Testimony of Bill Jeffress
June 4, 2012 Anchorage, AK

View alert or member testimony

External Review Draft - An Assessment of Potential Mining Impacts on Salmon Ecosystems of Bristol Bay, Alaska

Thank you for the opportunity to testify. I will state for the record that I am neither for nor against any mineral development project proposed within the evaluation area, primarily because nothing has been formally proposed: NO project description, NO design drawings, NO plan of operations, and NO application. What I do support is a public process established by promulgated federal and state Administrative Procedures: not what appears to be a pseudo-political hatchet job on Alaska resource development that is cleverly disguised as “a scientific assessment.”

I am saddened and dishearten to have to comment on this external review draft as it highlights how far EPA has strayed from the mission established by Congress in 1970 “to protect human health and the environment.” Once upon a time EPA prided itself on conducting thorough and objective scientific evaluations based on sound technical principles of science and engineering.

The draft document purports to have completed a comprehensive assessment of an area of approximately 20,000 square miles in an eleven month period – impossible! The authors reference evaluations and statistics reported by third party consultants who have been opponents of mining for thirty years. Those biased assessments are referenced to a greater extent than those federal and state agencies that have been mandated by congress or legislatures to design and build dam structures. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Bureau of Reclamation, and State Dam Safety departments who have designed, built, and regulate such structure are only incidentally referenced. What an injustice to Alaska and to the American people.