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 5 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency--Region 10

 6 Bristol Bay Watershed Assessment

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 8 Public Hearing

 June 4, 2012

 9 5:30 p.m.

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 11 Held at:

 University of Alaska Anchorage

 12 Wendy Williamson Auditorium

 Anchorage, Alaska

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 1 BELLA HAMMOND: Thank you very to the

 2 EPA for their presence and for the assessment.

 3 And I want to repeat, again, that the people of

 4 the Bristol Bay area requested that the EPA

 5 become involved and do this; and I want to

 6 express my appreciation to them and to anyone

 7 who helped with this process.

 8 I personally am very opposed to the

 9 Pebble Project for obvious reasons that have

 10 been stated many times. I grew up in the

 11 Bristol Bay area and fished for many years.

 12 I'm very familiar with the area where the

 13 proposed mine goes.

 14 And I asked a number of people today

 15 if they'd ever been to that area and most of

 16 them said no. And I think if you -- those who

 17 are involved who haven't been to that area

 18 should take the time to see the beauty and this

 19 beautiful fishery that we have. Other

 20 renewable resources and -- and I think I

 21 understand that as more time goes on there is

 22 more concern about the Pebble Project. And

 23 becoming enlightened I think is crucial for

 24 people to understand what we might lose. And

 25 so I really hope people will learn more about

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 1 the Pebble Project.

 2 THE FACILITATOR: Thank you, Bella.

 3 BELLA HAMMOND: Thank you.

 4 TREFON ANGASAN: Thank you very much.

 5 My name is Trefon Angasan, and I'm the chairman

 6 of the board of the Alaska Peninsula

 7 Corporation. The Alaska Peninsula Corporation

 8 is a merger of five village corporations of the

 9 Bristol Bay region. Two of the village

 10 corporations are from the Iliamna Lake area.

 11 And the APC owns about 200,000 acres of land

 12 adjacent to the Pebble Project.

 13 We -- we really don't know what

 14 impact the studies are to have, the assessment

 15 or any action that EPA takes on what it's going

 16 to do to the Alaska Peninsula Corporation

 17 lands. We are asking for more time so that we

 18 can look at what the full impact is going to be

 19 so that we could then make meaningful comments

 20 to the study.

 21 At this time we find that we're

 22 unable to fully get the message out to our

 23 shareholders to have consultations with them

 24 because they're getting ready -- as we all know

 25 are getting ready for the upcoming season. So

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 1 with all due respect to Bella, I appreciate

 2 Bella's comments. I don't think that anyone is

 3 right or anyone is wrong in this process. I

 4 think that we need more time so that we could

 5 all get to the same level of commitment, that

 6 everyone's going to make their choices already.

 7 So I'm -- I don't see you moving but

 8 I'll continue to talk as long as you're not

 9 telling me not to.

 10 So having said all that I would

 11 appreciate the EPA extending their deadline as

 12 requested by the attorney general. He's

 13 requested for 120 days.

 14 Thank you.

 15 THE FACILITATOR: Thank you.

 16 THOMAS TILDEN: My name is Thomas

 17 Tilden; I'm tribal chief for Dillingham,

 18 Alaska. I'm a fisherman. It wasn't too long

 19 ago that I used to look at Life and Look

 20 magazines and watch water on fire. And I thank

 21 EPA for being able to step in and prevent that

 22 from happening ever again.

 23 I'm a fisherman. I started fishing

 24 in 1965. My grandmother always told me that we

 25 were very rich.

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 1 I want to point out some weak points

 2 in regards to the EPA assessment. I believe

 3 that you were weak on history. I believe that

 4 you have got to take a look at the Native

 5 people that live out in that area. There's

 6 been 50 to 180 generations of people that have

 7 lived in that area, depended on that salmon and

 8 want to continue to do so. There has to be

 9 more emphasis in regards to how the people

 10 survive out there. That is not only economics

 11 but that is subsistence to the folks that live

 12 out there.

 13 The other part that you're weak on is

 14 in regards to the freshwater fish that is in

 15 the area. The people depend on it greatly.

 16 Pike, whitefish, suckers, that all come up into

 17 the freshwater area. And EPA needs to take a

 18 look at how that contributes to the people.

 19 Our people that have lived in this

 20 area for centuries want to continue to live

 21 there. We believe that we have a right. We

 22 believe that the subsistence lifestyle is very

 23 important. We believe that our culture is

 24 important.

 25 When you come out to Bristol Bay and

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 1 you take a look at who we are, we are people of

 2 fish. Fish is in our art. Fish is in our

 3 music. Fish is in our dance. Fish is who we

 4 are. That is in your economy. So please come

 5 back out, study the people that live there,

 6 that are going to die there, that are going to

 7 be buried there that depend on this fish.

 8 Thank you very much.

 9 AGNES RYCHNOVSKY: Okay. My name is

 10 Agnes Rychnovsky. I was born and raised in

 11 Newhalen, Alaska. I am the vice president of

 12 Newhalen Tribal Council. I also work for the

 13 tribe as a roads coordinator. I am an Alaska

 14 Native Corporation shareholder. I'm here this

 15 evening to share my thoughts on EPA's watershed

 16 assessment.

 17 Let me first disclose my personal

 18 opinion about the Pebble Project. I don't

 19 support large-scale open-pit mining within the

 20 largest salmon spawning grounds in the world.

 21 Also the only lake in Alaska that has

 22 freshwater seals.

 23 I'm glad to see that EPA has made

 24 attempt to do a watershed assessment. All

 25 efforts be recognize including the -- all

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 1 efforts should be recognized including the

 2 Pebble baseline environmental studies.

 3 As a village leader it is our job to

 4 preserve and protect the traditional use routes

 5 and subsistence use areas for hunting, fishing

 6 and gathering because today we are the keepers

 7 of the land. I am concerned about our

 8 traditional lands eventually being closed due

 9 to wetland status. I've heard EPA's response

 10 assuring us that that will not occur; but with

 11 any governmental structure people change,

 12 policy change, treaties are broken; and I'm

 13 hesitant about taking anyone or any agency at

 14 full faith and credit in light of historical

 15 behavior patterns.

 16 It is my responsibility as a

 17 grandmother to fight for the preservation of

 18 our traditional rights for my grandchildren and

 19 my future great grandchildren.

 20 THE FACILITATOR: Thank you. I'm

 21 sure we haven't got to all your comments so if

 22 you could submit them, thank you.

 23 CHARISSE MILLETT: Thank you. My

 24 name is Charisse Millett, and I'm a State

 25 Representative here in Anchorage. I represent

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 1 House District 30.

 2 First and foremost I want to thank

 3 the EPA for having hearings. Second of all, I

 4 want to say shame on you for having the first

 5 meeting in Washington State. We're talking

 6 about a project that's within the State of

 7 Alaska. The Pebble deposit is located on State

 8 land that is open for mineral development. The

 9 State through our AG office and the Governor's

 10 office has expressed strong objection to this

 11 entire process the EPA, your agency, is doing.

 12 It falls against every agreement that we took

 13 with the federal government on statehood, not

 14 to mention the complete and utter arrogance

 15 this agency has displayed about our State

 16 policies. There hasn't even been a plan of

 17 development introduced to NEPA, to the State or

 18 to anybody. What you have done is taken an

 19 opinion and taken things that were prospective

 20 in nature from the development -- from the

 21 developers and decided this is what it's going

 22 to be.

 23 As a State legislator what I'm

 24 concerned about is the precedents you're

 25 setting today. As a State legislator when I

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 1 talk to folks about growing our economy,

 2 extracting resources from the state of Alaska

 3 and getting people to invest and create jobs

 4 and wealth for the residents of the State of

 5 Alaska you have just scared away every

 6 potential investor for the State of Alaska when

 7 it comes to mineral resource development.

 8 Now I want to talk about the

 9 assessment. I'm not going to talk about

 10 Bristol Bay because we all love Bristol Bay.

 11 It's beautiful. You can't repeat it. There's

 12 no other place -- there's no other world-class

 13 fishery in the world.

 14 Your process is premature. Your

 15 process is short, fast. The size of the Pebble

 16 Project is the size of Virginia. Your last

 17 study that you did in Chesapeake Bay took you

 18 five years.

 19 THE FACILITATOR: Thank you.

 20 PETER ANDREW: Thank you. My name is

 21 Peter Andrew; I'm from the village of New

 22 Stuyahok, tribal member. Also BBNC board of

 23 director.

 24 I want to thank the EPA for doing the

 25 assessment. It follows and mirrors what we

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 1 feel culturally. We need to protect our

 2 resources.

 3 We also need to make sure that we

 4 keep to the time line. We are a very busy

 5 people. We need to stick to the time line that

 6 you have laid out. And I want to make sure

 7 that the people in the region that cannot be

 8 here be heard. I ask that you make available

 9 to everybody that's available in the region and

 10 I hope that you will also have time to do that.

 11 I thank you for doing the assessment.

 12 So I also see a lot of green hands that

 13 represent hands off Alaska. I absolutely

 14 believe that. In the mining industry there are

 15 foreign companies should have their hands off

 16 Alaska.

 17 RUSSELL NELSON: Thank you. My

 18 name's Russell Nelson. I'm a director of the

 19 Bristol Bay Native Corporation. I also spent

 20 six years on the Alaska State Board of

 21 Fisheries.

 22 I have a large Yup'ik family in

 23 Bristol Bay who depend on King salmon and

 24 Sockeye salmon for subsistence. The economy --

 25 or the Bristol Bay commercial salmon fishery is

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 1 the economic agent of our region. The

 2 environmental damage from large-scale mining by

 3 placing tailings in salmon streams as you are

 4 documenting in your assessment will make our

 5 culture, subsistence and regional economy

 6 suffer.

 7 Your time line for comments is

 8 sufficient. Please complete it in a timely

 9 manner and follow it up with the 404(c) action.

 10 Listen to the vast majority of the

 11 people that live in the Bristol Bay region.

 12 My family and I want to thank you for

 13 conducting the Bristol Bay watershed

 14 assessment. Thank you.

 15 ABE WILLIAMS: All right. Thank you

 16 for this opportunity. My name is Abe Williams.

 17 I was born and raised in King Salmon, Alaska.

 18 I'm the president of the Paug-Vik Corporation

 19 which has 120,000 acres of land adjacent to the

 20 Kvichak and Naknek River system.

 21 I'm here to ask the EPA, again, for

 22 an extension in this process. I think the

 23 process is very short and daunting, and there's

 24 a lot of information to cover that's not been

 25 covered right now. And it's very important to

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 1 the people of southwest Alaska not only to

 2 protect our resource, to make sure it's

 3 protected, but at the same time protect our

 4 people.

 5 We all love our salmon. I respect

 6 everybody here that is respectful to those

 7 salmon resources; but our communities have seen

 8 a drastic decrease in population, school

 9 closures and big, big issues that we have as

 10 Alaskans abroad in western Alaska and all our

 11 communities. And to preemptively strike

 12 projects down like this through the EPA and the

 13 watershed assessment process is ludicrous.

 14 Absolutely ludicrous. Do not extinguish our

 15 Native people's opportunities through fear and

 16 emotion. Let's sit down and discuss

 17 science-based information, and let's have a

 18 dialogue that has sideboards on it; and let's

 19 have a dialogue that means everything to the

 20 people of Alaska.

 21 Thank you.

 22 SHARON CLARK: Hi, my name is Sharon

 23 Clark; and I'm here today to thank the EPA for

 24 coordinating this effort and coming up with a

 25 plan.

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 1 The Alaska Native culture has

 2 presented in the Nushagak and Kvichak

 3 watershed, one of the last two intact

 4 sustainable salmon-based cultures in the world.

 5 Forty-four years ago the Bristol Bay Native

 6 Association board of directors passed a

 7 resolution stopping the Cominco Mine from

 8 coming into our area, Northern Dynasty and then

 9 Pebble Mine.

 10 What I wanted to read today is

 11 something that my dad had published in his

 12 book. And I want to leave two copies here for

 13 the record. "Oftentimes I think that in this

 14 day and age we make decisions for the short

 15 term without thinking about the long-term

 16 impact. Everybody nowadays seems to want to do

 17 things in a hurry. For example I oppose the

 18 development of the Pebble Mine, previously

 19 called Cominco, near Iliamna. Creating such a

 20 huge open-pit mine could destroy the land and

 21 pollute the waters and streams. The streams

 22 proceed to the ocean and therefore salmon.

 23 Poor resource development can be deadly to fish

 24 and to the spawning and rearing of the fish.

 25 It can also pollute our drinking water. We

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 1 need to look at the short-term development

 2 carefully and we need to protect the resources

 3 that will support us for a long time."

 4 In our area we are -- our tribal

 5 council went on record six years ago opposing

 6 the Pebble Mine. And our grandchildren and

 7 people that live in the area fish for this

 8 large natural resource. Mining is not a

 9 natural resource in our area.

 10 THE FACILITATOR: Thank you.

 11 SHARON CLARK: Thank you.

 12 PAT KVASNIKOFF: Who's supporting the

 13 mine? Stand up. Anyway, Tommy Tilden, we grew

 14 up together in the village over there. And

 15 very important what he said on the fish. Now

 16 you go there and you watch it and I remember

 17 growing up, this is back in the dog team days

 18 before the snow machine come over there. We go

 19 out there and we'd hunt geese, ducks, et

 20 cetera. Now how do they migrate? They hop

 21 kind of like rabbits. They drink water here,

 22 they drink water there and they get food, they

 23 lay the eggs. Guess what? We eat the birds,

 24 we eat the eggs. And then the fish depend on

 25 all this migration too from different parts of

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 1 the world.

 2 I've been overseas two different

 3 times in the Lower 48 and I've seen places that

 4 are polluted. There's no solution for the

 5 pollution once it gets there. It's

 6 devastating.

 7 And so I look at my people, I see

 8 Coolie over there and I see Angasan and people

 9 from back home. We want to be protected. Yes,

 10 us Alaska Natives but also the non-Natives that

 11 live there too, trying to protect everybody.

 12 Thank you very much.

 13 CATHY GIESSEL: Thank you. Good

 14 evening. My name is Cathy Giessel; I'm a State

 15 Senator. I'm also a lifelong Alaskan born here

 16 in the territory of Alaska in that little town

 17 called Fairbanks. I'm also a nurse

 18 practitioner. I practiced in both urban and

 19 rural Alaska. Rural Alaska where there are few

 20 jobs and few paychecks.

 21 In fact schools are closing in rural

 22 Alaska. In one of the local papers yesterday

 23 it cites four more rural schools slated to

 24 close this year. One of the schools is

 25 actually in Bristol Bay. There's a ripple

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 1 effect. Not only is the school closing but the

 2 health aide will also move out of that

 3 community because she has a child that needs

 4 schooling. So she's leaving the village and

 5 that will leave the village without a clinic.

 6 This is about people. People are not

 7 an invasive species in the State of Alaska. We

 8 belong here. The resources are here for us to

 9 use and conserve. Conserve means use what we

 10 need, just like we conserve energy by turning

 11 off lights when we leave a room. It is

 12 unconscionable that the EPA would hastefully

 13 write a report like this and put it forth as

 14 science. Even worse that a federal agency

 15 would insert itself into an issue that belongs

 16 to the State of Alaska.

 17 Alaska is not an internal colony of

 18 the United States. It is a sovereign state

 19 with a careful, credible and competent

 20 permitting process. The unprecedented

 21 preemptive action by the EPA will destroy

 22 Alaska's future as a resource utilization

 23 state. You're destroying jobs and future

 24 opportunities for our citizens.

 25 Thank you.

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 1 THE FACILITATOR: I think we're going

 2 to go ahead and get started with the public

 3 comments now.

 4 BRAD ANGASAN: Thank you,

 5 Mr. McLerran, Mr. Parkin. I want to applaud

 6 you on the watershed assessment that you're

 7 bringing forth today. It's immense, it's

 8 unprecedented, it's huge. Because of that I

 9 have a concern about the amount of time that

 10 you're putting out there for the comment

 11 period.

 12 I'm a lifelong commercial fisherman.

 13 Been doing it all my life. My son who comes

 14 out on the boat with me in the summertime, he's

 15 a fifth-generation commercial fisherman. Not a

 16 lot of people can say that. God willing he'll

 17 be raising a sixth-generation commercial

 18 fisherman and I look forward to that.

 19 Many of my family reside between the

 20 communities of South Naknek, Naknek and King

 21 Salmon. My mother lives in the community of

 22 Kakhonak on the eastern shore of Lake Iliamna.

 23 Because of that I'm really concerned about the

 24 amount of time that you've allotted for the

 25 public comment period. And I'm going to ask

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 1 that you extend that out to the end of fall

 2 until people have a chance to come back from

 3 their subsistence, commercial money-making

 4 period and they can provide some meaningful

 5 input in regard to your watershed assessment

 6 which is huge. There's a ton of information in

 7 there.

 8 Rick just spent 15 minutes going

 9 through the watershed assessment, and I

 10 appreciate that. Thank you. Now I have a

 11 general highlight of what I should look forward

 12 to. But I have to convey that back to the

 13 people in my family, my friends, people who

 14 reside back in the village. That's a lot of

 15 information to try to get back to them. I'm

 16 taking off to Bristol Bay on the 12th of June,

 17 getting my boat ready -- thank you.

 18 RICHARD FREISINGER: Richard

 19 Freisinger. I live here in Anchorage. And

 20 there's a lot about the Clear Water Act on

 21 these mines. If you look -- I've heard a lot

 22 of comments on TV from the anti-Pebble people.

 23 And you look at the Fort Knox Mine, Red Dog,

 24 Kennecott. Kennecott Mine existed years ago

 25 right on the shores of the Copper River. No

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 1 problem. Fort Knox, they have a mine up there

 2 that they -- I don't know if it's EPA or who it

 3 is that checks their water supply. The water

 4 is cleaner than it goes into the mine, it goes

 5 out of the mine cleaner. And the Red Dog Mine

 6 the same way.

