The state gave Red Dog another decade of eased water limits as the mine looks to run longer

State regulators have extended the Red Dog Mine's wastewater permit by 10 years, letting one of the world's largest zinc mines keep discharging treated water into a nearby creek under interim limits, short of Alaska's full water-quality standards, until 2036.

The Department of Environmental Conservation pointed to a cause it said has no available remedy: thawing permafrost is altering the water around the mine, with monitoring showing the effect continuing "unabated." Meeting the full state standard on the original timeline, the department concluded, is not currently possible.

The permit runs past the mine's own expected life. Red Dog's ore is expected to run low in the early 2030s, and Teck, the operator, is separately pursuing a "life extension" to keep the mine running past then on additional deposits. That effort is not part of this permit, but the water terms now reach to 2036, past the point the current mine is expected to close.

The state says the treated water leaves the creek less toxic, not more. Red Dog Creek is naturally heavy with metals, and DEC and the Alaska Department of Fish and Game read years of monitoring as showing the discharge dilutes those metals, pushes the water's pH toward neutral and reduces its toxicity to aquatic life. Cutting off the managed discharge, DEC warned, could be worse, risking a release of untreated mine drainage or even a dam failure.

The village of Kivalina, downstream on the coast, asked the state to deny the permit and to set firm deadlines and tougher consequences, arguing the mine should face limits on its operations rather than what it called nominal fines. NANA Regional Corporation, which owns the land and shares in the mine's revenue and jobs, supported the reissuance. The state made no changes, recording in a single line that "no permit changes resulted from comments."

A few years out, Teck faces a choice among long-term water-management options. One is a pipeline that would carry treated water year-round to the Chukchi Sea.