The Crux. Underground only or nothing. Economics? The USACE permit denial addresses only PLP’s specific permit application for the 2020 Mine Plan; it does not address other future plans to mine the Pebble deposit that would have adverse effects similar or greater in nature and magnitude to the 2020 Mine Plan.
The Bristol Bay watershed provides intact, connected habitats—from headwaters to ocean—that support abundant, genetically diverse wild Pacific salmon populations. These salmon populations, in turn, help to maintain the productivity of the entire ecosystem, including numerous other fish and wildlife species.
…discharges of dredged or fill material to construct and operate the mine site proposed in the 2020 Mine Plan would result in the total loss of approximately 99.7 miles (160.5 km) of stream habitat, representing approximately 8.5 miles (13.7 km) of anadromous fish streams and 91.2 miles (146.8 km) of additional streams that support anadromous fish streams. Such discharges of dredged or fill material also would result in the total loss of approximately 2,113 acres (8.6 km2) of wetlands and other waters that support anadromous fish streams.
Additional secondary effects of the proposed discharges of dredged or fill material at the mine site would degrade anadromous fishery areas downstream of the mine site. Specifically, the stream, wetland, and other aquatic resource losses from the footprint of the 2020 Mine Plan would reverberate downstream, depriving downstream anadromous fish habitats of nutrients, groundwater inputs, and other ecological subsidies from lost upstream aquatic resources.
…even after consideration of proposed mitigation measures, “the proposed project would cause unavoidable adverse impacts to aquatic resources which would result in Significant Degradation to aquatic resources.”