Anchorage Daily News

A trial in the multimillion-dollar lawsuit over water pollution violations by Alaska's largest mine scheduled to begin Monday in Anchorage has been canceled.

Six residents of Kivalina, a Northwest Inupiaq village about 50 miles from the Red Dog zinc and lead mine, sued the mine's operator in 2004, accusing it of polluting their drinking water supply.

They claimed the mine could be liable for as much as $70 million, according to a court filing in March.

But just days before the federal trial was to begin, the plaintiffs are finalizing a settlement with the mine's operator, Teck Cominco Alaska Inc., according to a court notice filed by attorneys late Wednesday.

"Subject to formal approval, the parties have reached agreement on ... all issues presented in this litigation," according to the notice, filed jointly by attorneys for the Kivalina residents, Teck Cominco and the intervenors in the case, the landowner NANA Regional Inc. and the Northwest Arctic Borough, which collects taxes from the mine. The intervenors sided with Teck as defendants in the lawsuit.

The attorneys said they will file formal settlement documents "as soon as possible" and asked the judge presiding in the case to cancel the trial. The judge then canceled it.

In their suit, the Kivalina residents accused Red Dog of violating its federal water pollution discharge permit more than 2,400 times in the past decade. The mine discharges its treated wastewater into a stream that feeds into the Wulik River, where Kivalina residents have traditionally gathered much of their drinking water.

The residents sued Teck under a provision of the federal Clean Water Act that allows residents to seek penalties when permit holders violate the act.

According to court filings, Teck had admitted to many of those violations, most of which involved a water quality parameter called total dissolved solids. The solids are produced by lime, which the mine uses to treat its wastewater.

The judge in the case has issued previous rulings holding the company liable for certain violations, but he had not ruled on more than 1,000 additional violations.

As early as 1999, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency approved a more lenient, interim standard for total dissolved solids at the mine but EPA's action did not shield the mine from a citizen suit under the federal act, according to Eva Chun, an EPA compliance officer based in Seattle.

An attorney for the plaintiffs and a Teck executive said Thursday they could not comment on the terms of the settlement due to a confidentiality agreement.

Luke Cole, the plaintiff's attorney, said in an e-mail Wednesday night that he would be in Kivalina on Thursday and today to talk about the proposed settlement with his clients.

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