Alaska Supreme Court Limits Scope of Cumulative Impact Review for Mining Project Permits Under Water Use Act and ROWLA

The Alaska Supreme Court affirmed DNR's approval of water appropriation permits and a natural gas pipeline right-of-way lease for the Donlin mine project, holding that the agency properly limited its environmental review to the direct impacts of the permitted activities themselves rather than conducting cumulative impact analysis of the entire mining operation. The decision establishes that neither the Water Use Act nor the Right-of-Way Leasing Act requires agencies to consider downstream environmental effects of end-use activities when evaluating discrete permit applications for water appropriations and pipeline infrastructure.