Mining News: Juneau Assembly addresses future threats to Kensington permits

Although the Supreme Court is still deliberating the fate of the Kensington project’s tailings permits the Juneau assembly is proactively opposing proposed federal legislation that could override a ruling in favor of Coeur.

The Juneau Assembly passed a resolution April 6 opposing the U.S. House bill H.R. 1310, the “Clean Water Protection Act,” by a margin of 5-4. The assembly’s opposition to H.R. 1310 – which would amend the Federal Water Pollution Control Act to redefine fill material – is a result of the effect the bill could have on the proposed Kensington gold mine located about 45 miles northwest of Juneau.

The resolution, drafted by Assembly members Sara Chambers and Randy Wanamaker, says the definition of fill as proposed in H.R. 1310 “would override a favorable decision of the Supreme Court of the United States in favor of the Coeur Alaska Kensington Gold Mine, as currently permitted by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Army Corps of Engineers.”

“Now, at a time of great financial difficulties and enormous job losses, we find that radical oppositionists, fearful that Coeur Alaska will prevail before the Supreme Court, are in league with East Coast congressmen to introduce legislation that would make it nearly impossible to open the Kensington mine. While targeted at a gold mine in Southeast Alaska, the consequences would be national, as thousands of mining jobs are exported to other countries,” Wanamaker said.

The authors of the assembly resolution said they are confident that the Kensington Project has been properly permitted, and “H.R. 1310 will overturn 35 years of well-established nationwide procedures used by the Army Corps of Engineers and the Environmental Protection Agency.”

The assembly members said a mine at Kensington is of vital economic importance to Juneau and to Southeast Alaska.

Wanamaker wrote in the Fairbanks Daily News Miner, “As an assemblyman, I now struggle with Juneau’s budget problems. In each of the last past two years, the city has lost about $25 million in payroll, $3 million in sales and property taxes and $9 million in local goods and service purchases. Juneau is struggling with projected annual budget shortfalls estimated at $5.5 million.

Citing a 62 percent unemployment rate among Alaska Natives in Southeast Alaska, the resolution says the Kensington project has and will continue to recruit, train and employ Alaska Natives.

The assembly members also expressed concern about how the proposed definition change would affect other construction projects and municipal landfills, not only in Juneau, but across the nation. The proposed Kensington gold mine, and other projects that would require disposal of excess rock and soil in areas designated as wetlands, would be affected by the bill.

Implications of H.R. 1310 are especially profound in Alaska, where about 174.7 million acres, or 43.3 percent of the state’s surface area, is considered wetlands. That compares with an average of 5.2 percent of the surface area of the lower 48 states.

—Shane Lasley