 7 Now the people over in Iliamna, this

 8 mine provides jobs, security, a hope and a

 9 future. And like that lady just said, medical

 10 help and schools.

 11 We've heard a lot of narrow-minded

 12 comments against the mine itself. I ain't got

 13 a dog in this fight but I think what the -- the

 14 anti-Pebble Mine people have done on TV and try

 15 to sandbag other people's minds is a shame.

 16 And another thing, that mine is on

 17 State land, not federal. And I thought the EPA

 18 was to check just the water, making sure they

 19 keep the rules. I don't know what you guys are

 20 doing here.

 21 Thank you.

 22 MARTHA ANELON: Good afternoon. My

 23 name is Martha Anelon. I live in Iliamna. I

 24 choose not to support the 404 watershed

 25 assessment at the moment because of the time

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 1 frame.

 2 I will share with you that I have

 3 three beautiful daughters I will look out for.

 4 I strongly believe that I am their voice for

 5 their future with their input. Decisions that

 6 we make today will affect them tomorrow. It is

 7 up to us to provide community development

 8 opportunities for a younger generation to

 9 thrive, succeed and continue to live in our

 10 communities.

 11 I have a few questions for you. Does

 12 EPA honestly think that residents of the

 13 Bristol Bay region truly understand what the

 14 404(c) is? Is it truly directed to shut Pebble

 15 down? What other projects throughout the

 16 region will be affected by the 404(c)? Who is

 17 pushing to have a 404(c) go through? Who are

 18 the supporters? Is EPA receiving funds to

 19 travel throughout the region? From who? Why

 20 has this been expedited? If I have all these

 21 questions do you think other regional residents

 22 have questions also that can't be here today?

 23 Why was Dillingham and Naknek not included on

 24 the 404(c) watershed assessment? They are in

 25 the Bristol Bay region just as we are. They

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 1 want development and opportunities for their

 2 residents and restrict us in the villages.

 3 We as residents in the villages need

 4 opportunities just as they do. We have outside

 5 interest groups such as the EPA coming to our

 6 region to make decisions for us when we are

 7 here to voice our opinion. We do live in the

 8 region and this is our home and you don't live

 9 out there, we do.

 10 Thank you.

 11 LISA REIMERS: Hi. Thank you for

 12 giving me the opportunity to speak. I

 13 represent Iliamna Natives Limited which owns

 14 98,000 acres near the proposed Pebble Mine.

 15 And as you know we do not support the 404(c)

 16 because we are not sure what the impacts will

 17 be on our Native lands. Unless you can give us

 18 a written statement that it would not impact

 19 our Native lands we would like to see that, and

 20 I don't think you guys are able to or do you

 21 want to? Dennis? Richard? Can't answer that

 22 or --

 23 DENNIS McLERRAN: We're not answering

 24 questions tonight. We'll talk to you later.

 25 LISA REIMERS: Okay. Because that's

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 1 a big concern of ours. And the Iliamna Village

 2 Council is the tribal government for Iliamna

 3 and we look at things a little differently

 4 because our people do not depend on commercial

 5 fishing. We have to make a different decision

 6 because a lot of people had to sell their

 7 permits because the commercial fishing does not

 8 sustain them. And the subsistence is a choice.

 9 And a lot of people and a lot of our kids are

 10 depending on the western society. They don't

 11 depend on the western society anymore. So we

 12 have to look at this a little differently.

 13 I also want to mention that BBNC owns

 14 the sub-surface of the land. They don't own

 15 the surface in our area. They do not speak for

 16 us. Trout Unlimited does not speak for us.

 17 Nanunkta does not speak for us. The people

 18 from Dillingham, 150 miles, do not speak for

 19 us. And if they want the 404(c), they can have

 20 it on their lands.

 21 And I think you need to extend the

 22 time for this period for the comments.

 23 Thank you.

 24 BILL JEFFRESS: Thank you for the

 25 opportunity to testify. I will state for the

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 1 record that I'm neither for or against any

 2 mineral development project proposed within the

 3 evaluation area primarily because nothing has

 4 been formally proposed. No project

 5 description, no design drawings, no plan of

 6 operation or application.

 7 What I do support is a public process

 8 established and promulgated for federal and

 9 State administrative procedures, not what

 10 appears to be a pseudo-political hatchet job on

 11 Alaska resource development that's clearly

 12 disguised as scientific assessment.

 13 I'm saddened and disheartened to have

 14 to comment on the external review draft as it

 15 highlights how far EPA has strayed from the

 16 mission established by Congress in 1970 to

 17 protect human health and the environment. Once

 18 upon a time EPA prided itself on conducting

 19 thorough and objective scientific evaluations

 20 based on sound technical principles of science

 21 and engineering.

 22 The draft document proposed to have

 23 completed the comprehensive assessment of an

 24 area of approximately 20,000 square miles in 11

 25 months. Impossible. Evaluations and

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 1 statistics reported by third-party consultants

 2 who have been opponents of mining for 30 years.

 3 Each of those biased assessments are referenced

 4 to a greater extent than those federal and

 5 State agencies that have been mandated by

 6 Congress and the Legislature to design and

 7 build dam structures. The U.S. Army Corps of

 8 Engineers, Bureau of Reformation and State Dam

 9 Safety Departments who have designed, built and

 10 regulated such structures are only incidentally

 11 referenced. What an injustice to Alaska and to

 12 the American people.

 13 JOHN STURGEON: Good evening. Thank

 14 you for the opportunity to comment. My name is

 15 John Sturgeon. I've worked in Alaska for 42

 16 years. I'm a forester by profession.

 17 I've not made my mind up on Pebble

 18 yet because they have not submitted the needed

 19 permits. The permit process will explain the

 20 vacancies to the public, people like me, how

 21 they plan on developing the Pebble Mine. I do

 22 however strongly support Pebble being able to

 23 go through the permitting process to explain

 24 how they can mine while protecting other

 25 affected resources like the fish and the water

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 1 quality. I strongly object to grant the

 2 assessment the EPA has done on the Pebble

 3 Project without knowing what Pebble's plans

 4 really are.

 5 Currently Alaska's economy is

 6 dangerously dependent on oil production. That

 7 production's declining at a rate of 7 percent

 8 annually. We should be doing whatever possible

 9 to diversify our economy. The EPA's

 10 pre-judging a resource development project

 11 before permits are even submitted sends a very

 12 negative message to future investors in Alaska.

 13 I agree with Governor Parnell and our

 14 Congressional delegation that supports due

 15 process and fair consideration of all resource

 16 development projects. The State AG has asked

 17 EPA to stop its assessment process until a

 18 permitting process is in front of the federal

 19 government. I totally agree with that.

 20 Finally I believe that EPA is out of

 21 control in regards to following the law. The

 22 recent unanimous decision by the U.S. Supreme

 23 Court against the EPA and -- on the Sackett

 24 case, the EPA's arrogant response to the

 25 Court's decision confirms that belief.

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 1 I also would like to request that the

 2 comment period be extended. Thank you for the

 3 opportunity to comment.

 4 SARAH McCARR: Good evening. My name

 5 is Sarah McCarr. I'm from New Stuyahok. I do

 6 not support the EPA's assessment on the Bristol

 7 watershed. At the very least I am requesting

 8 for more time to be spent on the assessment. I

 9 think that many people in the region do not

 10 fully understand the potential impacts to the

 11 region. The majority is being told that it

 12 only concerns large-scale mining in the -- I

 13 can say that currently New Stuyahok is looking

 14 into planning to build a road connecting the

 15 communities. Can you tell me that the --

 16 connecting the community adjacent to the

 17 Nushagak River. Can you tell me that the

 18 controversy will not affect this project? This

 19 is why I cannot support this assessment.

 20 RACHAEL PETRO: Good evening. My

 21 name is Rachael Petro. I'm the president and

 22 CEO of the Alaska State Chambers of Commerce.

 23 The Alaska Chamber supports

 24 predictable regulatory and permitting

 25 processes. And it's upon such a baseline that

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 1 businesses evaluate the risk and cost of

 2 investing their dollars in any business

 3 endeavor. For this reason the EPA's watershed

 4 assessment action and the potential to initiate

 5 a 404(c) process on a project that has not

 6 initiated permitting is extremely

 7 disconcerting. Please extend your comment

 8 period to at least 120 days to allow for public

 9 review of the document and its sources. Please

 10 revisit the assessment and give it the

 11 necessary time required to develop into a

 12 comprehensive analysis or drop the assessment

 13 process altogether.

 14 The current assessment and any

 15 preemptive action will deprive government

 16 agencies and stakeholders in this room of the

 17 specific information, size and rigorous reviews

 18 that will come out of a multi-year NEPA

 19 process. It's interesting that the project

 20 proponent has spent eight years and

 21 $120 million studying 1,500 square miles.

 22 They've not yet even applied for permits

 23 because they continue their environmental

 24 studies. It's outrageous that the EPA has

 25 spent less than a year assessing 20,000 square

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 1 miles, an area about the size of West Virginia.

 2 This is a disgrace to Alaskans.

 3 The project in question is on State

 4 land designated for mining. Alaska's

 5 permitting and regulatory systems are the best

 6 in the United States supporting responsible

 7 resource development while protecting our

 8 awesome environment. We Alaskans actually know

 9 how to do it right, and we've been doing it

 10 right. The Alaska Chamber was formed in 1952

 11 prior to statehood. And it was Alaska Chamber

 12 members and all Alaskans who saved the

 13 fisheries from the federal government's

 14 mismanagement when it became a state in 1959.

 15 Left to the federal government Alaskans would

 16 not have the fisheries resources we have today.

 17 LESIL McGUIRE: Thank you very much.

 18 And welcome to Alaska. I want to start by

 19 saying that I come before you today on behalf

 20 of my neighbors, my constituents that I

 21 represent, and I hope other Alaskans here in

 22 the room, to just express my concern, one, that

 23 the public comment period be extended. And I

 24 think you've heard that echoed over and over

 25 again. It's disconcerting to have the EPA

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 1 coming in on a process that has been moving

 2 forward, but then to come in with such a short

 3 time period certainly makes Alaskans feel as if

 4 our rights are being infringed on. So I ask

 5 that first.

 6 Second, I have as a State lawmaker

 7 sitting on the resources committee spent a lot

 8 of time on this issue. My family owned a lodge

 9 in King Salmon, Alaska, for my formative years,

 10 for 22 years. I spent time fishing in the

 11 area. I know many of the Elders that live

 12 there and many of the people that make their

 13 livelihood from the salmon and other resources.

 14 So I think I join many Alaskans in saying that

 15 this is a very complex problem. There are

 16 competing resource issues and we're all moving

 17 through it together as an Alaska family. But

 18 what's so offensive is to have the EPA come in

 19 without any permit authority, as we've stated

 20 earlier by the previous testifier, without a

 21 404(c) application even being made and usurping

 22 the rights that we have in this state to go

 23 through this process.

 24 The process is under way through our

 25 large mining act. There are intense analyses

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 1 that are going on and I think if we allow this

 2 to go forward as Alaskans, whether you're for

 3 or against Pebble Mine, we're setting a very

 4 dangerous precedent. The lands that are at

 5 stake are State lands and they were selected in

 6 our statehood act and as part of the gift that

 7 we were given at statehood. So to have a

 8 premature decision come in I believe would

 9 thwart the objectives that --

 10 THE FACILITATOR: Thank you, Senator.

 11 We have a two minute -- so if you could submit

 12 the rest of your comments that would be

 13 helpful.

 14 BRYAN CLEMENZ: Bryan Clemenz,

 15 director at CH2 speaking to you as an Alaskan

 16 and a board member of the Alaska Support

 17 Industry Alliance.

 18 I am representing over more than 400

 19 Alaska member businesses that support the

 20 mining, oil and gas industries employing

 21 approximately 35,000 people in the state. Our

 22 membership is not necessarily for or against

 23 any given mining development in the subject

 24 watershed area, but instead we all support

 25 responsible resource development. Our minds

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 1 will not be swayed by entering speculative

 2 assessment based on a fictional model but

 3 instead deciding in due time and with due

 4 process through the well-established permitting

 5 process where the best available technologies

 6 at the time of the permit may be employed and

 7 the actual proposed mitigation plans can be

 8 appropriately considered.

 9 This assessment is premature at best.

 10 We further believe that the time taken to study

 11 the issue of this assessment is insufficient as

 12 is the comment period for the public to review

 13 and comment on this issue. The precedent set

 14 by this assessment for future projects will

 15 have an adverse effect on the economy of our

 16 great state and our nation. Creating a project

 17 that has yet to file an application, permit or

 18 environmental impact statement would be an

 19 overreach by the EPA. It's as if this endeavor

 20 has a political agenda on a political time

 21 line.

 22 Alaska prides itself on responsible

 23 resource development while ensuring a safe

 24 environment for people, wildlife and aquatic

 25 life. Anything else is unacceptable to Alaska

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 1 citizens.

 2 Aside from abandoning the current

 3 course and allowing the well-established

 4 permitting process to work, we urge EPA to

 5 spend more time in science-based assessment and

 6 certainly to provide sufficient time for public

 7 review and comment.

 8 Thank you.

 9 TIM ANELON: Hi. I'm Tim Anelon.

 10 I'm from Iliamna, Alaska. I'm -- the mining is

 11 17 miles away from my village and it's

 12 surprising to see EPA here. They're from

 13 Seattle. I've been to Seattle. I've been --

 14 you know, I've been there. I've seen bridges

 15 all over the place.

 16 I'm surprised to hear you say that,

 17 oh, yeah, we might stop if there's a few

 18 culverts across some cricks. I'm the caretaker

 19 of Kwee-Jack Salmon. I am the caretaker of

 20 Kwee-Jack Salmon. If there's salmon that can't

 21 go up a crick I will call the Fish and Game of

 22 Alaska. Do you guys hear me? Fish and Game of

 23 Alaska to come and help clear our streams.

 24 And it's -- it's the first time I'm

 25 seeing so many Representatives and Senators in

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 1 one building. And I don't even really know

 2 half of these people and it would be a shame on

 3 you guys not to listen to what they're saying.

 4 If you guys think you guys can come in here in

 5 Alaska and come in here and just say, oh, we're

 6 going to stop you guys from doing whatever

 7 you're doing, this is wrong. You know, we

 8 wouldn't go down to Seattle and say, oh, hey,

 9 stop making all those bridges down there

 10 because I drove over a whole bunch of bridges

 11 down there. It's wrong to see you guys come up

 12 here and tell us, oh, no, don't do this, don't

 13 do that.

 14 You know, that's what you guys -- you

 15 guys never came to Iliamna to talk to my

 16 parents because my parents are Elders. We have

 17 to invite you guys to come to our village. You

 18 guys say you're -- I'm -- I'm a vice president

 19 of Iliamna Village Council, it's a federally

 20 recognized tribe. And you guys have never come

 21 to talk to my Elders there.

 22 Thank you.

 23 AVES THOMPSON: My name's Aves

 24 Thompson. I'm the executive director of the

 25 Alaska Trucking Association. The Alaska

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 1 Trucking Association is a not-for-profit 501C6

 2 statewide trade association representing the

 3 interests of our members throughout Alaska.

 4 The Alaska Trucking Association urges

 5 that the EPA not make any premature judgments

 6 on the Pebble Project until the permitting

 7 process is complete. A preemptive decision

 8 prior to permit application is unacceptable.

 9 The Pebble mineral deposit is not

 10 located on federal land nor is it inside a

 11 refuge or a park. It is located on State land

 12 designated for mineral exploration. The State

 13 of Alaska depends on the development of its

 14 natural resources on its lands to diversify and

 15 support its economy.

 16 Every project no matter the size or

 17 location should have an opportunity to be

 18 reviewed by the process. In the case of mining

 19 there are more than 60 major permits and

 20 hundreds more from local, state, and federal

 21 agencies that must be successfully obtained.

 22 If the process determines that a project as

 23 designated cannot protect the environment and

 24 the other resources it will not advance. Until

 25 an application is filed describing the project

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 1 in detail and an environmental impact statement

 2 is completed the EPA is prematurely determining

 3 adverse impacts based on hypothetical

 4 assessments. The EPA should develop a

 5 full-blown comprehensive analysis or drop the

 6 assessment process altogether until the

 7 appropriate time.

 8 And finally, please extend the

 9 comment period to adequately allow for public

 10 review.

 11 Thank you.

 12 JASON METROKIN: Thank you. Good

 13 evening. My name is Jason Metrokin. I'm a

 14 shareholder as well as the president and CEO

 15 for Bristol Bay Native Corporation. BBNC is

 16 thankful to the EPA for conducting a watershed

 17 assessment. Unfortunately folks wish to

 18 politicize the effort as a premature veto

 19 decision to allow all development -- to

 20 disallow all development in Bristol Bay or

 21 anywhere in Alaska for that matter.

 22 Contrary to what some people will

 23 lead you to believe the EPA is not an intruder

 24 to Bristol Bay but rather an invited guest by

 25 tribes and Bristol Bay Native Corporation. I'm

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 1 here to tell you that the assessment is a

 2 welcome balance to the science needed to test

 3 the co-existence of the world's largest and

 4 potentially last wild salmon fishery and

 5 development of hard rock minerals.

 6 BBNC believes in the end the science

 7 will show that Bristol Bay salmon are worth

 8 protecting and the vast majority of our Native

 9 shareholders will agree. Our study last fall

 10 indicated that 81 percent of BBNC shareholders

 11 oppose development of the Pebble Mine. To my

 12 knowledge this may be the first time the

 13 proponents are in the minority for a

 14 large-scale development project in Alaska.

 15 The voice of the people must be heard

 16 on this issue. Who better to dictate the

 17 future of resource use than the very people who

 18 represent 10,000 years of caretaking. Our

 19 results show 68 percent of Iliamna Lake

 20 shareholders, 74 percent of Naknek/King Salmon

 21 area shareholders, 75 percent of Chigniks, 86

 22 percent in the Ugashik area, 90 percent in the

 23 Togiak area and 93 percent in the Nushagak area

 24 villages oppose this project. These numbers

 25 represent families who recognize the need to

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 1 protect the fishery and the risks associated

 2 with the proposed Pebble Mine are far too

 3 great.

