Pebble draft EIS comment period extended
North of 60 Mining News – May 10, 2019
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Last updated 9/25/2020 at 4:35pm
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers – Alaska District
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is providing the public an additional 30 days to comment on the Pebble Mine project draft environmental impact statement.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers – Alaska District May 3 announced that it has extended the public comment period for the draft environmental impact statement (EIS) for the Pebble copper-gold-molybdenum mine project in Southwest Alaska to June 29.
This provides an added 30 days to the comment period, bringing the total length of time for the public to submit their comments on the project to 120 days.
In late April, U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) sent a letter asking the Corps to extend the comment period to June 29.
"After carefully reviewing the DEIS, I've concluded Alaskans need more time," said Murkowski. "The Corps permit is one of many the proposed Pebble mine will ultimately need to acquire, but throughout this process I want Alaskans to have adequate time to review and weigh in on the project."
In addition to collecting comments via mail and online, Corps recently wrapped up a three-week tour that included meetings to provide the public an opportunity to testify on the proposed mine plans for Pebble detailed in the draft EIS.
This tour included public meetings in seven communities in Southwest Alaska, where the Pebble deposit is located, Homer and Anchorage.
Sheila Newman, deputy chief of the regulatory division, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers – Alaska District, said the input at these meeting, by mail and on the Pebble EIS website will help the regulator as it works toward drafting a final EIS and making a permit decision for Pebble.
Sheila Newman
Through May 3, Corps had uploaded roughly 8,400 public comments to the Pebble EIS website http://www.pebbleprojecteis.com.
"We are hearing a lot of substantive comments that will help ensure the analysis we are doing leads to a very informed decision, which is what the NEPA process is designed to do," Newman said.
The Corps expects to have the final EIS for Pebble completed by early next year and the record of decision for development on a mine at the large copper-gold-molybdenum project by mid-2020.
Comments can be submitted at http://www.pebbleprojecteis.com; or mailed to:
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Alaska District
ATTN: DA Permit Application 2017-271, Pebble Limited Partnership
645 G Street Suite 100-921
Anchorage, Alaska 99501
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