A settlement agreement has been reached in principal in a multimillion-dollar lawsuit filed against the world's largest zinc mine over thousands of alleged violations of federal environmental laws, according to the attorney representing local communities.

A final settlement may be a couple of weeks off. Attorneys in the case have declined comment. Meanwhile, a trial that was set to begin in late May in Anchorage has been cancelled.

Luke Cole, director of the San Francisco-based Center on Race, Poverty and the Environment, represents residents of the barrier reef community of Kivalina in Northwest Alaska in the case. The lawsuit alleges thousands of violations of federal environmental laws at Red Dog Mine, located about 50 miles from the Inupiat Eskimo community.

Cole said earlier that the aim of the suit was to get Teck Cominco to abide by stipulations laid out in the EPA permit that allows the firm to operate the mine.

EPA statistics show that the massive amount of metals mined at Red Dog each year make the zinc and lead mine the greatest source of toxic releases in the nation.

Cole said the lawsuit would enforce just some of more than 4,000 violations. The court had already ruled in the residents' favor on 621 other violations, he said.

Teck Cominco attorney Sean Halloran of Hartig Rhodes Hoge and Lekisch said many alleged violations are based on a permit issued in 1998.

Halloran said in an earlier interview that "permit conditions contained in that permit were to be a starting point while the mine, the EPA and the state determined what were in fact appropriate standards that should be inserted in the permit. Since that time, the EPA has attempted to issue a new permit that incorporates the standards that the state of Alaska and EPA all agree should be the standards that protect the environment and that Teck Cominco should be meeting."

Halloran said a permit that incorporated all the revised standards is not in effect because the plaintiffs continually challenge issuance of a new permit and have frustrated the ability of the agencies to properly regulate the mine.

The lawsuit, filed in 2002, stems from concerns from the Kivalina Relocation Planning Committee that the community's drinking water and traditional hunting and fishing grounds have been contaminated by activity at the Red Dog Mine.

Kivalina lies on the tip of an eight-mile barrier reef between the Chukchi Sea and Kivalina River, about 80 air miles northwest of Kotzebue.

The fewer than 400 residents of Kivalina are primarily subsistence hunters and fishers who rely on beluga whales, bearded seal, caribou and Dolly Varden trout, among other Arctic species, for the bulk of their food supply.

The community's primary source of drinking water is the Wulik River. The lawsuit filed on behalf of the Kivalina Relocation Planning Committee alleges that Teck Cominco has violated its permits at its mine site and at the port site along the Chukchi Sea.

According to documents filed with the EPA, when it is discharging, the mine has almost continuously violated its permit conditions since permits were issued in 1998 and 1999, plaintiffs' attorneys said.

In fact, Halloran said, Teck Cominco meets all standards, including water quality standards that are protective of the environment. The reason there are some technical violations of a long-outdated permit is because plaintiffs keep working to ensure there will be violations in the future by challenging issuance of a new permit, he said.

The lawsuit also alleges that permit violations the relocation planning committee has identified are significant and hazardous, and that Teck Cominco's wastewater regularly contains 1,500 percent more total dissolved solids than its permit allows. The lawsuit argues that the mine is releasing into the environment cyanide, lead, cadmium and zinc.

Halloran said Teck Cominco has never exceeded the 1,500 milligrams per liter standard of total dissolved solids initially adopted by the state of Alaska and approved by the EPA.

Red Dog, a major employer in Northwest Alaska, is a big contributor to the economy of the Northwest Arctic Borough. Belt-tightening, operational improvements to increase production and dramatic increases in zinc prices have combined to produce record profits for the operator Teck Cominco and the landowner, NANA Regional Corp. NANA is the area's Alaska Native regional corporation.

The mine currently employs more than 450 full-time, year-round workers and 91 seasonal workers, who come on board in the summer, when more help is needed for the shipping port and barge loading of metal concentrate. From 1989 through 2006, Teck Cominco has paid royalties to NANA totaling $177 million, according to mine officials.