Jim Kulas standing to the right gives an update of Red Dog Mine operations.     October 2007 Photo courtesy of Janet Mitchell

Teck Cominco Red Dog Mine

The Red Dog Mine is located in northwestern Alaska, approximately 82 miles north of Kotzebue, and 46 miles inland from the coast of the Chukchi Sea. The mine is located on the Middle Fork of Red Dog Creek in the DeLong Mountains of the western Brooks Range, in an area that is otherwise remote and undeveloped. Red Dog is a partnership between NANA and Teck Cominco Alaska. The mine is an important component of the economy of Northwest Alaska, employing approximately 450 people directly and creating an additional 150 jobs indirectly. A majority of the employees are NANA shareholders (with about ten (10) being from Kivalina). It has been operating continuously since its opening in 1989.

Red Dog produces more than one million tons of zinc and lead concentrates annually using conventional open-pit mining, milling and flotation technologies. All concentrates are exported to world markets via the DeLong Mountain Transportation System, which connects the mine and millsite to port facilities on the Chukchi Sea.  http://www.dnr.state.ak.us/mlw/mining/largemine/reddog/

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Kivalina's Side (In a nutshell)

During the discussions of building the Red Dog Mine near Kivalina before it's initial construction, an elder made mention that if the mine was built, there would be dramatic changes to the Wulik River and it's inhabitants, namely the Dolly Varden.  Our water wouldn't be the same again and the fish would be affected dramatically.  To date, there has been a fish kill and the water has not been the same.  The closest term we can use to describe the taste of the water is 'brackish'.  It is discovered that their discharge of Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) from Red Dog Mines own reports is way over their limits which has caused a change in the water and the fish kill.  Efforts to inform Teck Cominco about these changes and incidents fell on deaf ears.

Because of that, both councils decided to file a lawsuit to get Teck Cominco back into compliance with their discharge limits.  The councils are told they cannot file a lawsuit for reasons I am not aware of but others do know.  Based on that information, seven (7) local people decided to step in.  They filed a lawsuit against Teck Cominco to get them back to their permit levels.  Teck Cominco was fined for those violations and the fees were paid to the State of Alaska.  To date, the water has slightly improved but many still do not drink it because of the knowledge that Red Dog Mine's human waste also goes to the tailings pond, which is than released to the Red Dog Creek after treatment, which leads to the Wulik River via Aqalugrauq Creek.

Some residents who can afford it now get their drinking water from the Kivalina River.  Not many have resources to retrieve their drinking water from that river so many drink the water provided by the City of Kivalina. 

To date, because of the lawsuit, Teck Cominco has since provided to the public a system that will clean the water even further for consumption, a reverse osmosis system.  That is expected to begin November 2008.  A pipeline leading directly to the ocean is under discussion.