The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will leave in place Obama-era protections against mining in Alaska’s Bristol Bay as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers reviews Northern Dynasty Mineral’s  permit for the Pebble Mine, the agency said on Jan. 26. The announcement reverses a July 2017 decision that intended to remove the 2014 restrictions against mining. That decision allowed the firm to apply to mine for gold and copper in the bay, which is an important salmon fishery, and ended litigation. EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt says the agency is leaving the protections in place after receiving more than one million comments on the proposal, most of them opposed to mining. Pruitt says he agrees that mining would likely pose a risk and that the permit application, which will take more than three years to complete, “must clear a high bar.”