 4 Thank you.

 5 DOROTHY LARSON: My name's Dorothy

 6 Larson and I come from Dillingham. And I also

 7 live here in Anchorage. I apologize for being

 8 redundant, if I am. I feel that our views must

 9 be repeated for you to understand why we oppose

 10 the Pebble Project.

 11 I'd like to thank Mr. McLerran and

 12 Mr. Parkin and the EPA team for the work that

 13 was done in the Bristol Bay watershed

 14 assessment. It is a critical document which

 15 reinforces Bristol Bay's commitment to the

 16 shareholders and tribal members of our region.

 17 We make sure that our position reflected the

 18 position of our people. They do not want a

 19 humongous hard rock mine amidst the salmon

 20 streams, lakes, rivers, wetlands and

 21 neighboring lands which would impact and

 22 destroy our way of life.

 23 The subsistence, commercial and the

 24 sport fishers must be protected and be held

 25 risk free. The risks and impacts to our salmon

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 1 culture are formidable and unacceptable. We

 2 cannot afford to speculate on the success or

 3 non-success of the Pebble Project going

 4 forward. We cannot afford either.

 5 We too have conducted our own studies

 6 at BBNC. And we have worked with the

 7 scientific community. Please review the BBNC's

 8 Pebble wash publications which provide much

 9 scientific information. We will submit these

 10 as part of the record for our technical

 11 comments.

 12 We are pleased that the EPA has

 13 reviewed the indigenous and traditional

 14 knowledge and had consultation with village

 15 Elders. However, when do hundreds of years of

 16 what the western scientific community referred

 17 to as anecdotal become hard science? We must

 18 give credence to the observations and the

 19 experience of the indigenous perspectives.

 20 Please maintain your time line and --

 21 THE FACILITATOR: Thank you, Dorothy.

 22 DAVE ATCHESON: All right. I am an

 23 ex-commercial fisherman and a lifelong sport

 24 fisherman who's been lucky enough to experience

 25 the awe and wonder of catching a variety of

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 1 fish in the Bristol Bay drainage. And I want

 2 to thank you for coming and doing the

 3 assessment.

 4 I keep hearing a lot of things about

 5 rushed science. But having read the

 6 assessment, which I would hope everybody here

 7 will do, it's a review of other studies on

 8 mining and the effects on the surrounding

 9 environment, both recent data and long-standing

 10 data and how it might be applied in the Bristol

 11 Bay drainage.

 12 What I would ask of the EPA is to

 13 take into account that most of those studies

 14 are done on mines like the Bingham Canyon Mine

 15 which is comparable to a mine of this sort are

 16 done in relative arid environments compared to

 17 the Bristol Bay drainage with a huge amount of

 18 rainfall, ground water that's only 30 inches,

 19 in some cases, below the surface. And it's

 20 inconceivable to do something like this if you

 21 look at the science and you look at the other

 22 studies that are long term that have been done.

 23 And I would ask you to take into account how

 24 wet this region is. The analysis simply

 25 doesn't bode well for an area like Bristol Bay.

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 1 It's unconscionable to think that this could

 2 happen.

 3 350 runs of wild salmon are extinct

 4 in the Pacific Northwest and it's happened in

 5 my lifetime. That is a terrible legacy would

 6 be to leave to our children and our

 7 grandchildren.

 8 BRETT VEERHUSEN: Yes. Hi, My name

 9 is Brett Veerhusen. I'm 26 years old and I was

 10 born in Homer, Alaska. And I'm lucky enough to

 11 be one of the youngest captains in Bristol Bay.

 12 I want to thank you, EPA, for conducting your

 13 watershed assessment and for thoroughly

 14 examining the 27,000 pages the Pebble

 15 Partnership provided to conduct a thorough

 16 assessment I would imagine.

 17 I'm concerned about the Pebble Mine

 18 because I am 26. I'm likely to feel the

 19 effects of this mine longer than most people

 20 here. I employ three people along with myself

 21 every year through my commercial fishing

 22 business. And I'd like to keep it that way for

 23 as long as I'm a fisherman and for as long as

 24 I'm a small business owner.

 25 I'm not against mining. I'm not

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 1 against jobs. I'm not against economic impact.

 2 But the 14,000 renewable jobs and the $480

 3 million impact commercial and sport fishery

 4 provides to Alaska and the nation is not worth

 5 sacrificing for a short-term goal and a copper

 6 mine.

 7 I'd like to remind the EPA that 82

 8 percent of the commercial fishermen in Bristol

 9 Bay are against the Pebble Mine. I'm here to

 10 say that I hope to keep fishing, whether it's

 11 myself or my family, forever. And to keep

 12 Bristol Bay's water pristine and thriving

 13 forever. And I'd like the EPA to thoroughly

 14 examine the future of our fisheries and the

 15 impact a mine like the Pebble Mine could have

 16 on up-and-coming young captains who want to

 17 provide a clean, renewable food for Alaska, the

 18 United States and the world.

 19 Thank you.

 20 NANCY HILLSTRAND: My name's Nancy

 21 Hillstrand. I'm the owner/operator of Pioneer

 22 Alaskan Fisheries; it's a 48-year Alaska

 23 corporation. And Cold Point Trading Company

 24 which is a seafood-processing plant. My

 25 background is in remote Alaska salmon culture

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 1 for all five species of salmon and for critical

 2 life stage histories from spawn to migration.

 3 This is an issue of national security. If you

 4 take a crow and give him something shiny and

 5 you take a crow and give him something to eat

 6 he'll be alerted to the shiny part. But when

 7 it comes to some food, eventually that is

 8 what's going to happen. He's going to go for

 9 that food. And we're at a very volatile place

 10 in Alaska because we have five days of food in

 11 Alaska coming from outside. And if we damage

 12 something as absolutely immense as the Bristol

 13 Bay salmon resource it's just absolutely

 14 unconscionable.

 15 I urge you to use your authority and

 16 I thank you so kindly for this ecological

 17 assessment. Job well done in performing this

 18 review.

 19 The risk factors of the EPA documents

 20 clearly show that the culminative direct and

 21 indirect losses and impacts into perpetuity are

 22 just not sustainable. And I thank you again

 23 for what you've done with that.

 24 Please expand the assessment on the

 25 sensitive life stage histories for all and each

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 1 of the salmon and trout and all the freshwater

 2 fish species to include prior and during the

 3 eyed-egg stage which is a very, very fragile

 4 stage of salmon which I didn't see in the

 5 assessment. And also upon the hatch while the

 6 alevins are below the substrate and the rearing

 7 smolt habitat of vertebrates.

 8 So thank you very kindly for what

 9 you've done. I really appreciate and I thank

 10 you for honoring the people that asked you for

 11 this assessment. Thanks very much.

 12 VERNER WILSON: Hi, my name's Verner

 13 Wilson. I was born and raised in Bristol Bay.

 14 And I'm a fisherman there. And I want to thank

 15 the EPA for doing your assessment.

 16 My people depend on fisheries. My

 17 grandpa came from Finland to come here. Then

 18 he met my grandma who's Yup'ik as well. That

 19 was over 40 years ago.

 20 This fishery, as you know, is a

 21 renewable resource. It's been here for

 22 thousands of years and we want to protect that.

 23 And, you know, this mine -- the Pebble Mine but

 24 also the infrastructure and other mines that it

 25 can lead to are fine but they'll only last for

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 1 a few decades.

 2 And so I'm very disappointed in the

 3 State of Alaska for not taking the leadership

 4 to assess the -- all the impacts that it could

 5 have on the residents of the state of Alaska

 6 but also the people of Bristol Bay. It's sad

 7 that we have to hear -- depend on the federal

 8 government to help protect our resource. The

 9 marketing of our seafood industry in Alaska,

 10 how it could affect future taxpayers by placing

 11 the burden on all the taxpayers in the future

 12 to upkeep this mine.

 13 And I want to remind everyone that

 14 Pebble may be on State land but this is an

 15 international resource. This is a national

 16 resource. And this is a resource that is for

 17 local people. And so it could affect federal

 18 land, State land, local land. And so I hope

 19 that -- I'm glad that the EPA's taking the

 20 leadership to protect our fishery and to -- I

 21 hope that you will use it to foresee authority

 22 and to keep the time line.

 23 And I want to say quyana very much to

 24 protect that thousand-year-old fishery and that

 25 could last there for a millennium.

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 1 Thank you.

 2 STEVEN GOSUK: My name is Steven

 3 Gosuk and I am a resident of Bristol Bay and I

 4 come from the community of Togiak, Alaska. And

 5 today I'm here to personally state I do not

 6 support the EPA's scientific data research

 7 within the proposed mine site area.

 8 Given the factual information within

 9 the time EPA conducted its scientific research

 10 which was roughly a year I am convinced with

 11 the releasing of the data -- I am not convinced

 12 with the releasing of the data that has been

 13 published. In giving this food for thought and

 14 thinking about it, getting potential evidence

 15 from a vast location of the proposed mine site

 16 area, a year's worth of data collection is not

 17 sufficient enough for a report.

 18 I would also like to ask if the EPA

 19 is taking into consideration postponing

 20 community hearings within the busy time of the

 21 summer season. There have been a total of 318

 22 signatures petitioning EPA from a total of ten

 23 Bristol Bay communities that are requesting to

 24 postpone summer community areas for later this

 25 fall. And for the record I do have the 318

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 1 signatures from individuals living in the

 2 Bristol Bay region communities asking the

 3 Alaska delegation to request that the EPA

 4 extend their date line for comment on the

 5 recently released Bristol Bay watershed

 6 assessment. And I have this here. Thanks.

 7 REED CHRISTENSEN: You know, used to

 8 be that there were three letters when heard by

 9 the average American citizen would evoke a

 10 tremendous amount of anxiety, fear, distrust

 11 and a general high level of alarm. Now the

 12 number of letters has doubled. It used to be a

 13 not-so-funny joke to tell a co-worker at work

 14 that they had a call waiting for them from the

 15 IRS. Now the same reaction can be induced by

 16 three more letters, the EPA. Just ask Mike and

 17 Chantell Sackett from Priest Lake, Idaho. They

 18 had to go all the way to the Supreme Court in

 19 order to find protection from the

 20 self-described omnipotent EPA. The Court's

 21 unanimous 9 to 0 decision attests to the

 22 out-of-control nature of this agency and their

 23 associated enforcement methods of their

 24 incomprehensible plethora of ever-changing

 25 rules and regulations. In the case of the

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 1 Sackett family the EPA unsuccessfully tried to

 2 overwhelm them with their position of having

 3 all the knowledge and knowing all the facts.

 4 Now in the case of the possible

 5 Pebble Mine Project it would appear the EPA's

 6 trying a different tactic. In this case the

 7 EPA is facing an organization that does know

 8 about the environment. In this case the EPA's

 9 dealing with an organization that has done a

 10 tremendous amount of research and has the

 11 technical ability as well as the financial

 12 wherewithal to go toe to toe with the

 13 scientists of the EPA. The Pebble Project

 14 scientists have done and continue to do their

 15 homework. They have jumped through hoops and

 16 they continue to go well above and beyond the

 17 normal requirements in order to address

 18 concerns and to mitigate the risks associated

 19 with this project.

 20 So what does the EPA do now? It

 21 appears that they are preemptively trying to

 22 brush aside the science and research and tell

 23 us that this whole concept is not a good idea.

 24 In the case of the Sacketts the EPA came after

 25 the fact and tried to retroactively impose

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 1 penalties on a building permit that was

 2 approved through the legal process. In the

 3 case of the Pebble Project the EPA appears --

 4 THE FACILITATOR: Thank you. I

 5 realize we have -- submit your comments because

 6 I don't think you finished. Thank you.

 7 SIDNEY NELSON: My name is Sidney

 8 Nelson. I live in Dillingham, Alaska. My

 9 family and I are subsistence users. We put up

 10 king salmon for family use every year. We also

 11 put up a lot of sockeye and harvest moose each

 12 year.

 13 I appreciate the EPA with watershed

 14 assessment. The time line is sufficient.

 15 Thank you for coming to Alaska to assess the

 16 greatest sockeye salmon fishery in the world.

 17 Don't let mining in Bristol Bay hurt our

 18 culture by instituting 404(c) action.

 19 RICK HALFORD: Thank you and thank

 20 you for being here. My name is Rick Halford.

 21 I know that your position may not be popular in

 22 the short term but I think you're used to that.

 23 It's your job to look out for the long term

 24 sometimes against the expedience and the

 25 interest of the short term.

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 1 In 24 years in the State Legislature,

 2 and I have to apologize to all my friends in

 3 the mining industry, I've only opposed one

 4 mine, just this one. So I'm sorry, but this

 5 one is different. This one is unique in all

 6 the history of Alaska in that all the mines in

 7 all Alaska's history would fit in the hole.

 8 But the bottom line is you're here because,

 9 sadly, of the State's failures. And that

 10 bothers me because it is my state and I care

 11 what it does. But the fact is that the State

 12 lacks enforcement of water quality standards,

 13 of water use permits. The State's joining with

 14 those who work against and work against the

 15 citizens who tried to sue and go to court. We

 16 see the Pebble Mine and the State of Alaska

 17 against Alaska citizens in numerous lawsuits.

 18 We see the State of Alaska changing the primary

 19 designation of this plan of this area in the

 20 area of the plan in 2005, years after the

 21 claims were filed.

 22 Here in Anchorage you hear a lot.

 23 But what you hear in the region is totally

 24 different. The delegation in the State

 25 Legislature representing this region is

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 1 unanimously on record asking you to be here

 2 asking you to review this. It is important

 3 that you understand and that we thank you for

 4 being here. You are not here as someone coming

 5 from Outside. You're here at the request of

 6 the original people of the area and the

 7 overwhelming majority of the population.

 8 If there's anything short in your

 9 report it's that you've understated the size

 10 and potential of --

 11 THE FACILITATOR: Thanks, Rick.

 12 MICHAEL SATRE: My name is Michael

 13 Satre. I was born and raised in southeast

 14 Alaska, and Juneau is my home.

 15 I have worked in the mining industry

 16 my entire adult life, and I am currently the

 17 executive director of Council of Alaska

 18 Producers and I'm speaking on their behalf

 19 tonight.

 20 The Council is a nonprofit trade

 21 association representative of large metal mines

 22 and major metal development projects in the

 23 state of Alaska. The Council strongly believes

 24 the development of our natural resources should

 25 be accomplished through a permitting and

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 1 regulatory framework that is rigorous, science

 2 based, transparent and predictable. We also

 3 encourage and support local input and

 4 involvement through the currently established

 5 permitting processes that are initiated once a

 6 project has been proposed. This ensures that

 7 health, safety and the environment are properly

 8 protected through the completion of all

 9 required impact studies before a decision can

 10 be made to permit or restrict development.

 11 Unfortunately the EPA's decision to

 12 issue the draft watershed assessment that uses

 13 a hypothetical mining project to outline

 14 potential impacts in the Bristol Bay area

 15 usurps a currently established process. While

 16 we support the collection of baseline

 17 scientific data in the region to use and

 18 evaluate future permit applications we cannot

 19 support the use of this data in premature,

 20 speculative and hypothetical scenarios that

 21 attempt to assess the impacts of large-scale

 22 development.

 23 Furthermore, the possibility of these

 24 assumed impacts could then be used to justify

 25 preemptive section 404(c) actions that prohibit

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 1 development and lack scientific credibility.

 2 The development of our natural resources here

 3 in Alaska must be carefully balanced to ensure

 4 that our environment is protected and the

 5 resources are not put in conflict, that modern

 6 mining industry in Alaska and communities that

 7 surround it have benefit from the process while

 8 permits be filed, impacts measured and

 9 appropriate mitigation protections put in place

 10 before operations can begin. I'll be asking to

 11 halt this assessment until permits can be

 12 filed.

 13 Thank you very much for your time.

 14 JOHN SHIVELY: My name's John

 15 Shively, I'm the CEO of the Pebble Limited

 16 Partnership. I want to make a couple quick

 17 points.

 18 First of all we certainly recognize

 19 the EPA has a right to do a watershed

 20 assessment. We don't think the way you've done

 21 this one is correct particularly if it's going

 22 to be a precursor to using the 404(c).

 23 We think the report is inadequate.

 24 We've spent eight years and $120 million

 25 studying a much larger area than you've studied

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 1 in less than a year. We have an environmental

 2 and social report that's over 27,000 pages

 3 compared to your relatively short report. It's

 4 rushed. Why a hearing only two weeks after the

 5 report is out? Why only 60 days to comment?

 6 What is the rush? I mean, if your science is

 7 good people should have the time to look at it.

 8 And then lastly I'd just like you to

 9 think about this: If this report is being used

 10 by EPA to issue permits for Pebble to mine, the

 11 people that oppose Pebble will be yelling and

 12 screaming about the process, that the report

 13 was inadequate and that the timing was wrong

 14 and that it needed to be done better. They'll

 15 be doing that and they will be absolutely

 16 right.

 17 Thank you.

 18 CHIP TREINEN: Thank you for the

 19 opportunity to testify. My name is Chip

 20 Treinen. I'm speaking for United Fishermen of

 21 Alaska as chair of the environmental committee

 22 as well as being a Bristol Bay drift net

 23 fisherman myself.

 24 United Fishermen of Alaska is a

 25 broad-based coalition of individuals and

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 1 organizations involved in the commercial

 2 fisheries throughout the state with membership

 3 that encompasses coastal skiff operations to

 4 high seas factory. UFA's positions are

 5 painfully reached through wide-range reviews by

 6 my first interests.

 7 In a 2010 letter you have expressed

 8 concerns regarding the risks posed by

 9 large-scale mining development in Bristol Bay,

 10 and it passed the EPA initiate the 404(c)

 11 process. UFA's position remains unchanged. In

 12 keeping with UFA's consistent support for using

 13 the best available data and science for any

 14 public policy decision we appreciate the EPA

 15 has conducted this study and has released a

 16 draft assessment.

