EPA Head Talks Importance Of Protecting Pebble Mine

Environmental Protection Agency leader Michael Regan talked about his agency’s protection mandates for Bristol Bay, which effectively put an end to the Pebble Mine project (for now).

Here’s Alaska Public Media with some of Regan’s comments leading into an Alaska visit:

“Let me be clear, we are very proud of our decision to really evaluate the Pebble Mine project and do what is necessary to protect Bristol Bay,” Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press on Tuesday as he began a four-day tour of Alaska, starting in a Bristol Bay village. …

Regan’s first stop will be in the Bristol Bay village of Igiugig, located about 250 miles southwest of Anchorage, where Lake Iliamna feeds the Kvichak River. The village’s 68 residents comprised mostly of Indigenous people lead a subsistence lifestyle, relying mostly on salmon.

Regan planned to talk to tribal leaders about solid waste management issues and energy generation, but also “to highlight the significance of our decision around Pebble Mine, to protect the bay for environmental and cultural, spiritual and sustenance reasoning.”