Tom Collier, the CEO of the Pebble Partnership, has appeared before a US congressional committee to discuss recent advances by the Alaska-based project through the federal environmental impact statement (EIS) permitting process.

The Democrat-controlled committee invited six Pebble critics to appear as witnesses at the hearing, including paid activists and consultants, Vancouver-based Northern Dynasty said on Monday.

The CEO of Northern Dynasty’s 100%-owned US subsidiary said it was clear that sworn opponents of the project were alarmed at the steady progress Pebble continued to make toward a final EIS and record of decision (RoD) from the US Army Corps of Engineers.

“With the publication of an overwhelmingly positive draft EIS in February, the formal withdrawal of the Obama Administration’s unprecedented 404(c) Proposed Determination in July, and our inexorable progress toward a final EIS and RoD in the first half of 2020, people are starting to understand that Pebble is a project of merit,” Collier said.

“We’ve known for some time that our project will meet and surpass the rigorous environmental standards enforced in the United States and Alaska, and believe that it will secure its operating permits. Our critics are starting to understand that as well.”

Although last week’s hearing will have little effect on Pebble’s progress through federal permitting, Collier took the opportunity to counter the positions and concerns of those opposed to the project.

Collier on the findings of the Corps’ draft EIS: “For over 15 years, a battle has been fought over whether building a copper mine 200 river miles from Bristol Bay in Alaska would significantly damage the salmon fishery in that region. The debate is now over. In February of this year, the US Army Corps of Engineers issued its draft environmental impact statement for the proposed Pebble mine and unequivocally concluded that the project will not harm the Bristol Bay fishery.”

Northern Dynasty stated that members of the subcommittee were split along partisan lines, with Republicans objecting to Congress interfering with the administration of regulatory due process for the Pebble project.

“We are wading into a project and an issue that is currently in the middle of a comprehensive review under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA),” said Republican Bruce Westerman, ranking member of the subcommittee.

“I…believe in proper regulatory due process through a fair and objective federal environmental permitting process. I believe in giving an applicant the opportunity to have the Corps of Engineers and the State of Alaska, along with a suite of other federal agencies, review this project objectively on the merits of this permit application.”

Given the pendency of the Corps’ EIS permitting process for Pebble, Westerman argued the subcommittee’s time was better spend on other issues, rather than “a partisan priority currently under review at the federal agency level”.

In expressing his support for the Pebble EIS permitting process, Republican Don Young reminded subcommittee members that the state of Alaska has encouraged investment in mineral exploration and development at Pebble.

"And people forget, Madam Chair, that this is state land,” Young said. “This is not federal land. The state of Alaska had the right to choose 103-million acres of land and they chose this land. And they put it up for (mineral) discovery and it was discovered. And under the discovery clause, you have a right for exploration. On the right for exploration, you have a right for development if you go to the permitting process."

Since the conclusion of the subcommittee hearing last week, there have been further signals the Corps and the EPA continue to work together constructively on the Pebble EIS.

On Friday, the Corps granted EPA a requested extension to the date by which it must decide whether to ‘elevate’ its consideration of the Pebble EIS from EPA region 10 to EPA headquarters in Washington DC under Section 404(q) of the Clean Water Act.

“The EIS process for Pebble, including the collaboration of multiple government agencies, is working as it should,” Collier concluded.

“We have every reason to believe progress will continue, that the Corps will deliver a final EIS and positive Record of Decision on time next year, and that its process and decisions will withstand any subsequent legal challenge. I think our increasingly anxious opponents believe that to be the case as well.”