 17 UFA strongly supports the rigorous

 18 peer review that can further establish

 19 credibility for the final report. While some

 20 may find fault within the assessment before

 21 specific projects have been submitted, general

 22 geologic, biologic, hydrologic and engineering

 23 realities are not by any means unknown. As

 24 noted by EPA, this study is not a regulatory

 25 action and does not pre-judge consideration of

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 1 proposed mining activities through the normal

 2 permitting process.

 3 UFA hopes that this assessment will

 4 provide a useful foundation for analyzing the

 5 economic and ecological values of the Bristol

 6 Bay region and can be a touchstone to help

 7 guide decision-making on specific large-scale

 8 mine proposals.

 9 Thank you for the opportunity to

 10 comment today. And UFA will also be submitting

 11 more extensive written cements.

 12 JOHN MacKENZIE: Thank you. My name

 13 is John MacKenzie, and I'm the CEO of the

 14 public business Anglo American, a proud partner

 15 in Pebble Partnership. Anglo American is one

 16 of the largest mining companies in the world.

 17 It is about 20 percent American owned including

 18 by Alaska's Permanent Fund. By year's end

 19 we'll have invested over half a billion dollars

 20 on studying this project.

 21 I'm here today to express Anglo

 22 American's significant concerns about the draft

 23 Bristol Bay watershed assessment. The United

 24 States and Alaska have rigorous systems for

 25 evaluating mine application. As a global

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 1 mining company I can say that they're amongst

 2 the most rigorous in the world. We strongly

 3 encourage the application of these

 4 well-established and fair processes, rather

 5 than this hasty approach which is without any

 6 precedence and that could shortcut the due

 7 process.

 8 Meaningful judgment about the Pebble

 9 Project and the effects that it may have on

 10 fish and water in southwest Alaska cannot be

 11 made before this project is fully designed,

 12 submitted and evaluated under the National

 13 Environmental Policy Act.

 14 I live in Santiago, Chile.

 15 Approximately two years ago we experienced an

 16 8.8 magnitude earthquake, one of the largest

 17 ever recorded. None of the tailings facilities

 18 at operations in Chile was damaged by the

 19 earthquake. The watershed assessment must take

 20 into account the modern engineering that goes

 21 into planning, building and operating tailings

 22 facilities today before making its final

 23 assessment.

 24 Anglo American accepts the rights to

 25 develop any mining project must be earned.

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 1 This is not only in the course of the project's

 2 development and in particular during the course

 3 of permitting. Permitting is a critical

 4 process and should never give a preordained

 5 outcome, positive or negative.

 6 Thank you very much.

 7 KENDRA ZAMZOW: My name is Kendra

 8 Zamzow. I have a Ph.D. in environmental

 9 chemistry with a focus on mining. I live and

 10 work here in Alaska.

 11 The approach that the EPA has used is

 12 rigorous and it asks the right questions.

 13 Geology, habitat and geography provide the

 14 basic constraints within risk and mitigation

 15 were examined. The EPA looked at a reasonable

 16 scenario, not a worst-case scenario. They were

 17 clear about uncertainties, and despite the

 18 uncertainties it is clear that significant

 19 damage will occur even under best mine

 20 management practices.

 21 Damage will occur because the network

 22 of surface and subsurface waters provide

 23 diverse and essential habitat. And the pattern

 24 of mining copper porphyry severely disrupts

 25 hydrology. Damage will occur because massive

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 1 waste facilities must be managed to prevent

 2 chemical damage to aquatic habitat. But

 3 treatment cannot go on day in and day out

 4 forever.

 5 The EPA has diligently studied

 6 Pebble's own data and data from other copper

 7 porphyry mines to grasp how waste material will

 8 react and how it could be managed. I

 9 appreciate the effort the EPA has invested in

 10 understanding this region and reasonable risk,

 11 and urge them to use this report as a

 12 foundation for future actions.

 13 Thank you.

 14 DEANTHA CROCKETT: Really impressed

 15 on the presentation today, thank you.

 16 Good evening. I'm Deantha Crockett.

 17 I am a lifelong Alaskan, and I'm the executive

 18 director of the Alaska Miners' Association.

 19 AMA is a nonprofit membership organization

 20 established in 1939 to represent the mining

 21 industry in Alaska.

 22 While my association generally

 23 concerns itself with issues affecting the

 24 mining industry, we feel that the watershed

 25 assessment isn't about mining at all. It's not

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 1 about the proposed Pebble Project or effects on

 2 salmon habitat. It's about frantically

 3 stopping the project before it even enters the

 4 permitting process.

 5 When our nation, state or community

 6 tries to stop projects before they even submit

 7 plans for review we lose our ability to manage

 8 the economy to provide jobs for our people.

 9 Let me be clear. A preemptive decision on a

 10 project, whether it's approval or denial, is

 11 unacceptable to the Alaska Miners' Association.

 12 The State of Alaska has a strong

 13 permitting system; in fact we believe we have

 14 the best regulatory system in the world. We

 15 have responsibly operated mines that pose many

 16 accomplishments and environmental protections

 17 and recommendations. However, the mining

 18 industry is so often tagged with negative

 19 perceptions it leaves achievements diminished,

 20 and even brushed aside.

 21 Our mines provide full-time,

 22 high-paying jobs with an average wage of

 23 $100,000 to Alaska residents right in

 24 communities where the mines are located. Who

 25 better to take care of the environment than the

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 1 ones who call it home.

 2 In regards to the assessment,

 3 spending less than a year to assess an area

 4 20,000 square miles is irresponsible. The fact

 5 the assessment is compatible with firsthand on

 6 the ground data gathering is also

 7 irresponsible. We believe EPA must go back and

 8 provide adequate time for the assessment to be

 9 comprehensive and based on sound science, or

 10 even better, drop the assessment altogether.

 11 Thank you for the opportunity, and

 12 we'll submit further written comments.

 13 MATTHEW FAGNANI: Thank you and thank

 14 you for conducting this hearing. My name's

 15 Matthew Fagnani.

 16 I don't know if it's just lost on me

 17 but the initial briefing on the -- when the EPA

 18 said that this is not about the Pebble, yet all

 19 the comments we're hearing are about Pebble.

 20 So I'm kind of at a disconnect between the

 21 watershed assessment and the perception of the

 22 audience.

 23 But I'm here testifying on behalf of

 24 myself and my family. In my 20-plus career

 25 I've been an avid supporter and have earned a

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 1 good living while working for the resource

 2 industry. I'm proud of the fact that I've been

 3 able to support my family, be associated with

 4 the resource industry while protecting the

 5 environment and earning a living.

 6 What I find amazing about the EPA

 7 Bristol Bay watershed assessment report it's

 8 based on a conceptual hypothetical mine

 9 project. This is junk science. The EPA would

 10 never accept a conceptual or hypothetical

 11 application for a project from a resource

 12 industry developer nor should you have produced

 13 a report that's not based on facts and not

 14 supported by permit application. This action

 15 is a disservice to Alaska and especially rural

 16 Alaskans with high unemployment and whose

 17 communities need jobs and economic

 18 diversification.

 19 As you know there is ample time for

 20 the EPA to weigh in during the established

 21 committee process to question aspects of the

 22 project description and permit applications. I

 23 also support the attorney general of Alaska

 24 who's asking for the 120-day extension to

 25 respond to this report. If you are truly

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 1 interested in what's good for Alaska then you

 2 should not be conducting public comment periods

 3 during fishing and subsistence gathering time

 4 within the Bristol Bay region unless it's the

 5 intent of the EPA to limit the voices of rural

 6 Alaska.

 7 In summary, I do not support the

 8 EPA's action using the 404(c) as a vehicle to

 9 interfere with the established permitting

 10 process. And I do support the State and

 11 federal permitting process as it is designed to

 12 evaluate these type of projects. Let's see

 13 what the project wants to do and how the

 14 project plans on protecting the fish and the

 15 environment. I also support the State in

 16 asking for the 120-day extension of the public

 17 comment period.

 18 TOM LAKOSH: Yes, thank you very much

 19 for this opportunity to comment on your draft

 20 study here.

 21 And it's quite obviously quite

 22 necessary given that the stage of the

 23 development we have here to set a baseline

 24 evaluation of the watershed. And it has most

 25 definitely raised the debate to a higher level

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 1 here as even Charisse Millett, now after a

 2 little discussion, is interested in sponsoring

 3 legislation that might be able to address one

 4 of the concerns that you raised in your report.

 5 Is that there may be centuries if not in

 6 perpetuity treatment of mine waste of off-flow

 7 from mines.

 8 So, yes, it was quite helpful to

 9 raise the debate; and it is absolutely

 10 necessary at this point now to follow through

 11 to get exact numbers to discern exactly how

 12 much we will have to put aside for the in

 13 perpetuity treatment of waste and possibly the

 14 further scenarios that were mentioned.

 15 So it's that type of information that

 16 we need to properly fashion legislation to

 17 protect the long-term interests of Alaskans to

 18 make sure that these developments are done in a

 19 responsible manner if at all.

 20 Thank you very much.

 21 RICK ROGERS: Hi, good evening. My

 22 name is Rick Rogers. I'm the executive

 23 director of the Resource Development Council

 24 for Alaska.

 25 The EPA has not afforded Alaskans

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 1 with adequate time to fully review the

 2 document. The public should have the full

 3 benefit of the work of the recently assembled

 4 peer review committee. And we would request

 5 that comment period be extended 120 days.

 6 EPA is embarking on an ill-conceived

 7 and unprecedented course of action by assessing

 8 the risks of hypothetical project scenarios.

 9 Members are fearful that once this precedent is

 10 established the EPA may exercise its misguided

 11 preemptive strike to attempt to control land

 12 use and aquatic resource and infrastructure

 13 development where it has neither the mandate or

 14 authority to do so.

 15 If the EPA were to deny any project

 16 access to the State and federal permitting

 17 process, we believe such action would be an

 18 assault on Alaska's sovereignty. It is simply

 19 not the EPA's role to dictate to Alaskans

 20 appropriate uses of State land outside the

 21 specific confines of reviewing permit

 22 applications for fill and discharges for

 23 specific projects.

 24 Alaskans don't need the EPA to remind

 25 us of the importance of our fisheries for both

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 1 commercial, sport and subsistence uses in our

 2 economies. We also don't need the EPA to talk

 3 about the negative impacts of unregulated

 4 mining. EPA needs to be reminded that Alaska

 5 has a proud and exemplary record for ensuring

 6 that mining and fisheries can co-exist.

 7 Pebble, like Alaska's existing large producing

 8 mines, should be afforded the rigorous review

 9 of the NEPA and well-established scientifically

 10 based permitting processes that include over 60

 11 major State and federal permits and

 12 authorizations. Alaska's existing mines are

 13 operating to the highest standards and current

 14 with their renewable resources. Pebble should

 15 be afforded the same opportunity to --

 16 THE FACILITATOR: Thank you.

 17 TIM TROLL: My name is Tim Troll.

 18 I'm the executive director of the

 19 Nushagak-Mulchatna Wood-Tikchik Land Trust in

 20 Bristol Bay. From 2007 to 2011 I was

 21 responsible for assembling a team of

 22 scientists, coordinated in raising funds to

 23 conduct an independent program of environmental

 24 baseline studies around the Pebble Prospect.

 25 I've been on the site several times, and most

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 1 of these reports I agree with. I also

 2 organized a research project last year to

 3 assess fish distribution and anatomy in the

 4 Humboldt plain area which is also mentioned in

 5 your report.

 6 A few observations supported by this

 7 research and your assessment: Large open pit

 8 mines in this region cannot be built without

 9 destroying salmon habitat. In fact some

 10 habitat the State has already protected is

 11 mineral lands. What we understand about the

 12 natural system in this area that would be

 13 destructed by an open pit mine is dwarfed by

 14 what we know we don't understand. In all

 15 likelihood a copper mine in this region, even

 16 one built with best intention and modern method

 17 would require post-closure active management,

 18 power for pumps, constant treatment and human

 19 vigilance to prevent pollution forever.

 20 For many of these reasons I don't

 21 really believe this is a decision for our

 22 generation. It is one thing for our generation

 23 to put salmon and people at risk for 50 or 100

 24 years. It's another thing to put them at risk

 25 until the next glacier passes through.

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 1 And one technical comment: I don't

 2 believe the EPA assessment really adequately

 3 addressed the issue of fugitive dust during

 4 operation and during construction.

 5 Thank you.

 6 CARL PORTMAN: My name is Carl

 7 Portman, and I'm a lifelong Alaskan.

 8 The EPA has embarked on an

 9 unprecedented review of over 15 million acres

 10 in Bristol Bay watershed. And it has done this

 11 review at great speed and outside the context

 12 of any specific mine plan permit application.

 13 Its conclusions therefore are premature and

 14 speculative; and are now being used, perhaps by

 15 design, to urge the EPA to block the Pebble

 16 Project before it has even applied for a single

 17 permit. While the Clean Water Act gives the

 18 EPA authority to veto every agency's approval

 19 of permits, it is unprecedented that the agency

 20 would prepare a watershed assessment in advance

 21 of any permit application for a project

 22 development plan. The agency has never used

 23 its veto authority in advance of permits being

 24 issued by other agencies.

 25 Killing Pebble now would be no

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 1 different than saying yes to the project before

 2 it enters the permitting process. Every

 3 project should have an opportunity to be

 4 reviewed on its merits. The State and federal

 5 permitting process requires a thorough

 6 environmental impact statement on major

 7 projects including analysis of detailed plans

 8 and proposed mitigation measures.

 9 If the science-based process

 10 ultimately determines a project would have an

 11 adverse effect on Bristol Bay fisheries it will

 12 not advance. The EPA must allow the permitting

 13 process to work. Decisions on any project must

 14 come through that process which was designed to

 15 provide a full and honest assessment with

 16 public input at various phases to help reach

 17 informed decisions. A preemptive veto would

 18 undermine the process and set a dangerous

 19 precedent for future projects across Alaska and

 20 challenge the State's rights to develop natural

 21 resources on its lands. It would also deprive

 22 government agencies and stakeholders of the

 23 specific information and science that would be

 24 generated by the multiyear process.

 25 Pebble offers too much potential for

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 1 a region without a diverse economy to be denied

 2 an opportunity to present its plan and show how

 3 it will comply with environmental laws and

 4 protect the fishery. Pebble and other projects

 5 must be --

 6 THE FACILITATOR: Thank you.

 7 NELLI WILLIAMS: My name is Nelli

 8 Williams. This is Mason. I live in Anchorage.

 9 And I want to thank you and your team for your

 10 work on the draft watershed assessment.

 11 The public who owns the fishery and

 12 the mineral deserve an unbiased science, and

 13 you guys have laid it out nicely.

 14 I work with Trout Unlimited. Part of

 15 my job is working with a crew of sport

 16 fishermen, guiding operators, guides that

 17 depend on Bristol Bay's healthy fisheries.

 18 Many of these folks are out in Bristol Bay

 19 right now shuttling their gear, getting their

 20 staff ready for the upcoming tourist season;

 21 and they aren't able to be here in full force.

 22 But in talking with them they were particularly

 23 impressed and liked that in the watershed

 24 assessment you looked at the impacts that

 25 large-scale mining would have on the watershed

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 1 even if nothing went wrong. I think that's a

 2 really important point that you did include in

 3 the watershed assessment.

 4 These small business owners will be

 5 directly impacted by a development like Pebble.

 6 They won't be able to take visitors to the

 7 87-plus miles of streams that would either be

 8 dug up or dewatered. They will have to

 9 apologize to their visitors as helicopters fly

 10 overhead while they're fishing and they can't

 11 give them a true Alaska backcountry experience.

 12 So thank you for pointing out that even if

 13 nothing goes wrong there will still be impacts.

 14 On a more personal note, I grew up

 15 dreaming of Alaska. I wanted to live off the

 16 land, explore its plentiful rivers and

 17 mountains. Bristol Bay defines what many

 18 Alaskans love about their state; a wild

 19 landscape that has been around for generations.

 20 Please honor the request by Alaska

 21 Native tribes, commercial fishermen, sportsmen

 22 and women and use your authority in section

 23 404(c) of the Clean Water Act to protect

 24 Bristol Bay for future generations like Mason.

 25 JOHN MacKINNON: Thank you for this

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 1 opportunity to testify on the draft watershed

 2 assessment. My name is John MacKinnon; I'm the

 3 executive director of the Association of

 4 General Contractors of Alaska, a construction

 5 trade association of over 650 business members

 6 representing the majority of the construction

 7 industry in Alaska. I'm speaking on behalf of

 8 that association.

 9 You're putting the cart well before

 10 the horse with this. You have a rush

 11 assessment -- watershed assessment lacking

 12 specific and current data that is open to

 13 public comment before a planning peer review.

 14 Peer reviewers are experts who take an unbiased

 15 look at the science and recommend any needed

 16 improvements. And shouldn't the peer review be

 17 done before public comment?

 18 The watershed assessment, potential

 19 404(c) action is premature in the absence of an

 20 actual permit application. A permit

 21 application describing the potential project

 22 will occur after a thorough review of all the

 23 issues that have been glossed over here with

 24 this watershed assessment. This steps outside

 25 of well-established regulatory processes and

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 1 represents another unwarranted federal

 2 incursion on the management of Alaska's lands.

 3 Any action with this will deprive the

 4 government, the tribes, the public and

 5 stakeholders out of the science and rigorous

 6 reviews that would come out of a multiyear NEPA

 7 process.

 8 The State of Alaska and many

 9 statewide groups and many Alaska Native village

 10 and tribal organizations in the region oppose

 11 the current EPA watershed assessment plan until

 12 there's a formal application to properly

 13 evaluate any proposed project. The comment

 14 period should be extended to adequately allow

 15 for public review of the document. The 60-day

 16 comment period in place is insufficient and

 17 should be extended by 120 days to allow

 18 commenters ample time to provide feedback. All

 19 of this after a thorough peer review.

