ARLIS Document Server : Pebble Project EIS, Draft Environmental Impact Statement

Pebble Project EIS, Draft Environmental Impact Statement.

Author: United States Army Corps of Engineers

Publication: JBER, AK : Department of the Army, Alaska District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Regulatory Division, [2019]

February 2019.

Physical description (print): 5 volumes : color illustrations, color maps, plans ; 28 cm.

Physical description (electronic): 1 wafer card : color illustrations, color maps, plans ; 6 x 9 cm.

Online access: This documentation is available also as an online resource on this ARLIS webpage and on the Bristol Bay Native Corporation's PebbleWatch webpage (look under "EIS Documents"; draft documents are in .zip files). That website contains documents archived from the original U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' Pebble Project EIS website (which itself is archived through the Internet Archive). Should that website be unavailable, try the Internet Archive website for PebbleWatch.

Revised as: Pebble Project Final Environmental Impact Statement. July 2020.

General Pebble Project Information

General Project information that used to be on the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' Pebble Project webpage has now been moved to the Bristol Bay Native Corporation's PebbleWatch webpage.

Appendices

The appendices did not appear in the print version of the Draft EIS, but they are listed at the bottom of this webpage (and the other webpages mentioned above) with links to PDF files.

Reference documents

The Draft EIS cites 855 documents as reference material. Due to the size of this material, they were not included in the print edition nor on the electronic wafer card issued by the Corps of Engineers, and nor had they listed on this webpage. Those cited documents were originally published in full-text on the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' Pebble Project EIS website under the section "Referenced Cited in the Draft EIS." However, as of July 2023, it seems that those documents are no longer available on the USACE website, Bristol Bay Native Corporation website, or Internet Archive.

Summary

This document is the draft environmental impact statement for the Pebble Project, a proposed surface mine for a prospect that is principally a copper deposit with significant amounts of molybdenum, gold, silver, rhenium, and palladium. The mine site is located 200 miles southwest of Anchorage. Public comments made on the Draft EIS during the comment period running through spring 2019 will be incorporated into the Final EIS. In addition to the open pit mine, the project will include a 270-megawatt power generating plant, a 188-mile natural gas pipeline extending to the Kenai Peninsula, mine and port access roads, an 18-mile crossing of Illiamna Lake, and a port facility on the western shore of Cook Inlet. The document, containing 3219 pages, describes the project, the scoping process, and the regulatory processes to guide the review by agencies. It also provides information on environmental resources in the project area and potential environmental impacts on alternatives.

Note: The original PDFs lack cover images and title pages. ARLIS is adding an those page into the first PDF file for each volume.

