EPA resurrects big, salmon-killing Alaska mine
President Donald Trump's Environmental Protection Agency wants to abandon restrictions that would block a huge proposed Alaska mine, its announcement coming in the middle of the Bristol Bay salmon season.
The EPA wants to withdraw a 2014 determination, made under the Clean Water Act, that the proposed Pebble Mine would threaten the world's greatest sockeye salmon fishery and the 14,000 jobs that come with it.
The Trump EPA will take comment on the reversal over the next 90 days. And the agency can expect plenty of it.
The about-face drew immediate, furious reaction from Alaska native groups, including the influential Bristol Bay Native Corp.
"Thousands of fishermen and women are currently in Bristol Bay participating in what is proving to be a tremendously successful commercial fishing season: That EPA is now proposing to withdraw protections for this world-class, billion-dollar resource is not sound economic or environmental policy," said Jason Metrokin, CEO of Bristol Bay Native Corp.
http://www.seattlepi.com/local/politics/article/Connelly-EPA-boosts-big-Alaska-mine-that-would-11284293.php