The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is seeking input on the appropriate contents of an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the Pebble Mine project and has extended the deadline to submit comments to June 29, 2018.

The objective of the scoping is to identify specific elements of the environment that might be affected by the Pebble Limited Partnership’s (Pebble) proposal to operate a copper and gold mine in Alaska’s Bristol Bay. In December 2017, Pebble submitted its first Clean Water Act 404 permit application to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers which triggered the federal permitting and environmental review process. Pebble seeks to develop the first 1.2 billion tons of its nearly 11 billion-ton deposit and set the stage for future expansion and the construction of an industrial mining district in Bristol Bay.

The Corps of Engineers determined that an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) will be needed for the proposed mine development. The EIS provides the basis for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and other federal agencies to evaluate federal permit applications and it analyzes the various environmental, social and economic impacts of a project.

The Corps conducted public hearings throughout April and is accepting written comments on the following topics:

• Issues and concerns that should be addressed in the EIS
• The way in which land and resources might be affected by the project
• Ideas on alternatives and ways to minimize impacts

Written comments may be submitted directly into the project website at www.pebbleprojecteis.com, at a public meeting, or by mail to:
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Alaska District
ATTN: DA Permit Application 2017-271, Pebble Limited Partnership
P.O. Box 6898
Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, 99506-0898