 20 Thank you.

 21 INEZ WEBB: Hi, my name is Inez Webb.

 22 I'm originally from Dillingham. I grew up in

 23 the same area that both of my parents grew up

 24 in and both of my grandmothers. I'm a member

 25 of the Cyryung Tribal Council, Choggiung

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 1 Limited and Bristol Bay Native Corporation.

 2 I want to thank you for being here.

 3 I also want to thank you for scheduling the

 4 hearings that you have in the Bristol Bay

 5 region. I think it's very important for those

 6 who cannot and don't have the means to come

 7 here to have an opportunity to speak. I think

 8 your time line is great. And with all due

 9 respect I think that the cart is in the right

 10 place. I thank you for your time.

 11 AARON STRYK: Thank you for this

 12 opportunity. For the record, my name is Aaron

 13 Stryk.

 14 And I'm here today to respectfully

 15 ask that the Environmental Protection Agency

 16 not only withhold from making any premature

 17 decisions as it relates to projects in the

 18 Bristol Bay area but that it also stop

 19 undermining the established State and federal

 20 permitting process and avoid setting what has

 21 been called a dangerous precedent for future

 22 development not only in Alaska but in the rest

 23 of the Lower 48. And while I understand that

 24 the EPA has conducted this watershed assessment

 25 to help inform its decision, what good is such

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 1 an assessment when it goes completed in only a

 2 year, had limited resources and a reliance on a

 3 hypothetical mining project with hypothetical

 4 environmental impacts? And that's the crux of

 5 the issue we're facing today, making a

 6 preemptive decision before any permit

 7 application has been submitted and denying a

 8 project fair access to the State and federal

 9 permitting process. Every project no matter

 10 its size and location should have an

 11 opportunity to be reviewed by the process which

 12 is specifically designed to safeguard the

 13 environment and ensure responsible development.

 14 And in the case of mining a project

 15 like Pebble will have to obtain approval of

 16 hundreds of local, state and federal agencies

 17 before advancing. And this process will not

 18 permit one industry or resource to advance at

 19 the expense of another. With this assessment,

 20 however, the EPA is threatening to shut down

 21 Pebble before it even has had an opportunity to

 22 make its case. And there's a reason so many

 23 Alaska business and trade associations are in

 24 opposition to this assessment. It's because no

 25 informed decision can possibly be made until a

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 1 formal permit application's in place to

 2 properly evaluate the project.

 3 So before you continue to move

 4 forward I ask you to stop all further work on

 5 this assessment process until the Pebble

 6 Project has been fully designed, has presented

 7 an environmental mitigation study for

 8 protecting the aquatic resources in the area,

 9 has completed an economic benefit study and

 10 finally has submitted a formal permit

 11 application to the federal government and begun

 12 the lengthy permitting process. Only then can

 13 we come to any conclusion on the Pebble Project

 14 and --

 15 THE FACILITATOR: Thank you.

 16 ANDERS GUSTAFSON: My name is Anders

 17 Gustafson; I'm the executive director of the

 18 Renewable Resources Coalition here in Alaska

 19 which represents about 6,000 Alaskan members.

 20 And we would like to thank you for taking the

 21 time to do this assessment in looking at this

 22 issue.

 23 We've been screaming at the top of

 24 our lungs for years asking somebody to look and

 25 see what we're about to do to future

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 1 generations to one of the greatest fisheries in

 2 the world. It's fallen on deaf ears for the

 3 most part. We have fought hard at State levels

 4 with initiative levels with bills in front of

 5 our Legislature. And shame on us for not

 6 taking care of it first. But if we don't take

 7 care of it, then I find this perfectly

 8 reasonable to think that the EPA, the

 9 Environmental Protection Agency, would stop and

 10 protect this area and this region. If not

 11 Bristol Bay then what can the EPA protect?

 12 So we'd like to commend you for

 13 taking the assessment. We're not envious of

 14 your position having to hold these meetings and

 15 listen to this and work on this forever. We

 16 have tried our best to do something here with

 17 Alaskans by Alaskans for Alaskans. And so I

 18 understand the sentiment amongst all the people

 19 here who don't like the federal intrusion. But

 20 what happens if we don't do something? What

 21 happens if we don't take care of it and stand

 22 up on our own to take it? Not all development

 23 projects are the same. Not everything is a

 24 good idea.

 25 Thank you very much appreciate it.

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 1 KATI CAPOZZI: Hi, good evening. For

 2 the record my name is Kati Capozzi, and I

 3 represent myself and my family. I appreciate

 4 the opportunity to testify tonight, and I

 5 understand and respect your request for brief

 6 testimony; so I'll keep mine short and to the

 7 point.

 8 As an Alaskan but more importantly as

 9 an American who's been raised to believe that

 10 the government will do what it says it's going

 11 to do I have serious concerns that a government

 12 agency can show up, conduct a watershed

 13 assessment in an area greater than West

 14 Virginia in under a year, release the

 15 assessment with an unreasonably short public

 16 comment period and above all do this while

 17 stepping completely outside the existing

 18 stringent regulatory processes. This is

 19 unprecedented and an attack on the private

 20 sector across Alaska and the United States.

 21 I appreciate a lot of folks here are

 22 asking you to extend the comment period to 120

 23 days. And I think at a minimum that's what you

 24 could do, but honestly I really think you

 25 should drop this assessment altogether until an

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 1 actual permit is applied for, and then that

 2 would be maybe the more necessary time to step

 3 in and conduct an assessment.

 4 JEFF PARKER: Thank you. I'm Jeff

 5 Parker. I'm counsel to six tribes that filed

 6 the initial petition. I'm just speaking for

 7 myself tonight. I think you know my views.

 8 I would like to focus on five points

 9 of the content of the assessment. I do think

 10 you need to address fugitive dust from mining

 11 operations. You've addressed it only in the

 12 context of the roads. From mining operations

 13 you have -- in that fugitive dust you can have

 14 acid drainage.

 15 Second, you do address the management

 16 of -- the history of the management of the

 17 fisheries. And you address also the 4,000

 18 years of history of trying to protect the

 19 drainages by the Native people. I think you

 20 should also address the more recent history of

 21 State and federal efforts to protect these

 22 drainages and that's been outlined.

 23 Thirdly, I encourage you to take a

 24 more expansive view of cumulative impacts. You

 25 addressed cumulative impacts only in the

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 1 context of additional potential mines. I would

 2 address it as the regulations do in terms of

 3 secondary effects such as population growth,

 4 that sort of thing, that may have increased

 5 competition for use of resources, use of fish

 6 and game. You addressed it only in terms of

 7 habitat.

 8 Fourth, I think you should clarify

 9 the statements about tailings dam failure. The

 10 results only -- it relates only to slope

 11 failure not other sources such as overtopping.

 12 And, finally, fifth, I think you

 13 should edit carefully your appendixes for the

 14 moments in which your experts talk outside

 15 their expertise, sometimes inconsistent with

 16 other portions of the documents.

 17 TOM MALONEY: Good evening. My name

 18 is Tom Maloney. First of all, I'd like to

 19 thank each and every one of you for being here

 20 for so many hours today and coming out whether

 21 you're for or against. It's great testimony

 22 that we've been hearing.

 23 My employer, CH2M Hill, is one of the

 24 largest private employers in the state of

 25 Alaska with approximately 3,000 employees

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 1 primarily involved in engineering and

 2 consulting, construction and operations and

 3 maintenance. I'm the Alaska area manager. In

 4 our opinion the state of Alaska has a vigorous

 5 process for evaluating whether or not any

 6 project will go forward in the Bristol Bay

 7 watershed area. The exploratory environmental

 8 and scientific studies have been taking place

 9 on State of Alaska lands designated for mining.

 10 At the present time there is no

 11 project development plan for Pebble or various

 12 other possible resource projects in this area.

 13 Therefore, it is premature for any agency to

 14 reach any conclusion on potential environmental

 15 impacts which may never arise based on the

 16 future project plan.

 17 How would a student at this fine

 18 University of Alaska campus feel if they

 19 received a failing grade prior to the start of

 20 the semester even starting? My son, Sam, who's

 21 majoring in welding and nondestructive testing

 22 here at UAA would not like it. He said hello

 23 to a lot of you. He's up on the Haul Road

 24 today.

 25 As a shareholder of Anglo American

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 1 and an Alaska resident, the breadth, depth and

 2 expense of Pebble environmental and scientific

 3 studies to date are truly extraordinary. In

 4 order for the Pebble Project to advance in any

 5 future form there will need to be more than 60

 6 major permits issued, an EIS completed and a

 7 comprehensive analysis of any project plan.

 8 This will include mitigation measures for

 9 potential impacts.

 10 Let's continue to allow the

 11 permitting process to work. The federal

 12 government owns approximately 60 percent of

 13 Alaska's lands already. The State of Alaska

 14 owns the lands where the Pebble deposit is

 15 located.

 16 KARA MORIARTY: Thank you. Good

 17 evening. For the record my name is Kara

 18 Moriarty, and I'm the executive director of the

 19 Alaska Oil and Gas Association, commonly

 20 referred to as AOGA. We are a business trade

 21 association for the oil and gas industry which

 22 is the largest private industry in Alaska.

 23 We oppose the EPA Bristol Bay

 24 watershed assessment because of the dangerous

 25 precedent it sets for all Alaska industries

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 1 including especially our industry, the State's

 2 largest economic driver. The primary concern

 3 expressed by my members is the EPA's

 4 unprecedented action of preparing its

 5 assessment in advance of any permit

 6 application. Moreover oh, the fact that the

 7 agency has rarely used its veto authority and

 8 never in advance of permits being issued by

 9 other agencies is especially troubling for my

 10 members.

 11 My members are also concerned about

 12 the impact this action will have on the

 13 scientific data collection process. Currently

 14 private companies in an effort to evaluate

 15 projects they are evaluating are the largest

 16 producers of scientific data. Because of this

 17 federal and State agencies now expect and rely

 18 on the data companies are compiling. The EPA's

 19 preemptive action to judge a project before all

 20 the data is collected and evaluated will

 21 undoubtedly discourage companies from investing

 22 in prospective scientific activities.

 23 Bottom line: Every potential

 24 development project should have an opportunity

 25 to be reviewed on its merits. The fact that

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 1 the EPA is taking this action now would set a

 2 new and dangerous precedent for Alaska. And we

 3 oppose the watershed assessment and encourage

 4 the EPA to allow the exhaustive permitting

 5 process to continue before prejudging any

 6 project.

 7 Thank you.

 8 SUZANNE ARMSTRONG: Thank you. Good

 9 evening. For the record my name is Suzanne

 10 Armstrong. I am the president of the

 11 Associated Builders and Contractors of Alaska.

 12 We are opposed to the EPA Bristol Bay

 13 watershed assessment. The assessment is

 14 premature, inadequate and the effect of a

 15 404(c) action could have a detrimental impact

 16 on all resource development and jobs for

 17 Alaskans.

 18 The draft watershed assessment

 19 attempts to assess the potential environmental

 20 impacts associated with mining activities and

 21 at a scale that is yet to be determined by the

 22 project developer and without environmental

 23 mitigation factors that have yet to be defined

 24 by the project developer and Corps of

 25 Engineers. It is unreasonable that the EPA

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 1 could develop a thorough assessment of

 2 potential impacts after spending less than one

 3 year studying an area the size of West Virginia

 4 especially after the project developer has

 5 spent over eight years and over $120 million

 6 conducting environmental studies. And these

 7 studies are not yet complete.

 8 This assessment could lead to a

 9 decision to preemptively veto permits even

 10 before the project developer has submitted a

 11 permit application.

 12 This was a dangerous precedent for

 13 other resource development projects in Alaska

 14 and a potential 404(c) action also takes a

 15 just-say-no approach to jobs. This will kill

 16 billions in capital investment, more than 2,000

 17 jobs from construction and another 1,000 jobs

 18 in ongoing operations and maintenance over the

 19 life of the mine in one of the most

 20 economically distressed areas in Alaska.

 21 The EPA should kill the assessment

 22 until there is a permit application in front of

 23 the appropriate federal and State agencies for

 24 consideration.

 25 Thank you.

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 1 SAM SNYDER: Hi. My name is Sam

 2 Snyder. I have a doctorate in environmental

 3 studies where I examine the difficulties of

 4 Native job restoration in on a very small

 5 context. So something the size of Pebble is a

 6 whole 'nother ball game.

 7 I'm employed by a group called the

 8 Alaska Conservation Foundation but in reality I

 9 work for the people interested in Bristol Bay.

 10 In that work in part I manage a team of

 11 scientists, and I pick up where Tim Troll has

 12 left off. We have done independent research in

 13 the Bristol Bay area for some time now. In our

 14 work and in that research our team is one of

 15 the few that has actually entirely read all

 16 30,000 pages of Pebble's environmental baseline

 17 documents. We've also read Pebble's permit

 18 applications that are on record at DNR for

 19 water rights. In 2006 there were plans out

 20 there, materials out there to have an honest

 21 conversation about what is at stake here and

 22 what that mine might look like even at a small

 23 scale. And we've also studied the watershed

 24 assessment.

 25 So I want to first congratulate you

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 1 on the thoroughness of the watershed assessment

 2 and thank you for the work that you are doing.

 3 Having read all of that our team has

 4 made it quite clear or better yet, Pebble's

 5 data, Pebble's own data, makes it quite clear

 6 and your assessment helps to add to that

 7 clarity couple of things: Bristol Bay is the

 8 world's largest and most diverse sockeye salmon

 9 fishery on the planet on which jobs, economies

 10 depend. More importantly Pebble's data shows a

 11 complex system with clean water, little ability

 12 to buffer against metals toxicity or acid mine

 13 drainage. More importantly this mine will

 14 generate acid in periods of decades to months,

 15 therefore could pose great risk to the fishery

 16 and to the communities that depend upon it.

 17 So I urge you to stick with the time

 18 line. I appreciate the work that you are doing

 19 and so that we can protect this resource to

 20 people that depend upon it, the future

 21 generations in Alaska.

 22 DAWN FRY: Thank you for coming and

 23 I'm really grateful that you came and very glad

 24 for your work. I'm from Kasilof,

 25 three-and-a-half hours from here, one way. My

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 1 great-great-grandfather came to the state in

 2 the 19th century, a Norwegian captain of a

 3 sailing ship. But my dad raised me in Papua,

 4 New Guinea. He ran a tuberculosis hospital.

 5 And I hope you know what the word Papua, New

 6 Guinea means. 15,000 people died trying to get

 7 their freedom back from Rio Tinto and

 8 Bougainville Island. 15,000. And that's

 9 conservative.

 10 Ok Tedi Mine is in an area of

 11 subsistence people who don't wear shoes and

 12 don't have schools; they lost all their fish

 13 when the tailings dam failed. The entire half

 14 of New Guinea is controlled by Indonesia for

 15 the financial benefits they get from free port,

 16 Morehead.

 17 The people on that side of the island

 18 are black. They're animus. They're Christian.

 19 The people of Indonesia are Muslim mostly and

 20 Asians. And when they kicked out the Dutch

 21 they took over as even worse colonizers. And

 22 the United States helped them by conducting a

 23 fraudulent vote before the United Nation.

 24 And now these people here are worried

 25 about time lines and your work. They want

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 1 global mining to come here and Anglo American

 2 are a bunch of sons of bitches as bad as

 3 anybody.

 4 Do you know about that place? Do you

 5 know about those mines? Don't say -- don't

 6 deny it. Please don't.

 7 TERRY SEVY: My name is Terry Sevy.

 8 I'm a Bristol Bay fisherman since 1985. I

 9 reside in Anchorage. I raise my family in

 10 Anchorage. I'm currently in preparation for

 11 another Bristol Bay season.

 12 In just a few words -- you know, I

 13 can't tell you just how important Bristol Bay

 14 and the salmon I catch, the industry are to me,

 15 to my family, my friends, the state of Alaska

 16 and our country. For that matter, the world.

 17 Pebble Mine threatens not just my way of life

 18 but a way of life for generations to come. The

 19 mine would set the foundation for ecological

 20 and economical disaster.

 21 I urge the EPA to use their authority

 22 and the 404(c) to protect Bristol Bay. I

 23 request that you do so. I appreciate that

 24 you're here. Thank you for being here.

 25 LIZ SNYDER: Hello. Thank you for

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 1 letting me speak on behalf of my family. I'm a

 2 professor of public health and also a

 3 scientist, and I'm speaking with a perspective

 4 of a public health researcher and educator.

 5 My concerns with the Pebble Mine are

 6 related to food security in Alaska. With

 7 respect to a western diet we are a state

 8 experiencing a serious degree of food

 9 insecurity in terms of healthy food

 10 availability, access and utilization. It's

 11 been estimated that we import 95 percent of our

 12 food and that only three days' worth of food

 13 are on the shelves in grocery stores in cities

 14 like Anchorage and Fairbanks. However, in

 15 rural Alaska for many the store is literally

 16 right outside the door, and I understand that

 17 most would like to keep it that way.

 18 The environmental threats of the

 19 Pebble Mine are also human health threats in

 20 that reductions in the real but foreseen

 21 numbers and quality of wild foods can

 22 contribute to decreases in subsistence

 23 activities, increases in food insecurity and a

 24 continued increase in costly diet-related

 25 conditions such as obesity, diabetes, heart

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 1 disease and cancer.

 2 Thank you.

 3 DAN OBERLATZ: My name is Dan

 4 Oberlatz. I'm here with my company, Alaska

 5 Alpine Adventures. We are one of the key

 6 players in the Bristol Bay -- emerging Bristol

 7 Bay adventure tours industry. We've been in

 8 business since 1998.

 9 I first came to Alaska and the

 10 Bristol Bay region 20 years ago so I'm a newbie

 11 by comparison to many of the people in the

 12 room. But I've had the great fortune of

 13 sitting in Bella and Jay Hammond's library and

 14 taking in the view of Currant Creek and Copper

 15 Mountain and the majesty of Lake Clark and

 16 southwest Alaska. I've had the fortune of

 17 seeing a sun set in Bristol Bay as a commercial

 18 fisherman my second summer in Alaska. I've

 19 traversed the Alaska Range over five times from

 20 Cook Inlet over into the Bristol Bay country

 21 via Two Lakes, Telaquana Lake, Turquoise Lake,

 22 Twin Lakes. I know the area. I travel all

 23 over the state of Alaska. I think it's one of

 24 the most important and spectacular places in

 25 the state, if not the most. The Bristol Bay

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 1 region is perfect. It is perfect.

