Trying to put Red Dog on the leash
Published by MAC on 2002-11-04
Trying to put Red Dog on the leash
The world's largest zinc mine is also the most northerly mine on the planet. Teck Cominco's Red Dog operation opened thirteen years ago. It was hailed, by some, as a model of native-non native cooperation but by others as a highly risky venture - not least because of its unquantifiable negative environmental impacts in a region of permafrost.
Two years ago, the Alaskan Department of Environmental Conservation found the company guilty of numerous violations of clean air and water regulations. issuing a fine which only tapped the company lightly on the knuckles.
Though ensuing "clean-ups" satisfied the Alaskan authorities, local residents of Kivalina have now filed a US$60 billion lawsuit against Teck Cominco, under the Federal US Clean Water Act. And earlier ths month, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ordered a clean-up which the Alaskan authorities claim will be neither economically justified nor safe.