ELR Citation: 54 ELR 20137
No(s). 3:23-cv-00071-SLG (D. Alaska Sep 30, 2024) (Gleason, J.)

A district court granted in part and denied in part Alaska Native tribes' request for declaratory relief in a challenge to the Army Corps of Engineers' and BLM's final EIS and joint record of decision for a proposed gold mine in southwestern Alaska. The tribes argued the EIS and record of decision violated NEPA, the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA), and the CWA. The court found the Corps violated NEPA by failing to consider a large tailings spill and by declining to assess a catastrophic tailings spill based solely on its low probability of occurrence, but did not violate the Act by failing to disclose or discuss the state health impact assessment's (HIA's) health impact ratings. Because the Corps should have considered a larger tailings spill as a reasonably foreseeable effect of the mine, it held BLM's failure to do so violated ANILCA. It also found the Corps' consideration of the impact of barging on rainbow smelt in the Kuskokwim River did not violate the CWA. It granted declaratory relief insofar as the final EIS violated NEPA and ANILCA by failing to consider a large tailings spill, but denied relief on the tribes' claims concerning the final EIS' treatment of the state HIA and the CWA §404 permit.