 2 So what I would like to address to

 3 the EPA in addition to sincere thanks for

 4 initiating the comprehensive watershed

 5 assessment in May of 2010 the New Zealand

 6 government conducted a study of mining's impact

 7 on tourism. Their conclusion: Quote, the

 8 risks to tourism arise from both derogation of

 9 key landscapes and from damage to the nation's

 10 clean, green and 100 percent pure branding in

 11 overseas markets. As a result an important

 12 segment of the international tourism market

 13 will simply switch to alternative destinations

 14 in the event policies are adopted which

 15 downgrade the brand image. The resulting

 16 projected damage to GNP could be in the order

 17 of one percent of New Zealand's GNP.

 18 So I think this is a moment to

 19 celebrate the majesty of the place. And thank

 20 you so much for bringing a super important step

 21 forward in the process. All of us in the room

 22 are engaging in writing history, and it's

 23 absolutely critical we get this one right.

 24 PETER MACKSEY: My name is Peter

 25 Macksey. I work for a fabricator. I work for

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 1 the fishing industry and for the mining

 2 industry. I've been in business here in Alaska

 3 for 60 years.

 4 I'm testifying in protest of what I

 5 see as an attempt to circumvent the process.

 6 No permits have been applied for. No mine plan

 7 was submitted. The real review begins after

 8 the application happens.

 9 What did this cost, if I could ask?

 10 What was its purpose? Name another pre-project

 11 water quality assessment. While I do not

 12 question the validity and the quality of the

 13 resources that you used in this assessment, I

 14 see this assessment as nothing more than the

 15 level of a high school science project. You've

 16 made assumptions. You came up with some

 17 answers and some things -- fake scenario. You

 18 really don't know anything about what's going

 19 to happen or what the conclusions are.

 20 I think you should wait till a permit

 21 process happens and move ahead then.

 22 Thank you.

 23 FRANCIS GALLELA: Thank you for

 24 coming, EPA. I know in your process you are

 25 going to have science; and you're going to have

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 1 culture. But I don't think you can ignore or

 2 keep out the consideration of American

 3 historical conservation ethics that started

 4 over a hundred years ago.

 5 And with that in mind let me take you

 6 back to 1903, probably the most important

 7 camping trip that ever took place in the United

 8 States. In Yosemite John Muir and Theodore

 9 Roosevelt spent three days camping in Yosemite

 10 and talking about conservation and talking

 11 about the importance of Yosemite. And at that

 12 point Yosemite was in dire trouble. The

 13 loggers wanted to log it. The miners wanted to

 14 mine it. The cattlemen wanted to graze it and

 15 people wanted to dam it so San Francisco could

 16 have water. But during those campfires John

 17 Muir convinced Theodore Roosevelt that he

 18 should protect Yosemite, which he did when he

 19 went back to the White House after his camping

 20 trip. That was in 1903.

 21 Now Yosemite, and I think we all

 22 agree on this, is one of the jewels in our

 23 National Parks' crown. And I don't think

 24 anybody here in 2012 now would look back and

 25 say, "I think Muir and Roosevelt made the wrong

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 1 decision." Instead I think they'd say they

 2 protected it and they had vision.

 3 In a like manner, 100 years from now

 4 as descendants look back on what we're doing, I

 5 hope they can say, "They did well, they

 6 considered us, the long-range view, in making

 7 their decision and in their impact statements."

 8 Thank you.

 9 MAYNARD TAPP: My name is Maynard

 10 Tapp. I'm a partner in a small business I

 11 started here in 1985. Serves the oil and gas

 12 industry, and I've testified numerous times on

 13 behalf of the industry to allow development

 14 under different plans issued by U.S. Fish and

 15 Wildlife and Bureau of Ocean and Energy

 16 Management.

 17 These highly professional

 18 organizations provide options to the public for

 19 testimony based on years of study. At this

 20 point I'm very disappointed that the EPA is

 21 starting this process. We seem to be shoot,

 22 ready, aim is what's happening right now. We

 23 need to go back and follow the process that's

 24 been established in law and by State and

 25 federal law.

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 1 The other thing -- and basically I'll

 2 just -- let me say give it over to whatever

 3 John Shively said. I know the folks that work

 4 over at Pebble and they would not do this

 5 project unless they can do it right.

 6 The other thing, this is a process

 7 within your own system in your report. If you

 8 do a risk assessment and you have a no failure

 9 policy or result you also need to include in

 10 that result the risk of new jobs, new revenues

 11 to the state and new health and educational

 12 facilities that would be brought to the state

 13 by way of a project like this.

 14 Thank you.

 15 PAIGE KRICHBAUM: Hi. I'm Paige

 16 Krichbaum. I would like to say thank you, EPA,

 17 for coming. I'm from Alaska obviously. I'm

 18 with Alaska Youth for Environmental Action, and

 19 I would like to read our youth resolution to

 20 protect wild Alaska salmon.

 21 Whereas wild Alaska sustains our

 22 lifestyle, economies and our Alaskan

 23 identities.

 24 Whereas living off of salmon is our

 25 way of life and we want future generations to

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 1 have the same great experience as us and our

 2 ancestors.

 3 Whereas Alaska commercial wild

 4 fisheries provide 50 percent of the seafood

 5 consumed in the U.S. and 44 percent of the

 6 seafood exported by the U.S.

 7 Whereas of all Alaska major

 8 industries including construction, oil and gas,

 9 mining and forestry, the wild seafood industry

 10 employs the highest number of Alaska workers.

 11 Whereas genetically engineered fish

 12 are a threat to human health, wild fish stocks

 13 and Alaska's economy.

 14 Whereas the proposed Pebble Mine

 15 threatens to devastate the economic, cultural,

 16 and environmental viability of the Bristol Bay

 17 region along with the state of Alaska.

 18 Whereas Alaska is the last stronghold

 19 of wild salmon in the world.

 20 Now, therefore, be it resolved that

 21 Alaska youth recognize the importance of

 22 preserving and protecting wild Alaska salmon

 23 and ask our leaders to preserve and protect the

 24 habitat and integrity of Alaska's wild salmon

 25 against irreversible harm.

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 1 This was signed by teens all over

 2 Alaska including Anchorage, Cordova, Fairbanks,

 3 Homer, New Stuyahok, Seward, Yakutat, Newhalen,

 4 Kenai, Dillingham, Togiak, Elim, Bethel,

 5 Emmonak, Golovin Bay, Koliganek and Palmer.

 6 Thank you.

 7 KEITH WALTERS: Hello. My name is

 8 Keith Walters. I've been involved in the

 9 mining industry for the last 35 years. And I

 10 can tell you that our existing regulators are

 11 very thorough and know what they're doing. I

 12 think that you should give them a chance to do

 13 their job and do it correctly. And I would

 14 urge the EPA to postpone or drop the watershed

 15 assessment and any possible use of 404(c) in

 16 the future.

 17 Thank you.

 18 CHARLES HAWLEY: Thank you. I have

 19 to skip around a little bit because we've

 20 covered a lot of things. But anyway, the

 21 assessment by the EPA is relevant to a somewhat

 22 uncertain rule established by section 404. In

 23 this case specifically with respect to the

 24 possible effect of a hard rock mine.

 25 The EPA did not ask for comments on

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 1 the economics of the Pebble Project or any

 2 other copper deposit. The EPA is contracted to

 3 make a professional analysis of the complex

 4 model but it is not in the model produced.

 5 The EPA did not and perhaps should

 6 not adjust items outside of its jurisdiction to

 7 have a general interest and arguably equal

 8 value in environmental analysis that was made.

 9 It did not seek information on the

 10 non-subsistence economy of the project area or

 11 the importance to the State of Alaska even

 12 though this project was on State land with

 13 favorable minerals.

 14 Does it make sense to predict the

 15 rise and fall of the most important hard rock

 16 mineral deposit found in Alaska without much

 17 more information? Unless you're in the mineral

 18 business it's difficult to express just how

 19 good Pebble is or could be. The extent of

 20 Pebble Mine is uncertain, but geologically

 21 Pebble appears to be in the top three or four

 22 copper deposits in the world. It's about as

 23 good of a copper deposit as Pebble is as the

 24 Pebble deposit.

 25 KRIS WARREN: Good evening. My name

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 1 is Kris Warren. I've lived in Anchorage for

 2 over 30 years. I'm a retired manager with the

 3 Anchorage water and wastewater untility. As a

 4 result I've had over 35 years' experience

 5 working in the highly regulated environmental

 6 protection industry. Also my wife is owner of

 7 a mid-sized hotel here in Anchorage which

 8 supports almost 40 local families whose

 9 livelihood depends on the Alaska economy.

 10 You know the mining industry has a

 11 long history in Alaska. And at least in the

 12 most recent years has had an outstanding

 13 environmental track record. While providing a

 14 thousand good-paying jobs throughout the state

 15 there's numerous examples of large and small

 16 operations in Alaska which have protected and

 17 in some cases even improved the natural

 18 environment, the Red Dog Mine being one example

 19 in particular.

 20 There's no valid reason to believe

 21 that a copper mine in the headwaters of the

 22 Bristol Bay watershed would have a negative

 23 effect on that fishery especially given today's

 24 stringent regulatory oversight and modern

 25 mining methods. Quite the contrary, the mine

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 1 will produce an immense amount of materials --

 2 minerals which we all need for everyday life

 3 while producing thousands more badly needed and

 4 good-paying jobs in southwest Alaska.

 5 Over the 35 years of my career in the

 6 water industry I've worked with dedicated EPA

 7 and Adak employees most of whom are focused on

 8 working with their permittees towards a dual

 9 goal of protecting the environment while

 10 allowing responsible resource development.

 11 However, more recently the EPA has taken a

 12 clearly antagonistic approach to development of

 13 any kind. The EPA should stay out of Alaska's

 14 business and allow the Pebble Mine application

 15 process to at least proceed to see what the end

 16 result will be.

 17 And to those of you in the room who

 18 are delighted the EPA has come to your rescue,

 19 be careful what you wish for because they may

 20 come after your industry next.

 21 VALERIE CONNOR: Good evening. Thank

 22 you very much. My name is Valerie Connor, and

 23 I'm the conservation director at Alaska Center

 24 for the Environment. We have 6,000 Alaska

 25 members who recognize the importance of

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 1 cultural, biological and economic importance of

 2 Bristol Bay.

 3 I know everyone in this room would

 4 agree that our salmon resources are vital.

 5 Whether -- where we seem to disagree is whether

 6 or not large-scale industrial mines belong in

 7 the headwaters of one of the most productive

 8 salmon systems in the world. Mining has

 9 historically caused damage, sometimes

 10 catastrophically, to watersheds around the

 11 globe. And Bristol Bay watershed deserves this

 12 extra level of scrutiny. We thank you for the

 13 work that you've done in the watershed

 14 assessment.

 15 Your assessment substantiates what

 16 many of us already suspected, that the

 17 cumulative impacts caused by a mine of this

 18 scale will have negative impact on Bristol Bay

 19 fisheries. Please continue to do your hard

 20 work protecting the waters of Alaska. And we

 21 hope you'll use your authority using the

 22 404(c).

 23 Thank you so much for coming.

 24 CHARLES ENGLAND: For the record I am

 25 Charles England. I am not the CEO of any

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 1 corporation nor am I the president of anything.

 2 In fact sometimes I even wonder if I'm the head

 3 of my own house. But anyway I do consider it

 4 on honor to come to speak before you gentlemen.

 5 I basically have two points. One,

 6 that much of this was built on fear. Fear that

 7 has not necessarily been founded. But the

 8 State of Alaska, may we all understand, the

 9 State of Alaska has not spoken. And so we do

 10 not know whether the State would say yes or no

 11 to that. In fact, the application and the

 12 process has not been submitted. And that's why

 13 I find it personally offensive as a citizen of

 14 the United States of America and also an Alaska

 15 citizen that the EPA would step in before and

 16 circumvent the State's rights, the due process

 17 on State land concerning the mining area that

 18 was designated to be able to do so.

 19 We do have an extensive process to go

 20 through. And the State of Alaska I believe

 21 does have the right to speak and to say so

 22 without the intrusion of the federal government

 23 coming before that process is done. I would be

 24 very surprised if this process continues to go

 25 on if something happens, that a lawsuit would

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 1 not be brought forth before the courts. It

 2 would not surprise me at all. And, again, your

 3 recent record in the Supreme Court has not

 4 fared well. I personally think that Richard

 5 Nixon is probably turning over in his grave

 6 concerning the things that are going on with

 7 the EPA.

 8 Secondly, you have admitted that the

 9 investigation was not pooled by your own

 10 committee. So to present that to a deciding

 11 board would be academically dishonest and --

 12 THE FACILITATOR: Thank you.

 13 HENRY OLYMPIC: Hello. My name is

 14 Henry Olympic. I'm from Newhalen. I sit on

 15 the Newhalen Tribal Council Board. Thank you

 16 guys for coming and listening.

 17 The bottom line is: Do we really

 18 want Pebble in our backyard? And I'm not for

 19 Pebble; I'm not against Pebble. I'm neutral.

 20 We talked about development within our

 21 communities, opportunities for ourselves and

 22 our younger generations. I think about my

 23 community, Newhalen, the communities around

 24 Newhalen, my boys that are growing up and being

 25 raised in Newhalen. We as community members

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 1 need development and opportunities for us to

 2 become independent and to grow within our

 3 community, because out there, you know, we pay

 4 almost $7 a gallon for heating fuel. And

 5 unlead -- unlead gas, we need some kind of

 6 development.

 7 I do not want the EPA to come into my

 8 community and tell me and my neighbors we

 9 can't -- what we can and can't build in our own

 10 community. We need development and

 11 opportunities to have a good place and that --

 12 that's where we live; that's our home.

 13 Thank you.

 14 NICK PEPPERWORTH: Are you really

 15 sure you want to go there? I heard this lady

 16 over here say that. This is just notes I've

 17 been taking from people that have been talking.

 18 Commercial fishing no longer sustains

 19 them. You people are from Washington State.

 20 And I grew up there. My wife's mother worked

 21 in the cannery on the spit. There was more

 22 fish than you can imagine. They put out fish

 23 traps and the government was in charge.

 24 How's the fishing? Are you really

 25 sure you want to go there? This is not worth

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 1 it.

 2 I'm in the construction business.

 3 You're going to dig a hole out here for a

 4 building. These people are going to be there.

 5 They're going to be there. I don't -- I don't

 6 welcome them here, and I'm not thankful that

 7 they're here. We have enough regulation out

 8 here. I say go back to Washington. And I'm

 9 not kidding.

 10 You know what the people do now in

 11 Washington? They run casinos. No fish. And

 12 these guys, the federal government was in

 13 charge. I'm sorry. I think you guys should go

 14 back home to Washington, Oregon or wherever.

 15 BONNIE TISLER: My name is Bonnie

 16 Tisler. I'm a fourth-generation Alaskan that

 17 came -- our family came here for mining. I'm a

 18 miner. I'm a member of the Gold Prospectors of

 19 Anchorage, Alaska. I voted for statehood. The

 20 first vote that I was old enough to make. And

 21 why did I vote for statehood? Because before

 22 that all we had was the fed and they owned 98

 23 percent of Alaska. And they didn't manage it

 24 well.

 25 We needed State regulations. We

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 1 needed a State Senator. We needed

 2 representatives that represented the needs of

 3 the people. My father was a commercial

 4 fisherman. He sold king salmon for $5 each. I

 5 agree with the comments of Alaska Chamber of

 6 Commerce. I think we really need to listen to

 7 those people. They're our economy.

 8 I've continued education with

 9 wonderful people like Chuck Holly that was just

 10 there. He's a professor in geology because I

 11 wanted to know more about this Pebble. The

 12 thing that struck me most about what I learned

 13 from him was the third thing that's in that

 14 deposit. Some odd stuff called molybdenum. I

 15 had no idea what moly was or what moly did.

 16 Moly's used to harden steel. Most of it comes

 17 from Indonesia with their unpredictable

 18 politics. You can't make --

 19 THE FACILITATOR: Thank you, Bonnie.

 20 AMY SNYDER: My name is Amy Snyder

 21 and I work at the Alaska Marine Conservation

 22 Council. And we're a community-based

 23 organization dedicated to protecting the

 24 integrity of Alaska's marine ecosystems and

 25 sustaining working waterfronts. Please accept

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 1 these comments on behalf of our board, staff

 2 and over 700 members who include commercial and

 3 sport fishermen, subsistence harvesters and

 4 coastal residents throughout Alaska. These

 5 individuals and their families are currently

 6 culturally and economically dependent on

 7 helping marine and coastal environments.

 8 We have the world's largest wild

 9 salmon fishery in Bristol Bay and watershed to

 10 nearshore habitat needed to support subsistence

 11 productivity. So with regard to the protection

 12 of clean water and healthy marine ecosystems

 13 it's not just a natural world that must shape

 14 your deliberations but also the people,

 15 economies, cultures and traditions. This is

 16 life in coastal Alaska. U.S. policy should

 17 seek to support our communities.

 18 The EPA has properly acknowledged the

 19 need to protect clean water and healthy marine

 20 ecosystems. The significant risks posed by the

 21 Pebble Project jeopardize the region's clean

 22 waters and abundant natural resources. The EPA

 23 has the power under section 404(c) of the Clean

 24 Water Act to prohibit or restrict the discharge

 25 of dredge or flow materials if they pose an

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 1 unacceptable adverse effect on natural

 2 resources, fisheries, wildlife, waters or

 3 recreational areas. The EPA's assessment

 4 clearly demonstrates that large-scale mining

 5 would have unacceptable adverse effects on the

 6 watershed even without mine failure.

