From AK opinion page.  Guess Supreme court environmental rulings don't
really matter if they stop destructive mining.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers made the right choice Friday when it
approved a modified permit for the Kensington mine near Juneau.
The authorization seemed endangered by a request from the Environmental
Protection Agency for yet another review of an alternative method for
disposing of the mine’s tailings.
The Corps had approved a tailings permit in 2005, but environmental
organizations challenged the decision all the way to the U.S. Supreme
Court. They lost. But when the Corps proposed to merely update the
permit, the EPA said so much had changed that an entire new permit was
necessary.
The Corps on Friday announced that it had issued the modified permit.
The permit allows Couer Alaska Inc., the mine’s owner, until July 31,
2014, to finish the authorized work.
This was a high profile decision, as every decision has been with this
mine. The Corps said it received 8,500 comments on this permit
authorization alone. That demonstrates the kind of scrutiny that major
mines receive in the United States today.
The Kensington mine is especially controversial because Coeur’s plan is
easy to vilify: It will fill a small lake with tailings. It didn’t matter
to many people that this was the least environmentally disruptive choice
— other than the choice not to build the mine at all.
That’s, in fact, the option that many in the opposition hoped would be
chosen, either by the governmental agencies or by the company itself. The
mine sits on a slope north of Berners Bay, a treasured place at the end
of the road north of Juneau. The bay features easy access, beautiful
views and abundant fish and wildlife, including an important annual
herring spawn.
But the land on which the mine sits is not a national park. Couer holds
the rights to minerals and has invested millions in developing the mine
during the past few decades. It has a right to begin mining. The
government has a responsibility to make sure the company does not damage
Berners Bay, but it also has the responsibility to allow the company to
proceed. Finally.
Coeur should be spared any further legal harassment so it can put people
back to work and help shore up Southeast Alaska’s economy.
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