It’s massive. It would change the Kuskokwim as we know it. And you only have 30 days to read it.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers released its final environmental impact statement on the proposed Donlin Gold mine on Friday.
The hefty document totals more than 10,668 pages, and the public has 30 days to submit comments.
The draft version of the EIS was half that size, at just over 5,000 pages, and the public had six months to comment. Half those months were added by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers after a public groundswell demanded the extra time. The final statement is supposed to take all those comments into account.
The document’s project manager, Jamie Hyslop, could not be reached for comment on Friday. He was out of the office for training and returns to his desk Monday morning.
Gov. Bill Walker issued a press release on Friday evening, calling release of the EIS “great news for Alaska” and applauded the potential jobs it could bring to the region.
The final EIS is meant to list the potential and perceived environmental impacts of the mining project, which would extend hundreds of miles in multiple directions across Southwest Alaska: from a natural gas pipeline stretching between Cook Inlet and the Upper Kuskokwim River, to barging along the Kuskokwim, and, of course, a mine site near the village of Crooked Creek that would cover thousands of acres.
Comments on the document are due by May 29. Then regulatory agencies will begin reviewing the document to work their way through the hundreds of permits the project needs to operate.
