Sen. Murkowski Comments on Final Bristol Bay Watershed Assessment

Press Release

U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) today responded to the Environmental Protection Agency's release of the final watershed assessment of state-owned lands in Alaska's Bristol Bay region:

"EPA's assessment stops short of prohibiting responsible development in the Bristol Bay watershed, but the agency has strongly implied that this report will be a basis to preemptively veto economic opportunities in the region in the future," Murkowski said. "I remain convinced that a preemptive veto of a mine or any other project, which the agency claims it can do under the Clean Water Act, would set a terrible precedent for development in our state and across the nation."

Murkowski has continually criticized EPA for conducting the assessment based on a hypothetical mine, before any plan or permit application has been filed with the agency.

"If the EPA has concerns about the impact of a project there is an appropriate time to raise them -- after a permit application has been made, not before. It is clear that a preemptive veto is still being considered by EPA. Such a veto is quite simply outside the legal authority that Congress intended to provide EPA," Murkowski said.

Source