WASHINGTON – With construction plans for a Pebble Mine project in Bristol Bay not yet finalized, Sen. Lisa Murkowski on Wednesday urged the Environmental Protection Agency to reconsider its opposition to the project.
At a hearing on Wednesday about the proposed $7.89 billion EPA budget for next fiscal year, Murkowski urged EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy to wait until she has seen final plans before deciding to veto the project. Without final permits, Murkowski argued, the EPA cannot know for sure what the environmental impact could be.
“I want to assure you that what we have done is to take a first step in this conversation,” McCarthy responded. “We have not made any decision.”
The EPA has invoked its authority under the Clean Water Act to decide whether to bar the needed discharge permit for the mine to be built. It said the proposed mine would pollute Bristol Bay.
McCarthy assured Murkowski that the agency is just taking steps to protect Bristol Bay. “We were petitioned and given the science,” she said. “It was worthy of a unique response, which is to try and get at these issues more quickly, given the uncertainty it’s raised for the tribes, for the regions, for the economy in that area.”
Murkowski argued that the EPA, by having the authority to veto the project, was hurting the chances for the project to ever get started. Investors would not want to take the risk on a project that could be vetoed at any time in the process, she said.