Rep. Darrell Issa has subpoenaed an Environmental Protection Agency official for documents related to an Alaskan mining project that the EPA stopped in its tracks two years ago.
The California Republican sent a letter to EPA Inspector General Arthur Elkins, Jr. requesting an investigation into the EPA’s decision to rely on a rarely-used provision of the Clean Water Act to preemptively veto the proposed Pebble Project.
A statement released by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee asserts that the EPA used a preemptive veto that had never been used before to stop the project. The agency cited a Bristol Bay watershed assessment as its rationale for the decision, but documents obtained by the Committee show that “the EPA discussed vetoing the mine as early as January 2010, nearly a year before the assessment began.”
Rep. Issa’s committee seeks all “documents and communications relating to the EPA’s permit review, including any action under section 404(c) of the Clean Water Act, in Bristol Bay, Alaska.”
Deposits in the Alaska mine include copper-gold-molybdenum and porphyry, which contains small crystals.
• Douglas Ernst can be reached at dernst@washingtontimes.com.
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