Published: April 18, 2024 |

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Alaska sued the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday seeking to overturn an agency decision that it said effectively blocked development of one of the world’s largest copper and gold deposits.

The complaint filed in an Anchorage federal court challenges the EPA’s 2023 final determination that prohibited the discharge of mining waste from the so-called Pebble deposit into the state’s Bristol Bay.

It comes about a month after a similar lawsuit was filed by the site’s developer, Northern Dynasty Minerals.

The Bristol Bay watershed in southwestern Alaska supports the world’s largest sockeye salmon fishery, provides habitat to birds and mammals and is known for its large mineral resources.

The EPA in reaching its decision said it was concerned that mining waste would degrade the watershed and harm important fishing ecosystems.

The state said the agency’s decision would deny it billions in revenues from taxes and royalties and called the move “a blatant affront to the sovereignty” of the state.

Alaska claimed the EPA’s decision arbitrarily failed to properly consider the costs and benefits of its decision in violation of federal administrative law and exceeded its authority under the federal Clean Water Act. It asked the court to set aside the final determination and declare the EPA violated those laws.

The EPA declined to comment, and Northern Dynasty didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

The case is Alaska v. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Alaska, case No. 3:24-cv-00084.

Source: Reuters

Northern Dynasty is a mineral exploration and development company based in Vancouver, Canada. Northern Dynasty’s principal asset, owned through its wholly owned Alaska-based U.S. subsidiary, Pebble Limited Partnership, is a 100 percent interest in a contiguous block of 1,840 mineral claims in Southwest Alaska, including the Pebble deposit, located 200 miles from Anchorage and 125 miles from Bristol Bay. The Pebble Partnership is the proponent of the Pebble Project, an initiative to develop one of the world’s most important mineral resources.

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