Northern Dynasty: U.S. Army Corps Remand Highlights Serious Flaws in the Permitting Decision

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[{"type":"text","content":"Northern Dynasty: U.S. Army Corps Remand Highlights Serious Flaws in the Permitting DecisionVANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / May 1, 2023 / Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd. (TSX:NDM)(NYSE American:NAK) (\"Northern Dynasty\" or the \"Company\" or \"NDM\") announces that the April 25, 2023 action by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (\"USACE\") Pacific Ocean Division to remand the permit decision back to the USACE - Alaska District (\"the District\") is a strong win for the Pebble Project.\"We have been saying that the record of decision (\"ROD\") process was not fairly conducted since 2020 and are pleased to see that the Review Officer has raised similar concerns on many substantive issues,\" said Ron Thiessen, President and CEO of Northern Dynasty. \"The two major areas for the negative ROD decision, namely the deemed non-compliance of our comprehensive mitigation plan (\"CMP\") and the Public Interest Review (\"PIR\"), were highlighted by the Review Officer as areas where the District did not carry out the proper process in arriving at its decision. This remand decision is a ‘strong win' for the project because it brings these issues to light and directs the District to address them, potentially setting the stage for a much different outcome.\"As quoted in Section II.A (page 27) of the remand document: \"…Specifically, the District should provide complete and detailed comments to the Appellant on the compensatory mitigation plan allowing the Appellant sufficient time to address those comments prior to finalizing a revised mitigation plan review. The District should also note that if a Compensatory Mitigation Plan is determined acceptable and adequately offsets direct and indirect impacts, a new PIR and 404(b)(1) analysis may be required.\"Mr. Thiessen continued, \"The Review Officer has clearly demonstrated that the CMP process was flawed. The administrative record does not show that we were given sufficient instruction, feedback or time to remedy the plan in order to have a chance of success. If we are given the opportunity to provide a new CMP that meets the requirements, it could remove the ‘significant degradation' finding which, in turn, could have a cascading effect on the PIR and compliance with the Clean Water Act.\"Additionally, as part of the PIR analysis, the Review Officer pointed out that the District ...

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