The lawsuit alleges that water-pollution violations have been ignored by the state and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Filed as a citizen action under provisions of the Clean Water Act, the lawsuit seeks more than $59 million in fines, or the maximum $27,500 for each violation.

Kivilina, home to about 380 people, is the closest village to the mine. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of the Kivilina Relocation Committee, a local government body, by the San Francisco-based Center on Race, Poverty and the Environment.

Luke Cole, lead attorney for the Center on Race, Poverty and the Environment, said Teck Cominco, which has a federal water discharge permit, had flouted the law without consequence.

"Everybody in Alaska should play by the rules. Teck Cominco has a permit. It should play by the rules," he said at an Anchorage news conference

Since the mine went into operation in 1989, the lawsuit said, the quality of local drinking water had deteriorated and fish and wildlife populations have suffered. That hurt Kivilina villagers, who rely on wild fish and game for their diets.

The Red Dog Mine is located on land owned by NANA Corp., the for-profit regional corporation owned by Inupiat Eskimos of northwest Alaska, including the Kivilina villagers.

Under its lease terms, Teck Cominco pays royalties to NANA - one of the corporations created under the 1971 Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act - and ensures that a large percentage of its mine workforce is made up of NANA shareholders.

Despite that financial interest in the mine, villagers have grown increasingly worried about its environmental effects, said Ecoch Adams, a member of the Kivilina Relocation Committee, who accused Teck Cominco of failing to address the complaints..

"Our people are very patient. We will give anybody a chance to respond to any concern that we have," he said at the news conference. "We have gone over the issue, over and over, and we finally said, Enough is enough.'"

Under federal law, any monetary damages imposed as a result of the lawsuit would go to the U.S. government and not to the Kivilina plaintiffs, Cole and Adams said.

A spokeswoman for Teck Cominco, Charlotte MacCay, said the company was disappointed by the action.

MacCay said the Red Dog Mine is in compliance with federal discharge permits, some of which have been modified by EPA to allow for transition to stricter standards.

"It's our policy to be in compliance, or better, at all times," she said.