Hundreds of scientists sign letter urging EPA to act against Pebble
Source: Anchorage Daily News
A group of 360 scientists, researchers and university professors signed a letter hand-delivered Tuesday that urges the Environmental Protection Agency to protect Bristol Bay from the proposed Pebble mine.
The letter was given to Dennis McLerran, the Seattle-based administrator of EPA's region 10, before his morning talk at an environmental conference in Anchorage.
The scientists' names fill more than 12 pages, starting with Peter Abrams, a University of Toronto professor emeritus in ecology and evolutionary biology, and ending with Roman Zurek, an associate professor at the Institute of Nature Conservation at the Polish Academy of Science. In between are scientists from all over the country and world, including Alaska.
The group praised the EPA for its study, released last month, that concluded a big mine posed serious risks to Bristol Bay's massive sockeye salmon runs -- the biggest in the world. Pebble Ltd. Partnership proposes developing a copper and gold mine at the headwaters of two Bristol Bay salmon-producing rivers. A coalition of tribes and Alaska Native groups had petitioned the EPA to veto the mine through the Clean Water Act even before developers seek major permits. Instead the agency undertook the watershed study.
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Read more: http://www.adn.com/2014/02/04/3306863/hundreds-of-scientists-sign-onto.html