Pebble veto ruling still pending as judge keeps the record open

A federal judge is weighing whether the Environmental Protection Agency's veto over the Pebble deposit survives, and while that decision sits she has refused to let the companies behind the prospect seal parts of the record in their own suit, leaving those portions of the administrative record unsealed.

EPA's 2023 veto under Section 404(c) of the Clean Water Act found that discharges tied to developing the Pebble deposit would have unacceptable adverse effects on salmon fishery areas in the Bristol Bay watershed, barring use of the South Fork Koktuli and North Fork Koktuli watersheds under Pebble's 2020 mine plan and restricting future proposals there and in Upper Talarik Creek. The suit asks the court to overturn that determination.

Cross motions for summary judgment were argued June 25 and Gleason has not ruled, roughly eight weeks on. The publicly available docket carries no decision: its last entry is dated Aug. 6, and the copy of the docket reviewed for this article was refreshed Aug. 13. US District Judge Sharon L. Gleason entered the order denying the motion to seal on Aug. 5, in Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd. v. EPA, case 3:24-cv-00059-SLG, in the US District Court for the District of Alaska.

Northern Dynasty and the State of Alaska argue EPA's veto is unlawful; Bristol Bay Native Association, United Tribes of Bristol Bay, Trout Unlimited and other tribal and conservation intervenors argue the protections are needed to safeguard salmon fisheries, Indigenous cultures and the regional economy.

Alaska Native parties sit on both sides. Plaintiffs include the State of Alaska and Alaska Native village corporations Iliamna Natives Ltd. and Alaska Peninsula Corp. Intervenors on EPA's side include Bristol Bay Native Corporation and more than a dozen other tribal, fishing and conservation groups. The suit was filed in March 2024 and assigned to Gleason after Judge Joshua M. Kindred recused. The June argument transcript sits on the docket with a release of transcript restriction date of Nov. 4, after which it becomes remotely available to the public.

In the Ambler district, the question for residents is when they can speak. The Arctic project, an open pit near Kobuk proposed by Ambler Metals LLC, has a Federal Permitting Dashboard posting dated May 14 recording zero of fifteen environmental review and permitting processes complete, with an estimated completion date of Nov. 26, 2028. The Army Corps of Engineers Regulatory program is lead agency, with NOAA among the agencies granting authorizations. The project would process about 11,000 short tons of ore a day for copper, zinc, lead, gold and silver, with three miles of access roads.

The Army Corps posted its FAST-41 initiation notice on June 3, dated April 30, recording no public meetings, hearings or comment periods, and no final federal action.

Trilogy Metals, which holds 50 percent of Ambler Metals, announced July 16 that a coordinated federal and state permitting schedule had been published, targeting a notice of intent to prepare an environmental impact statement in September, a draft statement in October 2027 and a record of decision in September 2028. Those dates come from Trilogy's announcement and have not been confirmed against the dashboard or the Federal Register. A search of the Federal Register on Tuesday returned no such notice. A notice of intent, if published, opens scoping, when agencies take public comment on the statement's scope.

Federal money has moved on two other Alaska names, both figures from company statements rather than an awarding agency notice. Nova Minerals reports a $43.4 million Defense Department award to its Alaska Range Resources subsidiary under Title III of the Defense Production Act to build antimony supply from the Estelle project, targeting 2027. Ucore Rare Metals reports a $4 million demonstration award followed by an $18.4 million construction award from the same department, $22.4 million total, funding the Louisiana Strategic Metals Complex, with its Bokan-Dotson Ridge deposit on Prince of Wales Island as a longer term feed source; the construction spending itself is in Louisiana.

Graphite One's Graphite Creek near Nome last saw state action in May, when the Department of Natural Resources advanced a drilling permit, followed by subsistence concerns raised by the community of Teller in June.

For Ambler district residents, the next chance to be heard depends on whether the notice of intent publishes in the Federal Register. On Pebble, the docket is the place to watch, and the argument transcript becomes public on Nov. 4.