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Scientists say EPA’s watershed assessment needs work
An article today in E&E’s Greenwire stated what we at The More You Dig already know: EPA’s 1 year assessment of the Bristol Bay Watershed needs more work. According to the article, the scientists reviewing the watershed assessment “expressed concern” about the EPA’s work, especially the fact that they based their claims on a hypothetical mine plan. “As given, this scenario is neither realistic nor sufficient,” said one of the peer reviewers. We would be concerned too considering the fact that the Pebble Partnership has conducted 27,000 pages of physical, social & biological environmental research over 8 years and still has not published a mine plan. Yet, the EPA thinks one year of watershed research is sufficient enough to preemptively halt the mine before it’s even began the legal permitting process. One scientist, University of Idaho hydrology researcher Charles Slaughter said, “There’s been little attention in the assessment to mitigation.” Oh really? You mean the EPA didn’t consider the mining industry’s job by law to follow the regulations and mitigate environmental risks? The scientists responsible for the peer review have a couple weeks to submit their recommendations to improve the EPA’s short-sided assessment. The truth is more research needs to be conducted and the EPA’s report should not have been publicized until it was peer reviewed and fact checked. Science is something that has to be replicated and peer reviewed. Clearly, the EPA needs to come back with a few more facts before they start stirring the pot and preemptively stopping what could be the largest copper mine in the world.
2012-08-10 03:30:39
Source: http://www.themoreyoudig.com/2012/08/10/scientists-say-epas-watershed-assessment-needs-work/
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