Pebble warns EPA process biased and predetermined

The Pebble Limited Partnership (PLP) has repeatedly charged that the EPA’s Bristol Bay Watershed Assessment (BBWA) is a flawed and biased study, developed by the agency to preemptively block the Pebble project. Now, following extensive review of Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) materials, PLP says it has compelling evidence that the entire process to kill the mine in advance of a permit application has been not only biased, but predetermined.

According to EPA documents, EPA staff began its “404 work” as early as 2008, culminating in a briefing to the EPA Administrator in January 2010 where a recommendation to consider a preemptive veto of Pebble was discussed. Ironically, this recommendation to EPA headquarters came five months before the EPA formally received a petition from several Alaska Native tribes asking for this preemptive step.

Pebble says documents further show that, as this process progressed internally, there was extensive collusion among antimine activists, scientists, and EPA staff behind the scenes to push a preemptive 404 veto process forward, provide strategic input on how to make it happen, submit technical papers prepared by antimining interests for EPA’s adoption and justification of its actions, and share legal analysis and timing matters about how best to pursue the veto.

PLP believes this activity and subsequent actions by the EPA are in violation of the Federal Advisory Committee Act - established to ensure fairness by government agencies. To that end, PLP has filed litigation seeking declaratory judgment that EPA’s actions in this matter have been illegal under FACA.

The full extent of the agency’s actions are not known as EPA has not turned over all of the documents PLP has requested. In response to one of its requests, EPA stated that the agency was withholding 30,000 pages of documents from PLP. In addition, there were extensive redactions to the material publicly released under FOIA.

EPA has stated its goal has been one of transparency, which Pebble believes raises serious questions as to why so much information has been withheld from the public in this matter.

“The materials we have received show that the process was ‘open and transparent,’ but only to our opposition,” said PLP Chief Executive Officer Tom Collier.

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