(Bloomberg) — The Biden administration on Wednesday is outlining new pollution restrictions that would thwart a long-stalled plan to mine for gold near Alaska’s Bristol Bay.
Under the proposed requirements, the Environmental Protection Agency would broadly bar developers of the planned Pebble Mine from disposing waste near the site because of the potential harm to the area’s thriving, $2 billion salmon fishery.
The decision is another blow for Pebble Limited Partnership, a subsidiary of Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd. that has been seeking for years to extract gold, copper and molybdenum from an area of southwestern Alaska that drains into Bristol Bay.
It represents a victory for environmental activists and native Alaskans who say industrial mining operations threaten a pristine watershed. “Bristol Bay and the thousands of people who rely on it deserve the highest level of protection,” EPA Region 10 Administrator Casey Sixkiller said in a news release.
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