FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                         ENR
MONDAY, JULY 14, 1997                              (202) 514-2008
                                               TDD (202) 514-1888

                 ALASKA MINING COMPANY AGREES TO
              $4.7 MILLION ENVIRONMENTAL SETTLEMENT

     WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Cominco Alaska Inc. today agreed to spend
more than $3 million on three environmental protection projects and
pay a $1.7 million civil penalty to settle allegations that it
committed hundreds of federal Clean Water Act violations. 
According to a lawsuit brought by the U.S. Department of Justice,
the violations occured at the company's Red Dog Mine and the mine's
Chuckchi Sea port over a four-year period.

     The Red Dog Mine - the world's largest lead and zinc mine - is
located above the Arctic Circle within an Alaska river system which
is the spawning ground for important marine and fresh-water
fisheries.

     The settlement, which if approved by the court would settle
the lawsuit, was lodged today by the Justice Department in U.S.
District Court in Anchorage, Alaska on behalf of the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency.

     "The consent decree brings to a close one chapter, and opens
another," said Chuck Clarke, EPA's Northwest regional administrator
in Seattle.  "The agreement with Cominco puts the violations behind
us, and marks the start of some ambitious efforts by the company to
help make sure no harm comes to the aquatic resources on which
native Alaskans depend."

     "The message here is that companies must abide by their waste
discharge permits or they will pay a big price," said Lois
Schiffer, Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Justice
Department's Environment and Natural Resources Division.  "I am
pleased that Cominco has agreed to perform several projects that
will contribute to the health of the environment around the Red Dog
Mine."

     "This action shows that the federal government holds polluters
accountable for the damage they cause," said Steve Herman, EPA
Assistant Administrator for Enforcement and Compliance Assurance. 
"Besides paying a significant penalty for its multiple violations
of the Clean Water Act, the settlement requires Cominco to assess
the extent of current and potential ground and surface water
contamination, and to take steps to prevent future harm to the
marine life and the watershed in and around the Red Dog Mine."

     The three environmental projects Cominco will fund are
designed to provide long-term protection to aquatic life and water
quality in the watershed system surrounding the Red Dog Mine, which
is located north of the Arctic Circle, about 90 miles north of
Kotzebue and 50 miles inland from the Chukchi Sea.  A road connects
the mine to a port on the sea.

     Under the today's agreement, Cominco will:

     *    conduct long-term, ongoing groundwater and permafrost
          monitoring to learn whether contaminated wastewater from
          the Red Dog tailings pond is seeping or could seep into
          groundwater and, from there into surface waters.  Cominco
          estimates the groundwater monitoring program will cost
          more than $2.7 million to develop and install, plus
          $210,000 a year for maintenance and operation;

     *    construct a barrier to keep native fish populations away
          from Red Dog mine discharges at an estimated cost of
          $238,000, plus $7000 in annual maintenance expenses;

     *    conduct a study to determine whether the mine discharges
          are affecting the health of aquatic life in and around
          the Red Dog Creek system, at an estimated cost of
          $98,000.

     The lead and zinc ore are mined from an open pit, milled into
a concentrate and then hauled to the port.  Wastewater and mine
tailings from the mine are stored in a 200-acre impoundment
covering the former bed of the south fork of Red Dog Creek.

     The government's lawsuit, filed at the same time as the
proposed settlement, alleged several hundred violations of the
allowable limits for metals and pH contained in the mine's federal
wastewater permit.  It also alleges unpermitted discharges of
sanitary waste from a temporary housing facility at the mine site. 
In addition, the lawsuit alleged more than a thousand violations
from 1990 to 1993 at Cominco's sanitary sewage treatment system at
the port.

     The settlement lodged today is subject to public comment and
court approval.  A notice of the proposed settlement will be
published in the Federal Register.  That notice will launch the
start of the 30-day public comment period.
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