Comment on US Army Corps of Engineers Mitigation Plan Requirement for Pebble Mine

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

August 24, 2020

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Comment on US Army Corps of Engineers Mitigation Plan Requirement for Pebble Mine 

WASHINGTON, DC – The mitigation requirements set out today in a letter from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to the developers of the proposed Pebble mine are appropriately stringent and set a high bar for development given the massive scale of the project and its sensitive location at the headwaters of Alaska’s Bristol Bay watershed, said ConservAmerica General Counsel Brent Fewell. 

“The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is adhering to the long-standing policy of first, avoiding impacts to wetlands, and, where avoidance is not possible, requiring in-kind mitigation to offset the impacts on aquatic resources, including sensitive wetlands,” Fewell said. “Our position at ConservAmerica is that no amount of compensatory mitigation can make the Pebble project safe and ensure the protection of the region’s salmon fishery. Given our concerns about the potential impacts on the area, our organization thinks the prudent path is for the Corps of Engineers and the Environmental Protection Agency to reject the mine entirely.” 

In the letter, the Corps of Engineers cautioned Pebble’s developers that the mine could result in significant degradation of the region’s aquatic resources, including the destruction of up to 2,825 acres of wetlands, 132 acres of open waters, and 129 miles of streams. The developers, Pebble Limited Partnership, have 90 days to submit a mitigation plan that can offset the damage from all direct and indirect impacts at the mine, according to the letter. The mitigation plan would determine the fate of major construction-related permit to discharge fill material into federal waters that the Pebble Partnership applied for in 2017. 

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