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World's Largest Lead and Zinc Mine Agrees to Pay $4.7 million

Release Date: 7/14/1997
Contact Information: Joe Roberto
roberto.joe@epamail.epa.gov
(206) 553-1669 or 1-800-424-4372

July 14, 1997 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97-46

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Cominco Alaska Inc. today agreed to pay a $1.7 million civil penalty and spend more than $3 million on three environmental protection projects to settle allegations that it committed hundreds of federal Clean Water Act violations. According to a lawsuit brought by the U.S. Department of Justice, the violations occurred at the company's Red Dog Mine and the mine's Chukchi Sea port over a four-year period ending in 1993.

The Red Dog mine -- the world's largest lead and zinc mine -- is located above the Arctic Circle within an Alaska river system which is the spawning ground for important marine and fresh-water fisheries.

The settlement, which if approved by the court would settle the lawsuit, was lodged today by the Justice Department in U.S. District Court in Anchorage, Alaska, on behalf of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

"The consent decree brings to a close one chapter, and opens another," said Chuck Clarke, EPA's Northwest regional administrator in Seattle. "The agreement with Cominco puts the violations behind us, and marks the start of some ambitious efforts by the company to help make sure no harm comes to the aquatic resources on which native Alaskans depend."

"The message here is that companies must abide by their waste discharge permits or they will pay a big price," said Lois Schiffer, Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Justice Department's Environment and Natural Resources Division. "I am pleased that Cominco has agreed to perform several projects that will contribute to the health of the environment around the Red Dog Mine."

The three environmental projects Cominco will fund are designed to provide long-term protection to aquatic life and water quality in the watershed system surrounding the Red Dog Mine, which is located north of the Arctic Circle, about 90 miles north of Kotzebue and 50 miles inland from the Chukchi Sea. A road connects the mine to a port on the sea.

Under today's agreement, Cominco will:

• conduct long-term, ongoing groundwater and permafrost monitoring to learn whether contaminated wastewater from the Red Dog tailings pond is seeping or could seep into groundwater and, from there into surface waters. Cominco estimates the groundwater monitoring program will cost more than $2.7 million to develop and install, plus $210,000 a year for maintenance and operation.
• construct a barrier to keep native fish populations from the Red Dog Mine discharges at an estimated cost of $238,000, plus $7,000 in annual maintenance expenses.
• conduct a study to determine whether the mine discharges are affecting the health of aquatic life in and around the Red Dog Creek system, at an estimated cost of $98,000.

The lead and zinc ore is mined from an open pit, milled into a concentrate and then hauled to the port. Wastewater and mine tailings are stored in a 200-acre impoundment covering the former bed of the south fork of Red Dog Creek.

The government's lawsuit, filed at the same time as the proposed settlement, alleged several hundred violations of the allowable limits for metals and pH contained in the mine's federal wastewater discharge permit. It also alleged unpermitted discharges of sanitary wastes from a temporary housing facility at the mine site. In addition, the lawsuit alleged more than a thousand violations from 1990 to 1993 at Cominco's sanitary sewage treatment system at the port.

The settlement lodged today is subject to public comment and court approval. A notice, to published soon in the Federal Register, will launch the start of a 30-day comment period.

Later this year, EPA will issue a new wastewater discharge permit for the Red Dog Mine. EPA has sent the permit to the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation to certify that the permit is protective of state water quality standards.