PHYSICAL VOLUME	SECTION	CONTENTS	FILE SIZE
	Executive Summary	Executive summary	21 MB
Volume 1	Front matter	General cover Cover letter Table of Contents List of Acronyms and abbreviations Section 508 Disclaimer	3 MB
Volume 1	Chapters 1 and 2	Chapter 1 Purpose and need Chapter 2 Alternatives	38 MB
Volume 2	Chapter 3 Sections 1 to 14	Affected environment 3.1 Introduction to Affected environment 3.2 Land ownership, management, and use 3.3 Needs and welfare of the people - Socioeconomics 3.4 Environmental justice 3.5 Recreation 3.6 Commercial and recreational fisheries 3.7 Cultural resources 3.8 Historic properties 3.9 Subsistence 3.10 Health and safety 3.11 Aesthetics resources 3.12 Transportation and navigation 3.13 Geology 3.14 Soils	24 MB
	Chapter 3 Sections 15 to 19	3.15 Geohazards 3.16 Surface water hydrology 3.17 Groundwater hydrology 3.18 Water and sediment quality 3.19 Noise	29 MB
	Chapter 3 Sections 20 to 26	3.20 Air quality 3.21 Food and fiber production 3.22 Wetlands and other waters/Special aquatic sites 3.23 Wildlife values 3.24 Fish values 3.25 Threatened and endangered species 3.26 Vegetation	26 MB
Volume 3	Chapter 4 Sections 1 to 8	Environmental consequences 4.1 Introduction 4.2 Land ownership, management, and use 4.3 Needs and welfare of the people - Socioeconomics 4.4 Environmental justice 4.5 Recreation 4.6 Commercial and recreational fisheries 4.7 Cultural resources 4.8. Historic properties	3 MB
	Chapter 4 Sections 9 to 15	4.9. Subsistence 4.10 Health and safety 4.11 Aesthetics 4.12 Transportation and navigation 4.13 Geology 4.14 Soils 4.15 Geohazards	3 MB
	Chapter 4 Section 16	4.16 Surface Water hydrology	19 MB
	Chapter 4 Sections 17 to 22	4.17 Groundwater hydrology 4.18 Water and sediment quality 4.19 Noise 4.20 Air quality 4.21 Food and fiber production 4.22 Wetlands and other waters/Special aquatic sites	9 MB
	Chapter 4 Sections 23 to 27	4.23 Wildlife values 4.24 Fish values 4.25 Threatened and endangered species 4.26 Vegetation 4.27 Spill risk	7 MB
Volume 4	Chapters 5 to 9	Chapter 5 Mitigation Chapter 6 Consultation and coordination Chapter 7 Cooperating agencies and preparers Chapter 8 List of agencies, organizations, and persons to whom copies of the statement have been sent Chapter 9 References	2 MB

Appendices

Note: The appendices were not appear in the printed Draft EIS.

SECTION	CONTENTS	FILE SIZE
Appendix A	Scoping report (August 31, 2018)	14 MB
Appendix B	Alternatives development Process	5 MB
Appendices C to F	Appendix C Mailing list Appendix D Comment analysis report (to be included in Final EIS) (placeholder page only) Appendix E Laws, permits, approvals, and consultations required Appendix F (not used) (placeholder page only)	½ MB
Appendix G	ESA biological assessment--Section 7 "U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biological assessment" (Draft, December 2018)	4 MB
Appendix H	ESA biological assessment--Section 7 "National Marine Fisheries Service biological assessment" (Draft, December 2018)	2 MB
Appendix I	EFH assessment "Draft Essential fish habitat assessment : Pebble Project" (January 2019)	29 MB
Appendix J	Preliminary jurisdictional determination	½ MB
Appendix K Front matter to Section K 3.7	Technical appendices Table of contents K 2 Alternatives Affected environment K 3.1 Introduction to affected environment K 3.6 Commercial and recreational fisheries K 3.7 Cultural resources	4 MB
Appendix K 3.9	K 3.9 Subsistence	14 MB
Appendices K 3.10 to 3.15	K 3.10 Health and safety K 3.13 Geology K 3.14 Soils K 3.15 Geohazards	½ MB
Appendix K 3.16	K 3.16 Surface water hydrology	10 MB
Appendix K 3.17	K 3.17 Groundwater hydrology	15 MB
Appendices K 3.18 to 4.10	K 3.18 Water and sediment quality K 3.26 Vegetation Environmental consequences K 4.10 Health and safety	3 MB
Appendix K 4.11	K 4.11 Aesthetics	15 MB
Appendices K 4.13 to 4.20	4.13 Geology 4.15 Geohazards 4.16 Surface water hydrology 4.17 Groundwater hydrology 4.18 Water and sediment quality 4.20 Air quality	20 MB
Appendix K 4.22	4.22 Wetlands and other waters/Special aquatic sites	84 MB
Appendix K 4.25	4.25 Threatened and endangered species	132 KB
Appendices L to N	Appendix L Draft Programmatic agreement : to be included in the Final EIS (placeholder page only) Appendix M Mitigation Appendix N Project description "The Pebble Project : project description" (December 2018)	13 MB