Corps: Alaska mine would have adverse impacts on salmon site

ANCHORAGE, ALASKA (AP) — A proposed gold and copper mine at the headwaters of the world’s largest sockeye salmon fishery in Alaska would cause “unavoidable adverse impacts,” the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said in a letter to the developer released Monday.

The corps is giving Pebble Limited Partnership 90 days to come up with a mitigation plan for thousands of acres and nearly 200 miles of streams to secure a key federal permit to proceed. Once filed, the corps said it will decide if the plan for Pebble Mine is sufficient, David Hobbie, the corps’ regional regulatory division chief said in a letter to James Fueg, vice president for permitting at the partnership.

It’s a seemingly stunning reversal for the corps, which just last month said in an environmental review that the proposed mine under normal operations “would not be expected to have a measurable effect on fish numbers and result in long-term changes to the health of the commercial fisheries in Bristol Bay.”

Since then, some high profile Republicans, including the president’s eldest son, have urged President Donald Trump to intervene to block the mine.

“As a sportsman who has spent plenty of time in the area I agree 100%. The headwaters of Bristol Bay and the surrounding fishery are too unique and fragile to take any chances with,” Donald Trump Jr. has tweeted.

The company said the letter is a normal part of the process, and it is working on a mitigation plan.

“A clear reading of the letter shows it is entirely unrelated to recent tweets about Pebble and one-sided news shows,” Pebble CEO Tom Collier said in a statement. “The White House had nothing to do with the letter nor is it the show-stopper described by several in the news media over the weekend.”

Collier said nothing in...