The Pebble Mine was on the minds of several lawmakers this week. Environmental Protection Agency chief Gina McCarthy took more than two and a half hours of questions, many centered on the process EPA has facilitated in reviewing the proposed mine.
Politics versus science. That was the purported reason for the hearing before the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology. EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy went back and forth with several committee members on a variety of topics. But how the agency has gone about its work regarding the Pebble Mine was of particular interest, especially for Republican members of the committee.
“Politics are as big or a bigger factor, unquote. Does this concern you that this was the sentiment of career employees at the EPA with regard to the agency’s determination regarding the Pebble mine. That doesn’t concern you," asked Brian Babin (R) Texas.
“I don’t know what politics he’s talking about. I know the reality of decision-making in the agency. I know why we moved down this road and I know what we were trying to protect," Gina McCarthy, Administrator for the EPA replied.
The road the EPA moved down ended with invoking 404(c) protections under the Clean Water Act. It was a preemptive judgement on the proposed mine that some lawmakers feel was an overreach. McCarthy said the salmon resources of Bristol Bay are too important to not take action now. She also said that while rare, using that 404 (c) protection is not unprecedented.
“One of the missing pieces that I just want to make sure you’re aware of is that in the history of the EPA and its relationship with the (US Army Corps of Engineers) on 404(c), the Corps has done two million permits. We have only 13 times used this. And it’s because of the uniqueness of that resource and the challenge that the tribes had that rely on that salmon fishery.”
Committee chair Lamar Smith, another Texas Republican, took specific issue with the input former EPA ecologist Phil North provided for opposition documents submitted by local tribes.
“The Committee’s investigation of the agency’s decision to embark on a premature and unprecedented decision to stop the Pebble Mine has shown that career EPA officials acted with blatant bias to determine the outcome. Also, the same officials used personal email to prevent the EPA and the Inspector General from discovering the extent of their incriminating actions.”
McCarthy conceded that some emails pertaining to Pebble haven’t made it into the public record, most notably those of North, who retired three years ago.
“I’m not suggesting that there hasn’t been an email…a specific incidence. But to suggest that we’re doing it to subvert the public process is what I’m objecting to. We have a direct policy that speaks to how you enter that in if it’s work related, into the public process, to meet all of our federal obligations," McCarthy said.
The Pebble Partnership has not yet submitted a full application to the federal government or made its final plans known.