Testimony of Carl Portman
June 4, 2012 Anchorage, AK

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Good evening. My name is Carl Portman and I am a life-long Alaskan.

The EPA has embarked on an unprecedented review of over 15 million acres in the Bristol Bay watershed, and it has done this review at breakneck speed and outside the context of any specific mine plan and permit application. Its conclusions are therefore premature and speculative, and are now being used – perhaps by design – to urge the EPA to block the Pebble Project, before it has even applied for a single permit.

While the Clean Water Act gives the EPA authority to veto other agencies’ approval of permits, it is unprecedented that the agency would prepare a watershed assessment in advance of any permit application or project development plan. The agency has never used its veto authority in advance of permits being issued by other agencies.

Killing Pebble now would be no different than saying yes to the project before it enters the permitting process.

Every project should have an opportunity to be reviewed on its merits. The state and federal permitting process requires a thorough Environmental Impact Statement on major projects, including analysis of detailed plans and proposed mitigation measures. If the science-driven process ultimately determines a project would have an adverse effect on Bristol Bay fisheries, it will not advance.

The EPA must allow the permitting process to work. Decisions on any project must come through that process, which was designed to provide a full and honest assessment with public input at various phases to help reach informed decisions.

A preemptive veto would undermine the process and set a dangerous precedent for future projects across Alaska and challenge the state’s rights to develop natural resources on its own lands. It would also deprive government agencies and stakeholders of the specific information and science that would be generated by the multi-year process.

Pebble offers too much potential for a region without a diverse economy to be denied an opportunity to present its plan and show how it will comply with environmental laws – and protect the fishery. Pebble and other projects must be given a fair trial and that trial is the permitting process.