The Red Dog zinc and lead mine in remote northwest Alaska appears to be the victim of another misleading environmental report - this time, one causing some residents in neighboring villages alarm about the quality of berries and greens gathered as food sources.

The Alaska Department of Health and Social Services, Division of Public Health, Section of Epidemiology, recently issued a report reassuring local residents in northwest Alaska about the safety of naturally growing subsistence food sources in the region.

State officials issued the report to identify and correct errors in a document issued in early June by an environmental group claiming that berries and greens collected in villages near Red Dog had very high levels of lead and were thereby unsafe to consume.

The environmental group, called Alaska Community Action on Toxics, based its findings in part on a state Department of Environmental Conservation summary spreadsheet. That spreadsheet contained formatting errors that indicated salmonberries collected from the Point Hope area had very high levels of lead, according to state public health officials.

"In fact, according to DEC's report, Point Hope salmonberries contained the lowest levels of lead detected in berries," the state public health release said.

The state's public health officials also said that concentrations of heavy metals detected in water, soil, caribou, fish and berry samples collected from the Red Dog mine area do not pose a public health hazard to the residents of Kivalina and Noatak, the two closest villages to the mine site.

Nearest settlement 45 miles from mine

Noatak, the mine's nearest settlement, is 45 miles away. The coastal village of Kivalina is about 17 miles from the port site on the Chukchi Sea where Red Dog's concentrate is loaded, 55 miles from the mine and mill facilities.

Residents of Kivalina and Noatak should continue unrestricted harvest and consumption of subsistence resources throughout Northwest Alaska, state public health officials said. The general public is excluded from the port area, where soil samples contain very high concentrations of lead and zinc.

"This report is good news for the residents who live near the Red Dog Mine and it reinforces our prior statement that subsistence foods collected in the area are still safe and healthy to eat," said Richard Mandsager, M.D., Public Health director.

The Alaska Division of Public Health will continue to collaborate with the residents of Noatak and Kivalina, Maniilaq Health Corp., NANA and other key stakeholders to determine if any additional testing of environmental or human samples will be of value to local residents, the press release said.

In a statement on its website, Red Dog's operator Teck Cominco said the environmental report "misportrayed the fugitive dust issue at Red Dog and falsely asserted that the subsistence foods in the region are no longer safe to eat.

"This is a very irresponsible statement and is simply not the truth," the company said.