Five Nome-area tribes sue Army Corps over Safety Sound gold dredge permit

Five Alaska Native tribes have sued to block a suction dredge gold mining operation in Safety Sound's Bonanza Channel, about 30 miles east of Nome, arguing the Army Corps of Engineers approved the project without the environmental review federal law requires.

The Village of Solomon, Native Village of Council, King Island Native Community, Chinik Eskimo Community, and Native Village of White Mountain filed the complaint in U.S. District Court, seeking declaratory and injunctive relief. They allege the Corps violated the National Environmental Policy Act by issuing a Clean Water Act permit without a full environmental impact statement.

The project, first proposed in 2018 by Nevada-based IPOP LLC, would operate around the clock and move millions of cubic yards of sediment, with a processing capacity of 285 cubic yards of material per hour, disturbing more than 150 acres of estuary. The complaint describes the area as critical for subsistence hunting and fishing.

IPOP benefited from a March 2024 reversal by the Corps' Pacific Ocean Division, which overturned the Corps' own 2022 permit denial. The Alaska Department of Natural Resources has separately rejected the company's land use permit and reclamation plan. No response from IPOP or the Army Corps was available.