This paper examines the implementation of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) at the Donlin Gold project in Western Alaska. The Donlin Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) was led by the Army Corps of Engineers to inform federal agency decisions about the issuance of permits including a Section 404 Clean Water Act Permit and a Section 10 Rivers and Harbors Act Permit. As is required by the law, the EIS also investigated and disclosed many environmental impacts that were beyond the scope of the federal permits. The Donlin EIS was widely viewed as more detailed than most other EISs. The EIS process also included local tribal governments as cooperating agencies. Despite the EIS's detail and stakeholders’ increased role, many stakeholders felt that these efforts were insufficient. Stakeholders expressed frustration with the NEPA process and the regulators who implemented it. They reported that they felt patronized by a bureaucratic process that focused on fitting stakeholder concerns into technical and scientific disciplines for analysis by outside experts. This study concludes that augmenting the quantity of scientific study, even in response to the concerns of stakeholders, is unlikely to increase local stakeholders’ satisfaction with NEPA. Rather, regulatory personnel must focus on building trust between their agencies and local communities through 1) direct engagement with local stakeholders beyond the one-way forum of public meetings and 2) transparent dialog early in the NEPA process about the law's limitations with respect to turning stakeholders’ concerns into enforceable project requirements.

本文考察了国家环境政策法案 (NEPA) 在阿拉斯加西部的 Donlin Gold 项目中的实施情况。Donlin 环境影响声明 (EIS) 由陆军工程兵团牵头，以告知联邦机构有关颁发许可证的决定，包括第 404 条清洁水法许可证和第 10 条河流和港口法许可证。根据法律要求，EIS 还调查并披露了许多超出联邦许可范围的环境影响。Donlin EIS 被广泛认为比大多数其他 EIS 更详细。EIS 过程还包括地方部落政府作为合作机构。尽管 EIS 的细节和利益相关者的作用越来越大，但许多利益相关者认为这些努力是不够的。利益相关者对 NEPA 流程和实施该流程的监管机构表示失望。他们报告说，他们感到受到官僚程序的保护，该程序侧重于将利益相关者的担忧纳入技术和科学学科，供外部专家进行分析。本研究的结论是，增加科学研究的数量，即使是为了回应利益相关者的关注，也不可能提高当地利益相关者对 NEPA 的满意度。相反，监管人员必须通过 1) 在公开会议的单向论坛之外直接与当地利益相关者接触，以及 2) 在 NEPA 流程的早期就法律在转向方面的限制进行透明对话，从而专注于在其机构和当地社区之间建立信任利益相关者的关注转化为可执行的项目要求。