The Army Corps of Engineers has issued an environmental impact statement that for all intents and purposes shuts down the plan for a controversial gold and copper mine in Alaska, the Washington Post reports.
The Pebble Mine would not have met requirements laid out in the Clean Water Act, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Alaska Commander Col. Damon Delarosa said in a statement, and the project was not in the public interest.
The finding comes after executives of the company that owns the rights were caught saying, on a Zoom call with environmental activists posing as potential investors, that they intended to run the mine for 160 years, not just 20 as they outlined in their application.
The plans called for a network of mines over a 13 mile wide area, along with the construction of a 270-megawatt power plant, natural gas pipeline, 82-mile double-lane road, elaborate storage facilities and the dredging of a port at Iliamna Bay.
Officials with the state of Alaska, as well as native peoples and environmental groups, fought against the mine, saying that it would ruin tribal fishing waters and destroy more than 2,800 acres of wetlands vital to the ecosystem.