Alatna Village Council v. Padgett

Federal defendants requested voluntary remand without vacatur in two cases challenging authorization of a 211-mile mining access road in Alaska. The defendants said “[a]dditional scrutiny” in the course of defending the merits of the case “has illuminated legal flaws that Defendants intend to reconsider through a further administrative process,” in particular consider of impacts to subsistence uses under the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act and the National Historic Preservation Act. The defendants also plan to supplement the NEPA analysis.

The governing bodies of six federally-recognized Indian Tribes in Alaska and a consortium of tribal leaders filed a lawsuit challenging federal approvals of the Ambler Road Project, which their complaint described as a “a 211-mile, year-round, industrial access road that would traverse some of the most remote and undeveloped lands in Alaska” and “facilitate the construction of four large-scale mines for the extraction of copper, lead, zinc, silver, gold, cobalt, and molybdenum.” The plaintiffs asserted claims under the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, the National Historic Preservation Act, the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), the Clean Water Act, the Federal Land Policy and Management Act, and the Administrative Procedure Act. The plaintiffs’ NEPA arguments include that the final environmental impact statement failed to adequately address climate change. Another lawsuit challenging the Ambler Road Project was filed in August.