November 15, 2012, Vancouver, BC – Late last week, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released the final judgment of a panel of independent experts retained to review its work to date on the Bristol Bay Watershed Assessment (BBWA), in a report entitled ‘External Peer Review of EPA’s Draft Document: An Assessment of Potential Mining Impacts on Salmon Ecosystems of Bristol Bay, Alaska.”
In a wide-ranging critique of the draft report’s methodology and findings, Peer Review Panelists called the EPA’s effort to evaluate the effects of a ‘hypothetical mining scenario’ on the water, fish, wildlife and cultural resources of Southwest Alaska “inadequate,” “premature,” “unreasonable,” “suspect” and “misleading.” Reviewers consistently stated it is not possible to fully assess the effects of a project like the proposed Pebble mine in a region like Bristol Bay in the absence of a definitive mine plan.