Southeast Alaska Conservation Council v. United States Army Corps of Engineers, Coeur Alaska, Inc., Defendants-Intervenors-Appellees

ORDER

Appellee U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ (“Corps”) Emergency Motion Under Circuit Rule 27-3 for Authorization Under the Injunction Pending Appeal to Permit Construction of a Western Interceptor Ditch is denied.

This motion comes to us in a case in which Appellant Southeast Alaska Conservation Council (“SEACC”) has appealed a grant of summary judgment in favor of the Corps and the U.S. Forest Service. SEACC challenges the Corps’ issuance of a permit, pursuant to § 404 of the Clean Water Act of 1972, to Coeur Alaska, Inc. for the discharge of approximately 210,000 gallons of slurry (including 1,444 tons of mine tailings) per day from its froth-flotation mill operation at the Kensington Gold Mine into Lower Slate Lake, a 23-acre lake in the Tongass National Forest in Southeast Alaska. The discharge ultimately will raise the bottom of the lake 50 feet to its current high water mark and nearly triple its surface area. Coeur Alaska and the Corps admit that the discharge and settling of tailings into the lake will kill all of the fish and nearly all other aquatic life, primarily due to their being covered by the discharged material. In addition, the toxicity of the tailings may…