In a recent win for the people of the Kuskokwim and opponents of the Donlin mine, a judge ruled in June that a more extensive environmental impact assessment is needed before construction can continue. Donlin Gold Mine would be one of the largest open pit gold mines in the world, and is proposed 10 miles north of the Village of Crooked Creek on a tributary of the Kuskokwim River. The mine would require a massive tailings dam, 471 feet high and 5,800 feet long, taller than the Statue of Liberty, to hold back toxic waste amounting to at least 175,000 Olympic swimming pools.
The project’s original environmental impact statement, which led to federal permitting starting in 2018, considered the impact of spills of no more than 0.5% of the toxic waste that the facility would produce, and completely disregarded the possibility of a larger spill. The judge ruled that the assessment “failed to adequately consider” this aspect of the project and ordered the project’s developer, Donlin Gold LLC, in conjunction with the Army Corps of Engineers, to complete a supplemental environmental analysis. This will be followed by legal action to “modify, reaffirm, or rescind” prior permitting and project authorizations.
A dam failure of any size would pose a significant threat to downstream communities and could cause devastating long-term ecological impacts in the Crooked Creek and Kuskokwim River watersheds. Inletkeeper applauds the judge for taking this threat seriously. The people of the Kuskokwim today, nor the people of the Kuskokwim generations from now, should have to live in fear of a dam breach, that could forever alter a way of life that has been sustained for time immemorial.