Pogo water permit issued, work starts

Gold mine developers say construction crews returning to Interior Alaska project; to peak at 500 workers

Patricia Liles

Petroleum News Contributing Writer

Developers of the Pogo gold project in Interior Alaska received a federal water discharge permit on May 7, allowing the company to begin ramping back up for the summer construction season. The Environmental Protection Agency’s water discharge permit became active following the withdrawal of an appeal filed in mid April by a Fairbanks-based environmental group.

“The Northern Alaska Environmental Center filed a motion with the Environmental Appeals Board to dismiss their appeal,” said Keith Cohon, an EPA lawyer working on the appeal. “It was good that it was handled so quickly; everyone felt some urgency to resolve the issue.”

On March 15, EPA announced it had issued the Pogo project its water discharge permit under the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System. Following an appeal period, the permit was to become effective in mid-April. However, the environmental group’s appeal stayed the permit, and the project’s developer, Teck-Pogo Inc., had no legal way to discharge water, critical during construction for operating the water and sewer system servicing the 300-person camp at the remote project site. Anticipating a possible four to 12 month appeal process, Teck-Pogo immediately began laying off about half of its 340-person construction force.

Work ramps back up

“We’re gearing back up — 20 folks came back in today,” Hanneman said on May 11, in a phone interview from the project site in the upper Goodpaster River valley. “We’re not all back up to speed, but we’re all working in that direction and should be within a week or so.” Crews will begin excavating a bench or level area for the mill site.

Construction work on the 50-mile all season road has restarted at the Shaw Creek site, where the road joins the Richardson Highway. “Things are going well there,” Hanneman said. Crews are filtering in for road construction work at the gold mine site. “Some crews have come back but the new folks have to go through training, so it takes a while.”

All workers at the Pogo site must complete training required by the Mining Safety Health Administration, 40 hours for underground workers and 24 hours for surface workers. That training is provided by the Delta Mine Training Center in Delta Junction. The project’s construction schedule, anticipated to be complete in late 2005, may be adjusted, Hanneman said. “If we can’t catch back up on the schedule, it will just be somewhat delayed in completion,” he said. Construction is expected to peak at 500 workers this summer and next at Pogo.

All-night negotiations for appeal

“It was quite an interesting process,” said Bill Riley, mining coordinator for the region 10 office of the Environmental Protection Agency. One issue raised in the appeal, involving drainage of a 600-foot section of Liese Creek upstream from the recycle tailings pond, was eventually dropped by the environmental group, Riley said in a telephone interview on May 11.

“Technically it is still waters of the United States, even though it is dewatered and diverted, but where’s your environmental issue,” Riley said. “We looked at ways to capture seepage from the pile and tailings before it was collected downstream in the RTP. It turned out not to be a practical thing to do.” He attributes the appeal’s quick resolution to the thorough environmental analysis and “pretty strong record” resulting from the three-year environmental impact statement process.

“Teck-Pogo was willing to sit down and work out a solution to get something else for the environment, to get going on this,” Riley added. He also noted during his talks with the environmental group that the existing plan of water handling was not the company’s original proposal. “Teck spent a year re-doing their water management plan because we did not think it would meet our specifications,” Riley said.