Mine operators, meanwhile, maintain that government reviews have concluded that the operation is safe.

The challenge was filed by the Native village of Kivalina, the Native Village of Point Hope Indian Reorganization Act Council, Alaska Community Action on Toxics, the Northern Alaska Environmental Center and five Kivalina residents. They are being represented by the Center on Race, Poverty and the Environment, and Trustees for Alaska, both noprofit environmental law firms.

"This new permit is a license to pollute," said Enoch Adams, one of five individual residents of Kivalina, also named in the appeal of the state Department of Environmental Conservation's decision to reissue a National Pollution Discharge Elimination Systems permit for the Red Dog Mine.

Adams said the community supports economic development, but is also concerned about drinking water and about the health of fish in the Wulik River, which are an important source of food for the village.

"The mine's discharges harm the area that residents of Point Hope and Kivalina use for subsistence and the state has to do its part to ensure that the water, plants and animals that residents rely on are safe to consume," said Pam Miller of the Alaska Community Action on Toxics.

Jim Kulas, environmental and public affairs manager for Teck Resources Ltd., the company that runs the mine, said state and federal agencies have just completed a thorough review of water quality issues associated with Red Dog.

"Based on years of data documenting a healthy downstream environment, in the agencies' judgment, the permit will be fully protective of human health and the environment," he said. "Teck believes that the regulatory process has been robust and appropriate."

The EPA issued the NPDES permit Jan. 8. The appeal period expires Feb. 16.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers permit for the Aqqaluk deposit, the next ore body to be mined at Red Dog, is the only outstanding agency authorization for the next phase of mining. That permit is undergoing final agency review, but has not yet been issued. There is no specific period established for an appeal of this permit.

Teck is partnered in the project with NANA Regional Corp., the Alaska Native corporation that owns the lands on which the mine is located in the DeLong Mountains, some 90 miles north of Kotzebue.

Red Dog has operated since 1989 and is the largest private employer in the area, with an annual payroll exceeding $45 million. Some 300 of the mine's more than 500 workers are shareholders of NANA Regional Corp. The mineable ore reserves in its current pit will run out in 2011, the company has said.

Margaret Bauman can be reached at

margie.bauman@alaskajournal.com.