Regulators violated laws when they failed to consider impacts of a catastrophic dam failure before issuing a key permit for the controversial Donlin mine, a federal judge ruled.
By Yereth Rosen, Alaska BeaconThe Donlin Gold airstrip, with the camp at the far end on the right, is seen from the air on Aug. 11, 2022. The mine site is in the hilly terrain near Southwest Alaska's winding Kuskokwim River. The mine won a key permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in 2018, but a federal judge ruled on Monday that the environmental study on which that permit was based was flawed because it failed to consider the impacts of a catastrophic dam failure.
The environmental impact statement should have fully analyzed the possibility of a breach in the 471-foot-tall dam planned to hold hundreds of millions of tons ofThe environmental impact statement listed the risk of a catastrophic failure was 0.5% per year, or 2% over 20 years. But the Corps failed to consider the outcome of such a spill, an omission that Gleason said violated the National Environmental Policy Act and the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act.
“The threat of the Donlin Gold Mine has loomed for many years now, posing unacceptable risks to the health of our lands, waters, fish, wildlife and our people. We are relieved and happy that the judge is requiring a harder look at the mine’s impacts, and the risk of a tailings failure,” Walter Jim, chair of Orutsararmiut Native Council, said in a statement.
The other tribal plaintiffs are the Tuluksak Native Council, the Native Village of Eek, Chevak Traditional Council and the Native Village of Kwigillingok.
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