewing the Pebble project for months.
“All those reports kind of said the same thing: not enough facts, nowhere near the right mitigation, and the project would result in significant degradation of the environment,” that official told the Wall Street Journal. “We do support mining. But this just didn’t work.”
In its letter released Monday, the Army Corps noted it found “discharges at the mine site would cause unavoidable adverse impacts” and result in “significant degradation” of aquatic resources.
The agency is asking for Pebble’s developers to compensate for “all direct and indirect impacts” caused by pollution at the mine site, as well as the transportation corridor and port associated with the mine. That totals 3,285 acres of wetland, roughly 364 acres of open waters, and 185 miles of streams, according to the Army Corps letter.
Pebble’s developers could compensate for those damages by restoring, establishing, or preserving wetlands, streams, and other waters.
Collier, who served as chief of staff to the interior secretary during the Clinton administration, doesn’t see the mitigation requirements as a hurdle. He said the company has been working with the Army Corps and Alaska state officials since earlier in the summer on a plan and has had crews on the ground surveying additional wetlands since the end of July.
Pebble intends to put forward a plan “to preserve enough land so that multiples of the number of impacted wetland acres are preserved,” Collier added.
Pebble’s developers must submit that plan to the Army Corps within 90 days.
The Trump administration could still take an even stronger stance. The Environmental Protection Agency could veto the project, as the Obama administration was preparing to do before it left office.
“Now that the Corps has finally set the bar that the Clean Water Act and science require, Northern Dynasty can’t meet it,” Reynolds said. “The EPA should veto Pebble and put a stop to this nightmare once and for all.”
