The US Environmental Protection Agency is officially proposing a ban on mining wastes that could foul Alaska’s Bristol Bay, a move that would permanently bar development of the proposed Pebble copper-gold-molybdenum-silver-rhenium mine in southwest Alaska, Kallanish reports.

The EPA veto recommendation would prohibit and restrict the use of certain waters that drain into Bristol Bay as disposal sites for certain discharges of dredged or fill material. Such discharges would likely create what the EPA calls “unacceptable adverse effects” on Bristol Bay’s $2.2 billion/year sockeye salmon fishery, the agency says. The recommendation would bar all mine development at the Pebble deposit.

The EPA has approved what is called a Clean Water Act Section 404-C recommended determination to protect Bristol Bay. That recommendation from EPA regional administrator Casey Sixkiller must still be approved by the EPA’s Office of Water. The recommendation would bar mining wastes along three watersheds that drain to Bristol Bay.

A final decision must be made within 60 days by Radhika Fox, EPA’s Office of Water assistant administrator. Last May, the EPA had issued a preliminary ruling that the mine was a threat to the fishery under a special EPA review.

The project is being backed by British Columbia-based Northern Dynasty Minerals and its Pebble Limited Partnership subsidiary.

Northern Dynasty ceo John Shively calls the EPA move a massive overreach by the Biden administration and says it goes beyond what the federal Clean Water Act allows. The company has threatened to sue to block such EPA action. It says the mine can safely co-exist with the fisheries.

The project was rejected by the US Army Corps of Engineers, and that decision has been appealed to the agency’s regional headquarters.

The Obama administration had threatened to veto the project, but it was allowed to proceed under the Trump administration.