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Environmentalists criticize Pogo’s plan for tailings Final comments submitted by NAEC allege EIS permitting plan for tailings at gold mine is illegal, regulators concerned about lawsuit Patricia Jones Petroleum News Contributing Writer
Alaska state and federal regulators working on the final phase of permitting the Pogo gold mine in Interior Alaska received comments on Oct. 20 from a Fairbanks-based environmental group that raised concerns that the group will litigate final decisions made by regulatory agencies.
A final public comment period for wetlands permits to be issued by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers closed Oct. 20, also the closing day of a 30-day cooling-off period that followed the release of the final environmental impact statement for the Pogo gold project.
Among several comments the Corps and the Environmental Protection Agency received was a two-page letter from the Northern Alaska Environmental Center, a group that takes issue with the agencies’ preferred alternative for how mine tailings will be handled.
Although the letter does not threaten a lawsuit if agencies approve permits as outlined in the EIS, “the tone of the letter makes you real nervous about it,” said Ed Fogels, project manager for the Alaska Department of Natural Resources. “We’re all real disappointed — we thought we worked with the Northern Center on this for years.”
Mara Bacsujlaky, assistant director and mining coordinator who submitted the letter for the Northern Center, said the group hasn’t made a decision yet regarding potential litigation on Pogo. “We’ll wait until the permits are issued and see how the permits are written,” she told Petroleum News Oct. 22.
State permits are due to be issued for Pogo at the beginning of November, Fogels said. “With a 30-day appeal period, that would give them a Dec. 1 go-ahead.”
The Corps of Engineers will evaluate and respond to all comments in its final decision document, scheduled to be issued in 30 to 60 days, said Victor Ross, project manager. While he declined to comment specifically on the environmental group’s letter, he said that the Corps “… produced a final method for permitting that we thought was legitimate.”
That sentiment was echoed by Bill Riley, mining coordinator for the region 10 office of the Environmental Protection Agency, the lead agency releasing the Pogo EIS.
“We tried to come up with the best project we can, environmentally,” he said. “We feel we’re on solid ground.”
NAEC’s comments are “not an environmental issue, it’s more of a policy-driven issue,” he added. “If they’re correct, it’s tantamount to shutting down mining in Alaska.” Technical dispute for regulating wetlands The Northern Center contends that Pogo’s tailings disposal plan does not meet requirements of the Clean Water Act, which prohibits using waters of the United States for waste disposal.
The company plans to divert a portion of Liese Creek away from an area for the waste rock storage. Topsoil adjacent to the creek will be removed and a layer of clean gravel will be placed on the ground, with tailings to be stacked on top of that.
“This is the headwaters of a valley, but it’s not open water, or a lake, or Potter’s Marsh,” Ross said.
The sloping ground which will hold the dry tailings disposal facility meets three criteria for consideration as wetlands, he added.
Permitting tailing storage under the Clean Water Act as the environmental center desires would be impossible, Fogels said.
“Mine tailings, no matter how clean, to seek a discharge permit to put them in water, you’ll never meet water quality standards with dirt,” he said. “It looks like that is what the Northern Center is using to torpedo this project.”
The issue of mine tailings disposal has been debated in other parts of the United States, Riley said. “While that issue certainly is a hot topic nationally, in our opinion, it’s not really an issue here.” Wants liner for tailings Although it was not mentioned in the Oct. 20 letter submitted to regulators, the environmental group wants Teck-Pogo to install a liner underneath the dry tailings stack. “A lined tailings facility would be better. We raised that (issue) but they declined,” Bacsujlaky said.
In the draft environmental impact statement produced by a third party contractor hired by state and federal regulatory agencies, a liner for tailings was determined unnecessary.
Any water seeping through the dry tailings would be contained within a recycle tailings pond (RTP), and any leaking from that pond would be captured and cleansed by the mine water treatment system. “Thus, little benefit was seen from lining these facilities,” the draft EIS stated. Lengthy review process Teck-Pogo Inc., the operating company set up by partners Teck Cominco and Sumitomo Metal Mining Co. to develop the estimated 5.5 million ounce gold deposit, submitted its development plan to regulatory agencies in August 2000. An EIS was issued in September.
Several hundred comments submitted in the public process showed overwhelming support, Fogels said, and none opposed the mine.
“We’ve spent so many years addressing all the environmental concerns … this is a tight project that may be litigated on principle,” he said.
Should that happen, Fogels is concerned about a negative, rippling effect on others considering investment in Alaska. “If the industry sees how even this squeaky clean project cannot get through the permitting process, what kind of signal does that send?”
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