EPA Agrees To Stay Section 404 Regulatory

VANCOUVER - Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd. reported that U.S. federal court in Alaska today released an order recognizing that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ("EPA") has agreed not to take the next step to advance its Clean Water Act Section 404(c) regulatory process with respect to southwest Alaska's Pebble Project until at least January 2, 2015.

Pebble Limited Partnership has two cases of pending litigation in U.S federal court with respect to EPA action. The first, for which the State of Alaska is co-plaintiff, challenges EPA's statutory authority to pre-emptively impose development restrictions on Pebble prior to the submission of a proposed development plan for review by federal and state regulatory agencies. The second charges that EPA has not complied with the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA) and the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) in preparing the Bristol Bay Assessment study, upon which the Section 404(c) regulatory process is largely based.

The purpose of EPA's agreement is to ensure that both parties in Pebble's FACA litigation have sufficient time to brief the court, and for the court to decide on the Pebble Partnership's preliminary injunction motion before EPA takes the next step to advance its regulatory process. The order applies to the FACA case and also states that, should the federal court not issue a decision on the Pebble Partnership's preliminary injunction motion prior to January 2, 2015, parties to the litigation will work together in good faith to negotiate an extension to the stay.