 7 Bristol Bay's rich fisheries and its

 8 globally important populations of marine

 9 mammals, sea birds and waterfowl is vital to

 10 the health of our ecological, economic and

 11 social future. The Pebble Mine is a direct

 12 threat to all of that. It is the challenge of

 13 our time to pursue economic development that

 14 promotes these values rather than extinguish

 15 the basis for long-term sustainable livelihood.

 16 THE FACILITATOR: Thank you.

 17 BEAU OBRIGEWITCH: Thank you. I

 18 would like to open by thanking Washington

 19 Senator Cantwell for ensuring the opportunity

 20 for the public to speak out against the

 21 proposed Pebble Mine was initiated in a state

 22 that is not Alaska by people that are not

 23 Alaskan and by corporations that are not Alaska

 24 based.

 25 I do have a few questions that are

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 1 Alaskan. When are our oil folks going to start

 2 taking a stand that they're our fish? More

 3 importantly, they're our jobs. That only makes

 4 sense and I stand patiently by. When is

 5 Bristol Bay Native Corporation going to start

 6 running commercials about our jobs going to

 7 outsiders? I wonder when the rest of the

 8 anti-development crowd is going to step up and

 9 rant and rave about jobs going to outsiders?

 10 And right there in her press release, one of a

 11 hundred, Senator Cantwell throws in the fact

 12 that tens of thousands of Washington State jobs

 13 depend on Bristol Bay's healthy sustainable

 14 salmon populations. Further, approximately

 15 $188 million annual directly benefit Washington

 16 State commercial recreational businesses.

 17 But alas, since the announcement that

 18 public testimony was being taken last week this

 19 story barely made a blip on the daily news.

 20 Apparently it only counts that jobs and money

 21 are leaving Alaska when the companies are

 22 multinational oil and mine corporations and the

 23 workers are from states that don't have a ZIP

 24 code that begins with 98.

 25 In closing and to the point of this

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 1 testimony I would like to say that I find it

 2 interesting that the antis are always saying

 3 we're only opposed to Pebble if sound science

 4 proves it cannot be safely completed. However,

 5 at every step they've tried to stop the science

 6 from proceeding and simply rely on emotional

 7 reactionaryism. And here we are beginning a

 8 fight against the threat that the EPA will shut

 9 down Pebble under the auspices of the Clean

 10 Water Act before the permitting process has

 11 been given an opportunity to play itself out.

 12 You asked at the beginning of this

 13 what needs to be added to the assessment. More

 14 time. Wait and evaluate the permits that are

 15 eventually applied for.

 16 Thank you.

 17 DAVE APLIN: Thank you. My name's

 18 Dave Aplin. I'm with the World Wildlife Fund

 19 Alaska program. You may know we're an

 20 international conservation organization. In

 21 the U.S. we have 1.2 million members and

 22 thousands of members here in the state of

 23 Alaska. We also operate around the world in

 24 places like the United Kingdom and South Africa

 25 and Canada where the mining corporations often

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 1 are based as well. So we have some of the same

 2 reach and contact.

 3 I'd like to thank you for being here

 4 tonight. I'd like to thank you for recognizing

 5 the entreaties of the people that live within

 6 the region that felt unserved by their State

 7 government.

 8 I'm reminded after hearing tonight's

 9 testimony of a famous philosopher in American

 10 history, Bazooka Joe. I'm sure you remember

 11 Bazooka Joe from the gum wrapper. Remember the

 12 episode where Joe walks up on a guy, the guy's

 13 on all fours under a streetlight. Joe asks,

 14 "What are you doing?" "I'm looking for a

 15 quarter." "Where did you lose it?" "Over

 16 there." "Why are you looking for it here?"

 17 "Because the light's better."

 18 I think if you look at the massive

 19 amount of time, money and energy Pebble

 20 Partnership have put into their baseline

 21 research you'll see something like that

 22 cartoon. We heard eight years and

 23 $120 million. Yet if you look at that

 24 document, all 20 or 30,000 pages, there's

 25 nowhere that will tell you how many salmon

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 1 smolts are released into that system.

 2 This section on geologic and seismic

 3 impacts are short-shrift. So thank you for

 4 being cumulative, broad. And if I might just

 5 add, fugitive dust is important. Additional

 6 look at seismic activity is important and

 7 looking at the infrastructure that will develop

 8 and the secondary and tertiary impacts is all

 9 important work to do.

 10 Thanks for being here.

 11 GAIL PHILLIPS: Thank you. Good

 12 evening. My name is Gail Phillips. I'm a

 13 lifelong Alaskan. I was raised in rural Alaska

 14 and now live in urban Alaska.

 15 Your disrespect and ignorance on

 16 Alaska people and issues by holding your first

 17 hearing on this issue in Seattle is

 18 inexcusable. Alaskans -- you would never have

 19 held a hearing on fishing regulations in the

 20 Straits of Juan de Fuca in Alaska before

 21 scheduling a hearing in the state of

 22 Washington.

 23 Other than trying to do an end run on

 24 well-established permitting processes at both

 25 the State and federal levels, why are you so

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 1 afraid of the outcome that you have chosen this

 2 preemptive measure to try to stop the Pebble

 3 Mine without even knowing the benefit or

 4 parameters of a mine plan? How can you intend

 5 to separate any potential restrictions in your

 6 404(c) findings as they relate to any State or

 7 local development project in the Bristol Bay

 8 watershed unrelated to the Pebble Mine? What

 9 legal justifications will you use to excuse

 10 blatant prejudices against the mine versus

 11 another project such as a community water

 12 source project? How do you plan to justify

 13 your actions or findings that may be in

 14 conflict with NEPA, the Clean Water Act or the

 15 Alaska Statehood Act? Are you prepared to

 16 spend the next 25 to 50 years in various courts

 17 trying to justify your actions on this

 18 unprecedented and ill-thought-out plan?

 19 I don't want the 404(c) process

 20 delayed. I'd like to see it thrown out.

 21 Thank you.

 22 NANCY WAINWRIGHT: Hello. My name's

 23 Nancy Wainwright, and I work for Trustees for

 24 Alaska principally on issues surrounding the

 25 adequacy of the State of Alaska permitting

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 1 process for mineral exploration, statewide and

 2 particularly familiarly on the Pebble Project.

 3 And I want to thank EPA for its efforts to

 4 finally provide the public with unbiased

 5 information about the resources and the

 6 potential impacts of a large-scale mine in the

 7 Bristol Bay region, which the State of Alaska

 8 has failed to do.

 9 The fact that EPA's chosen to have an

 10 inclusive public process using peer-reviewed

 11 science about the potential project of such

 12 significance is precisely the function the

 13 government should serve and which EPA's charged

 14 in carrying out the Clean Water Act. I'm going

 15 to applaud this effort. It's an essential

 16 function of the government particularly when

 17 the State has failed to carry out its

 18 responsibility with the Pebble Mine and other

 19 mines statewide, both in exploration and

 20 development.

 21 I urge you to look carefully at the

 22 State's ability to monitor and to carry out its

 23 permitting process and conduct rigorous

 24 permitting that you have heard about tonight.

 25 Because in my organization we represent people

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 1 that have attempted to get information just

 2 about Pebble exploration, not the development,

 3 from the State. And we had to use litigation

 4 and the discovery process to gain information

 5 about what the State was authorizing at Pebble

 6 and what Pebble had done at the site at just

 7 the exploration stage. The State has still

 8 done no analysis of the cumulative effects of

 9 that exploration that has occurred for 24 years

 10 at the Pebble site. And no analysis of the

 11 impacts of the discharges of drilling muds on

 12 the tundra, tens of thousands of helicopter

 13 trips --

 14 THE FACILITATOR: Thank you.

 15 RENEE REEVE: For the record, my name

 16 is Renee Reeve and I'm here tonight as a

 17 private citizen.

 18 I'm extremely concerned with the

 19 short amount of time taken to draft this

 20 assessment. If industry were to put together

 21 studies and permit applications in a similar

 22 time frame the citizens of Alaska would be

 23 outraged, and they should be now. Further, any

 24 preemptive decision on any project or permit

 25 should be unacceptable to those who respect the

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 1 process in place. I have a respect for that

 2 process, and I want to see it allowed to go

 3 forward.

 4 Finally, given the short amount of

 5 time used to develop this assessment the EPA

 6 should absolutely extend the comment period to

 7 allow interested Alaskans of which you saw

 8 hundreds here tonight to weigh in on the issue.

 9 Thank you.

 10 RICHARD KOLLER: My name is Richard

 11 Koller, and I support responsible resource

 12 development in Alaska. Unlike many others

 13 testifying this evening I do not thank you for

 14 this opportunity to comment. In fact I resent

 15 that I have to be here. I'm appalled that nine

 16 federally recognized entities invited a federal

 17 agency to participate in the lynching -- had to

 18 change the page -- of the legitimate permitting

 19 process for resource development citing

 20 hypothetical problems with tragic consequences

 21 unfounded by any evidence-based effort,

 22 information that belongs in a scary science

 23 fiction novel rather than -- another page here.

 24 It's on the back -- rather than an official

 25 government activity. We are at an official

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 1 government activity. What appalls me more is

 2 that you accepted the invitation to the

 3 lynching, EPA.

 4 DON McEWEN: My name is Don McEwen,

 5 and I'm a citizen of Alaska. And I've always

 6 been for the Pebble Mine. But because of you

 7 folks' report I think that there should be no

 8 processing of any abstracting materials at the

 9 mine site because of the potential disastrous

 10 results, that it all should be loaded on a rail

 11 line and taken to the tidewater in Cook Inlet,

 12 processed there, or put on freighters and taken

 13 elsewhere to be processed.

 14 And there's a potential side effect

 15 to having a rail line to that area. It would

 16 be a safe secure way of transporting boats from

 17 Cook Inlet to Bristol Bay area.

 18 Anyway, thank you for your time.

 19 APRIL FERGUSON: Thank you. My

 20 name's April Ferguson. I'm an employee and

 21 shareholder of BBNC, Bristol Bay Native

 22 Corporation, and a member of Curyung Tribal.

 23 And I am delighted that the EPA's accepted the

 24 invitation of tribes and the residents of the

 25 state of Alaska to come. And I really

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 1 appreciate your enduring this brutal hearing

 2 schedule and taking the time to go out to our

 3 region and to listen to us. Thank you.

 4 And good job on the watershed

 5 assessment which as I understand it did take

 6 into account Pebble data and State of Alaska

 7 data. So it's good to know that a half a

 8 billion dollars in study they did is going to

 9 be used for something.

 10 I would ask you to stick to your time

 11 line, please. Bristol Bay Native Corporation,

 12 we do support responsible development; and

 13 we're not against mining. We've got mining

 14 interests. We're just opposed to this

 15 particular project. We're opposed to Pebble.

 16 I believe personally it's in

 17 America's national security interest to protect

 18 the genetically diverse salmon stocks of a

 19 major food source of 46 percent of the world's

 20 red salmon come from the Bristol Bay region,

 21 and it's all protein. It's something we need

 22 to husband and take care of.

 23 You're here because the Bristol Bay

 24 region is a wetland, and some people would call

 25 it a swamp. It's this hydrologic connectivity

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 1 of rivers and ponds that the assessment speaks

 2 of. This area is so porous and saturated that

 3 the salmon smolt can swim underground from the

 4 rivers through the sand literally to the inland

 5 ponds and lakes there.

 6 Out of the research data that Pebble

 7 provided there's a glaring lack of seismic

 8 data. I wanted to mention that. And please

 9 take in account the Mulchatna caribou herd.

 10 DONALD STEVENS: I'm Don Stevens.

 11 I've been Alaskan since 1962 when the Navy

 12 stationed me on Adak. I have bachelor degrees

 13 in both geology and chemistry and a Ph.D. in

 14 geology all from the University of Alaska,

 15 Fairbanks. I've been employed as a full-time

 16 minerals exploration geologist since August 15,

 17 1970. And I run my own consulting minerals

 18 exploration business since February 1 of 1978.

 19 Mineral discoveries I have made have

 20 provided over a thousand man-years of

 21 employment for Alaskans. These discoveries

 22 were insignificant compared to the economic

 23 importance of the Pebble deposit however.

 24 The adverse consequences of the EPA's

 25 Bristol Bay watershed assessment are far too

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 1 great to be based on a rushed, incomplete,

 2 pseudo-scientific, premature and biased effort.

 3 The potential for misuse of this tool to stop

 4 development projects nationwide is too great to

 5 continue any further if you care about the

 6 future of our nation. You have built this A

 7 bomb for your anti-development warfare.

 8 Both the Alaska Statehood Act and

 9 Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act are

 10 seriously jeopardized by any repetition of this

 11 assessment approach in that the needed

 12 development of natural resources elsewhere in

 13 the state can be stopped by an arbitrary and

 14 capricious federal agency. This assessment has

 15 already had a chilling effect on the world's

 16 perception of Alaska as a friendly investment

 17 climate for minerals resource development.

 18 To conclude I feel so sorry for the

 19 young people of our nation who are growing up

 20 --

 21 THE FACILITATOR: Thank you.

 22 DAN SADDLER: Thank you very much. I

 23 appreciate the chance to testify. For the

 24 record, I'm Dan Saddler, State Representative,

 25 District 18, Eagle River and JBER. I'm here

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 1 because I've got significant concerns about

 2 this draft watershed assessment.

 3 Listening to the testimony here

 4 tonight you'd think we were here to decide yes

 5 or no on the Pebble Mine. You may support the

 6 idea of Pebble Mine; you may oppose the idea of

 7 Pebble Mine; I've got friends, constituents,

 8 some on both sides. But the majority of them

 9 are and I believe appropriately open-minded and

 10 have not made up their mind yet.

 11 There's a fair process where we

 12 decide whether there should be a Pebble Mine or

 13 not. The NEPA process, State permitting, large

 14 permit mining process. There's lot of ways to

 15 do that. I'm afraid that the 404(c) action is

 16 taking place outside a permitting process.

 17 It's just not fair.

 18 It's an overreach of federal

 19 authority, and I hate to say overreaching

 20 federal authority is something we have a great

 21 deal of experience with here in Alaska. It's

 22 great to see EPA hurry up and conduct such a

 23 broad reaching study in one year, 220,000

 24 square miles in such a short amount of time.

 25 It feels like someone wants to hurry up and

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 1 make up their mind before all the permitting's

 2 done, all the facts are in. Let's take time to

 3 let this process proceed fairly. Let's take

 4 time to do it right. At the very least, extend

 5 the comment process and at best toss this out

 6 and do it again right the first time.

 7 Thank you.

 8 CHRIS WILSON: First off I would like

 9 to thank you for your scientific assessment of

 10 Bristol Bay. I believe that all Alaskans have

 11 a vested interest in Alaska lands.

 12 I would like to see the 404(c)

 13 process proceed with the ultimate

 14 recommendation to protect Bristol Bay form open

 15 pit mining for these reasons: First off, the

 16 commercial salmon fishery provides over

 17 $480 million a year to 14,000 employed

 18 individuals; multigenerational sustained

 19 employment and income to local communities;

 20 providing economic health and integrity for

 21 local culture. It's the world's largest

 22 sockeye commercial fishery as well as a large

 23 population depending on a subsistence harvest

 24 of aquatic as well as a land-based protein

 25 source. Long-term sustainable

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 1 multibillion-dollar world-class sport fishery

 2 that employs local population and brings

 3 secondary and tertiary income to the state

 4 through tax revenue and local spending. Intact

 5 and pristine ecosystems provide spawning and

 6 rearing of native run salmon stock as well as

 7 Chilkoot trout, Arctic char and many other

 8 aquatic species. The Bristol Bay drainages and

 9 headers provide a pristine environment as well

 10 as a remote wilderness experience without the

 11 need of scientific studies to prove its present

 12 value, cyclic production and economic viability

 13 and opportunity to promote pristine and remote

 14 wilderness experience.

 15 The negatives of this potential

 16 project is unproven engineering on a scale that

 17 has never been attempted before in the history

 18 of mankind located in an earthquake-prone and

 19 volcanic area that is remote and

 20 environmentally fragile. Elimination of up to

 21 4,000 acres of pristine wetlands and lost

 22 habitat. Mining industry, the poor reputation

 23 of --

 24 THE FACILITATOR: Thank you.

 25 JUDITH BERTNER: Hi, I'm Judith

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 1 Bertner; and I'm from a Bristol Bay fishing

 2 family. Thank you for doing this scientific

 3 assessment on Bristol Bay and for being here to

 4 listen to us. Thank you for doing your job.

 5 Thank you for protecting our treasures; the

 6 clean water and the good food that we all

 7 deserve.

 8 My husband and I fished on a gilander

 9 in Bristol Bay for 40 years. We raised our

 10 four sons in the fishery, an opportunity that

 11 allows small-scale business success. One son

 12 and his family continue the tradition.

 13 Now retired we subsistence fish with

 14 our grandsons for our family food. And I think

 15 you might want to include in your assessment

 16 that not only villagers depend on subsistence

 17 fish, but many of us in Anchorage do too, and

 18 other cities.

 19 Last week a friend who had fished all

 20 around Alaska called me asking what I did to

 21 make the sockeye salmon I gave her so

 22 delicious. "How did you process it?" she

 23 asked. "Well, we clean them on the beach,

 24 rinse them in a bucket, vac seal them and put

 25 them in our chest freezer," I said. "That was

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 1 the most delicious fish I've ever cooked," she

 2 said, "so I wondered what you did." "It's

 3 nothing I did. It's the wild, unspoiled

 4 Bristol Bay fish," I said.

 5 Now you know why we don't want a

 6 large-scale mine in this area. I'm asking you,

 7 the EPA, to use your authority to protect this

 8 valuable resource.

 9 AMES LUCE: I'm representing myself.

 10 I'm an Alaska citizen. I have flown, hunted

 11 and fished in the Iliamna area for 46 years and

 12 am a property owner in King Salmon as well as

 13 in Anchorage.

