The Hot News
You’ve probably seen today’s hot conservation news about Bristol Bay already: the Environmental Protection Agency announced this morning the initiation of action under the EPA’s Clean Water Act Section 404(c) authorities.
Far from an immediate death blow to the mining project, the good news is that today’s actions unquestionably raise the bar far higher for the mine developers and will drive more scrutiny of the monstrosity that could be the Pebble Mine.
What’s Next
From the EPA press release this morning –
The steps in the Clean Water Act Section 404(c) review process are:
- Step 1 – Consultation period with U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and owners of the site, initiated today.
- Step 2 – Publication of Proposed Determination, including proposed prohibitions or restrictions on mining the Pebble deposit, in Federal Register for public comment and one or more public hearings.
- Step 3 – Review of public comments and development of Recommended Determination by EPA Regional Administrator to Assistant Administrator for Water at EPA Headquarters in Washington, DC.
- Step 4 – Second consultation period with the Army Corps and site owners and development of Final Determination by Assistant Administrator for Water, including any final prohibitions or restrictions on mining the Pebble deposit.
Based on input EPA receives during any one of these steps, the agency could decide that further review under Section 404(c) is not necessary.
Now that the 404(c) process has been initiated, the Army Corps cannot issue a permit for fill in wetlands or streams associated with mining the Pebble deposit until EPA completes the 404(c) review process.
What’s Great About This
A great deal of ink and millions of pixels have been spent pushing back against a project that has no place being developed among the pristine headwaters of several Bristol Bay rivers. Rationale people from all walks of life, fishing interests, ages, lifestyles, geographical locations and political persuasions have united to oppose the mine.
The Least Useful Card to Play Now
I’ve just chatted with a friend who calls himself a ‘professional environmental scientist’ and who happens to have been working on the Pebble issue with multiple organizations for several years now. He’s understandably elated though had an immediate caution that he can’t say publicly but we sure can for him – what he called partisan buffoonery does nothing to support the cause and contributes mightily to ‘Pebble Fatigue’.
He and his organizations (correctly) want the focus to stay on the science of the issue and not politics, particularly given the support to stop the Pebble project coming from both sides of the aisle. His comment today (and he’s said it many times before) was ‘why in the world would you overtly try to insult and piss off half of your donors and supporters working with you on the project?’
The guys at Cascadia posted a nifty response dealing with the politics of Pebble on their blog this morning –
I personal know a few people who work directly on the no pebble campaign and I can tell you they have been incredibly hard on the Obama administration and worked tirelessly through his 1.5 terms to get the EPA to make this call (which has been long overdue). Partisan fighting has been held at bay through this battle, in fact it has been the opposite. With an incredible amount of support from both sides of the aisle saying ‘no’ to pebble. This campaign has shown that our two party system can still unify against a very bad idea and leave partisan politics out of it.
Now’s the time stay the course and get this finished.
