Bristol Bay Peer Pressure

The EPA has released the Final Peer Review Report prepared by the independent peer reviewers charged with evaluating EPA’s May 2012 draft assessment of the Bristol Bay watershed entitled An Assessment of Potential Mining Impacts on Salmon Ecosystems of Bristol Bay, Alaska (Bristol Bay Assessment).

Naturally which side of the Pebble issue you're on determines your report release analysis.

Try as Pebble might to spin this into a science controversy, the bottom line is this: the facts and the science are clear and no one has called EPA’s findings into question. In fact, EPA has done due diligence and at the request of these independent scientists, has provided even more information.

LINK (via: Save Bristol Bay)

Pebble spokesman Mike Heatwole said it appears the EPA reviewers agree with some of the company's key points, mainly "that the report itself is pretty flawed in using a hypothetical mining scenario and just relying on impacts without having a concrete plan in front of them that takes into full consideration mitigation and how a modern mine would meet the permitting and review process."

LINK (via: Anchorage Daily News)

The EPA's response?

Based on the comments, and EPA’s commitment to fully address them, EPA has decided to convene a group of qualified experts to review the revised draft assessment in light of the issues raised by the peer reviewers. The final Bristol Bay Assessment will reflect this further expert review and be accompanied by EPA’s point-by-point response to the peer reviewers’ comments as well as public comments. These “response to comment” documents will be available when the final Bristol Bay Assessment is released.

My money is on Bristol Bay, and the EPA, when that final assesment is released.