 14 I thought that any analysis, and this

 15 may be beyond your particular charge, should be

 16 a risk/benefit analysis. And in a risk/benefit

 17 analysis I came upon an article, mining taxes

 18 and revenue in Alaska. I would like to quote

 19 this. "Alaska's mineral industry was worth

 20 almost three billion dollars in 2009 but paid

 21 less than two percent to state and local

 22 governments counting all forms of taxes, fees

 23 and royalties." Less than two percent.

 24 Taxes on other industries are much

 25 higher. The oil and gas industry paid about 20

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 1 percent of its market value. And of course it

 2 is the basis of our economy. Now while low

 3 taxes for mining are attractive to

 4 corporations, some organizations and

 5 legislative bodies argue that they do not

 6 represent a fair long-term value for Alaska's

 7 resources, particularly since the vast majority

 8 of the mining corporations are not in Alaska.

 9 And I would remind you that article

 10 eight, section 2 of the State's Constitution

 11 provides, and I quote, "The Legislature shall

 12 provide for the utilization, development and

 13 specific --

 14 THE FACILITATOR: Thank you.

 15 CARL WASSILIE: Good evening. My

 16 name is Carl Wassilie. And my Yup'ik name is

 17 Angut'aq. And I'm a Yup'ik biologist. I will

 18 speak on behalf of Alaska Big Village Network.

 19 And I do want to thank the EPA for this

 20 watershed assessment. It's extremely important

 21 to have a scientific analysis of the impacts to

 22 do the watershed. And the salmon, just one of

 23 many species, including the human beings that

 24 rely on the water -- the freshwater in the

 25 watershed.

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 1 So the far-reaching impacts, as many

 2 people have mentioned before, from the region

 3 were not just economics, the cultural impacts

 4 are significant. If we go back to the time of

 5 -- in which many of the creation stories which

 6 are -- which allow for the cultural vitality of

 7 the protection of the ecosystem, services that

 8 provide these current economic benefits for

 9 hundreds of years in the industry, fishing.

 10 But the benefits of the cultural vitality are

 11 just as important because it's that respect

 12 that is given to the land.

 13 So traditional knowledge, it's a

 14 tough one. It's a tough one to look at,

 15 looking at the creation story and mythology,

 16 it's just as critical as looking at genetics of

 17 that salmon that we eat. I get the minerals --

 18 THE FACILITATOR: Thank you.

 19 SHARON COX: Good evening. Thank you

 20 for this opportunity. I am a 30-year resident

 21 of Anchorage, Alaska. I'm a tax-paying

 22 citizen. My purpose here today is commenting

 23 on the morality and the integrity of EPA

 24 exercising their right to enforce the 404(c) on

 25 Pebble Project before the permitting process

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 1 begins. I believe the EPA in all of its wisdom

 2 is wrong in not allowing the permitting process

 3 to unfold in the normal fashion as any other

 4 large-scale mine or small-scale mine in the

 5 state of Alaska. This is a State issue.

 6 I've heard comment and questions

 7 whether the large-scale mining permit team has

 8 the education to follow through with the

 9 permitting process. It doesn't mean that

 10 Washington, D.C. is any smarter.

 11 Thank you.

 12 STEPHANIE SCHMIDT: I'm Stephanie

 13 Schmidt. I'm from Anchorage, Alaska. And I'd

 14 like to commend the EPA for the study that

 15 they've done, the scientific study. I'm a

 16 Ph.D. in freshwater ecology. I've spent nearly

 17 a third of my very short life studying

 18 fisheries and studying the human impacts on

 19 fisheries. And I currently work in Alaska on

 20 the fisheries, the salmon fisheries here in

 21 Alaska. I do not work for any organization

 22 that is pro or opposed to mining. Just want to

 23 make that clear. I'm simply here as a fishery

 24 research biologist in support of your

 25 scientific study.

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 1 Many of the criticisms of the study

 2 tonight focus on hastiness, yet no one has

 3 provided any explicit examples of how the

 4 science is bad or junk. No one has provided

 5 empirical evidence that would negate or

 6 disagree with what the EPA has put out tonight.

 7 I'd also like to thank you for not

 8 doing a risk/benefit analysis because you

 9 cannot put a monetary value on a loss of

 10 culture and a loss of subsistence in Alaska.

 11 I'd like to thank you for putting together the

 12 panel of experts. The process is going to be

 13 thoroughly vetted through that. And I hope

 14 that you take into consideration what those

 15 experts have to say.

 16 I'd like to commend you for the

 17 comprehensive literature review that you have

 18 completed of studies that have gone through

 19 rigorous scientific review, studies that

 20 represent millions of dollars of research that

 21 have documented the impacts of mining on salmon

 22 habitat.

 23 On a more technical point of the

 24 study, I'd like to thank you for highlighting

 25 impacts that this type of mining would have on

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 1 Chinook. We know that in Alaska Chinook

 2 populations are declining and so I appreciate

 3 that you've done that.

 4 One last point is I'd like you to

 5 consider looking at the changing environment

 6 that we face today. Climate change, whether

 7 it's human caused or not is --

 8 THE FACILITATOR: Thank you.

 9 MARLEANNA HALL: Good evening. My

 10 name is Marleanna Hall. I just want to say two

 11 things for the record. First, I am not for or

 12 against any project that has been discussed

 13 tonight, especially one that hasn't yet

 14 submitted a project plan. Secondly, more

 15 importantly, I, like many other people in this

 16 room, would rather be spending time with my

 17 family who is visiting from up north but I'm

 18 here because this is important to me.

 19 My message is about the process. The

 20 EPA must stop undermining existing regulatory

 21 processes and avoid setting dangerous precedent

 22 for projects in Alaska. Investment in Alaska

 23 should not be further jeopardized by federal

 24 overreach. But if the EPA isn't going to halt

 25 this so-called assessment and allow the

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 1 existing process to play out, it should at

 2 least extend the comment period by a minimum of

 3 120 days.

 4 Lastly, as a shareholder of Bering

 5 Straits Native Corporation I hope the EPA

 6 doesn't come into my region and try to

 7 preemptively stop any projects it's trying to

 8 do in the Bristol Bay Native Corporation

 9 region.

 10 Thank you.

 11 SCOTT BLAKE: Hello. Good evening.

 12 My name is Scott Blake. I'm an Alaska

 13 resident, fourth-generation commercial

 14 fisherman and president and CEO of Copper River

 15 Seafoods. In that role I'm responsible to be a

 16 steward to the 150 families that work for our

 17 company and the thousands of families that live

 18 in the communities that we interact with. One

 19 of those communities being Togiak, Alaska in

 20 the Bristol Bay watershed.

 21 I think it's important to note that

 22 the Alaska seafood industry is a multibillion

 23 dollar industry. At the heart of it is two

 24 primary resources. One is pollock and one is

 25 salmon. At the heart of the salmon industry is

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 1 the Bristol Bay salmon. You take that away and

 2 it'll affect our entire salmon industry in the

 3 state. It will be a crushing blow to all of us

 4 to be able to compete globally with the

 5 resources that we have being much more limited.

 6 I want to leave you -- I want to

 7 change -- one more thing to say. I was born

 8 and raised in Alaska. 1989 I woke up to the

 9 most interesting -- spoke about this night. I

 10 woke up in the morning to my mom in a frantic

 11 panic in the kitchen screaming about the 1989

 12 EXXON VALDEZ oil spill. It was a tragedy. I'm

 13 asking, have any of you ever lived through a

 14 tragedy? I can remember the oil companies

 15 promising my great-great grandfather and my

 16 grandfather and my father and myself that

 17 they'll be able to manage what they do, that

 18 these tragedies won't happen. And then if they

 19 do happen they'll be able to clean it up.

 20 Today I can tell you 23 years later that I

 21 still have my herring permits up on the shelf

 22 that I do not fish --

 23 THE FACILITATOR: Thank you.

 24 CHUCK BECKER: Good evening. My name

 25 is Chuck Becker. I'm retired. I don't have a

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 1 dog in this fight but I am a concerned Alaska

 2 citizen. I'm sincerely puzzled as to why we

 3 are here addressing hypotheticals. Last time I

 4 engaged in an exercise like this was back in

 5 logic class in college. As I understand it

 6 this exercise is basically designed to block

 7 development of Pebble Mine even before mine

 8 management has applied for a permit. Isn't

 9 this a bit premature?

 10 I've learned that the Pebble Mine

 11 developers have spent $100 million in the past

 12 decade assessing potential environmental

 13 impacts and mitigation strategies. Your team

 14 has accomplished that in less than a year?

 15 The State of Alaska has in place one

 16 of the most stringent permitting systems in any

 17 state in the country. Any potential action by

 18 EPA to interfere with this state's system

 19 should be immediately challenged as an affront

 20 to the Constitution of the United States and

 21 the rights of the states therein.

 22 EPA should table the assessment until

 23 such time as the permitting process is

 24 complete, then reintroduce the process.

 25 Thank you.

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 1 CESAR MARTINSON: I would like to say

 2 a big thank you to the EPA for coming to our

 3 state and conducting this analysis. And I

 4 would also like to say that there's been a lot

 5 of talk tonight about how well the State of

 6 Alaska does environmental protection.

 7 It reminds me of my father who

 8 teaches here at the University of Alaska,

 9 Anchorage. He's had 20 years of his life with

 10 the State Department of Environmental

 11 Conservation as a hydraulic engineer. My dad

 12 worked with other people in the DEC to try to

 13 develop regulations regarding hull safety with

 14 regard to oil coming out of the port of Valdez.

 15 He was routinely shut down by the corrupt

 16 leadership of the state of Alaska who was more

 17 interested in serving the interest of the oil

 18 industry than protecting human life and

 19 protecting the environment. My dad's work on

 20 the EXXON VALDEZ oil spill, I saw it firsthand,

 21 what the State leadership did to the people of

 22 Alaska by being more concerned with the

 23 interest of industry than with science. And I

 24 would encourage you to stand up to the

 25 government, to stand up to the State

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 1 Legislature and other people in this state who

 2 have clearly indicated that they are okay

 3 defending multinational corporations' ability

 4 to rape one of our prime jewels of this state

 5 instead of standing up for the people of

 6 Alaska.

 7 And I applaud you to conduct more

 8 thorough analysis on the tailings pond and the

 9 dust that this mine is going to create. I

 10 would encourage you to look at the health

 11 impacts that this mine is going to have on the

 12 people of Alaska. And in closing I would like

 13 to thank Rick Halford, I'd like to thank Bella

 14 Hammond and other State leadership who had the

 15 backbone to challenge Anglo American and these

 16 other corporations who want to put their hands

 17 on Alaska.

 18 Thank you.

 19 VIVIAN MENDENHALL: I commend you,

 20 EPA, for enduring all the hearings. My name is

 21 Vivian Mendenhall. I'm a 30-year resident of

 22 Alaska. I have a Ph.D. and 45 years of

 23 professional experience in science and

 24 management of waterworks including the effects

 25 of contaminants. I actually would like to

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 1 speak on something that falls at the request we

 2 started with here, something I think ought to

 3 be added to the assessment.

 4 First, I just want to say that I

 5 appreciate the EPA and its watershed

 6 assessment. And just in passing I'd like to

 7 let people who are -- would rather have the

 8 permit process play out with the NEPA

 9 assessment, the same data, the same kind of,

 10 quote, hypothetical scenarios are going to be

 11 used in the EIS, which is being done with the

 12 same law, by the way, as brings the EPA here

 13 today.

 14 A major risk to the environment that

 15 is not being considered in this assessment is

 16 direct toxicity of the mine's ponds and lakes

 17 to the wildlife in the area of the mine. There

 18 are going to be two types of water bodies. One

 19 is the lake or lakes that will fill the open

 20 mine pit. All open mine pits fill with water

 21 because they go down deeper than the water

 22 table. And some, not all, are filled with

 23 toxic water. You must manage the water forever

 24 to keep it out of the water table.

 25 The tailings pond is the other kind

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 1 of water body. And they are always toxic

 2 because they're on top of metal and acidic

 3 rocks. They can be treated but that'll be to

 4 perpetuity. Northern Dynasty CEO said in 2006

 5 that clean water would cover all the tailings.

 6 But that was the ignorance of the fact that

 7 lakes and ponds always mix top to bottom at

 8 least twice a year.

 9 TOM BUNDE: Yeah, good evening. I'm

 10 Tom Bundy. I'm a State Senator retired, a

 11 commercial pilot retired, a commercial

 12 fisherman retired and an active sports

 13 fisherman. So I've got a foot in a lot of

 14 camps. Blessed by that experience I visited

 15 162 towns and villages throughout Alaska. I've

 16 been blessed to be familiar with the Bristol

 17 Bay area. And I want to thank you for holding

 18 a hearing in Alaska on an Alaskan issue for

 19 Alaskans. We appreciate that.

 20 As it's probably become very aware to

 21 you Alaskans have no shortage of opinions or

 22 the willingness to share them. And it's also

 23 probably very obvious where we stand on an

 24 issue depends in part on where we sit.

 25 I would like to make a couple of

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 1 points that expand on perhaps what you've

 2 already heard. First point is that, for me at

 3 least, it seems it's an attempt to circumvent

 4 the State's permitting process. Now it's a

 5 bigger issue than the Pebble Mine. If we have

 6 a permitting process that's valid, it should be

 7 allowed to work. If it's invalid, it should be

 8 changed; but it should be changed within the

 9 State and not by some federal override. And

 10 that is I think something considered State

 11 rights and one of the reasons we've remained

 12 the United States.

 13 The second point that I'd like to

 14 make is the independent consequences of sincere

 15 but blocking of resource development. It's

 16 such a poor economy in rural Alaska that

 17 without resource development these people are

 18 going to be, in my opinion, forced to live in

 19 third world conditions.

 20 Finally, in -- there's a current ad

 21 on the television from the Bristol Bay Native

 22 Corporation; it says a --

 23 THE FACILITATOR: Thank you. Sorry

 24 to interrupt.

 25 CHRIS BRANHAM: Hi, I'm Chris

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 1 Branham. I'm probably the most insignificant

 2 person here for what I've got to say. My

 3 family was the very first family to start a fly

 4 out fishing lodge in Iliamna. I'm the last of

 5 the family and when I'm gone it's done. But

 6 I'm here just to give you some advice and give

 7 you some recommendations.

 8 Since I was 18 years old I have flown

 9 around the Iliamna area every year for 40

 10 years. I know every bit of the territory in

 11 that area. And the thing that's most

 12 important, and this is a thing that really

 13 bothers me, when I first started I heard about

 14 Pebble Mine, it wasn't -- I said, "Oh, sure,

 15 good, nothing wrong with the Pebble Mine." I

 16 was even kind of in favor of it. But then when

 17 you look at the size of this particular mine

 18 and the devastation it can do I said, "You know

 19 what, I don't care if I'm the last person here,

 20 this is not good."

 21 One of the things that hasn't been

 22 mentioned here is that people don't realize it,

 23 one of the things that's important if you go to

 24 the -- I don't know how many people have

 25 actually seen the area where the Pebble Mine

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 1 is. You see pictures, you see all these fancy

 2 rivers and lakes and all this, all this flat

 3 country, there's nothing there. But unless

 4 you've actually been there you don't know what

 5 you're going to be destroying.

 6 One of the other issues that's also

 7 important is this scientific data. I don't

 8 need any scientific data to tell you that when

 9 you start digging a mine at Pebble you are

 10 going to destroy the fishing and all the salmon

 11 in that area.

 12 And I just want to tell you that the

 13 Pebble Mine is not a good thing. It's too

 14 huge.

 15 Thank you.

 16 PAULA WILLIAMS: Hi. My name is

 17 Paula Williams. I have a Ph.D. in complex

 18 systems. I've only had the pleasure of being

 19 in this area once when I was flying to Twin

 20 Lakes.

 21 When I was finishing up my Ph.D.,

 22 which I did in 2009, I did a lot of studying of

 23 mining in Alaska. One thing I'm not really

 24 clear from the report is whether the EPA has

 25 had the advantage of acid rock drainage reports

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 1 out of Pebble Mine. I think that if you're

 2 talking about science those are very clear that

 3 the ores from the samples that they've taken,

 4 the last time I saw those on the State Web site

 5 was in 2008. But the ores are very high in

 6 sulphides and very low in buffering compounds.

 7 They will produce a significant amount of acid

 8 which will then release sulfuric acid which

 9 will then release a lot of chemicals into the

 10 water. So I am hoping that the EPA has in fact

 11 gotten ahold of those studies and taken a look

 12 at that.

 13 I also noted in at least the

 14 executive summary which I admit is the only

 15 thing I've had time to read that there is

 16 comment about the tailings failure being toxic

 17 to invertebrates but that the toxicity to fish

 18 is less clear. I think there are plenty of

 19 studies that show that non-lethal levels of

 20 copper in the waterways do in fact have

 21 significant impacts on fish including their

 22 olfactory abilities, et cetera.

 23 Finally, I think that there have been

 24 a lot of comments tonight about how these --

 25 how people want to be beneficent to the people

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 1 in that area by providing them jobs. And I

 2 think that's a little disingenuous. The vast

 3 majority of the people in that area are saying

 4 that we don't want the mine.

 5 Thank you.

 6 BEN MOHR: I would like to say thank

 7 you for coming out. It is a gorgeous night

 8 outside, and I would much rather be out there

 9 than in here. I'm sure there's a lot of people

 10 that would agree with that. This is a big

 11 deal. It's very important.

 12 Very quickly I would like to say

 13 that, just so it's on the record, I clearly

 14 agree with the State attorney general when he

 15 calls the actions of this agency, especially

 16 when related to the EPA watershed assessment,

 17 obviously that's the action we're talking

 18 about, and also the requests the petitions

 19 you've received for a preemptive 404 issuance

 20 on Pebble. Those actions are arbitrary,

 21 capricious, vague and according to the letter

 22 from the attorney general very likely illegal.

 23 Not a huge fan of the agency putting forth

 24 effort into these activities. I think the

 25 reason for conducting this assessment is it's

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 1 predicated on a bad idea, overreaches the

 2 authority of the EPA.

 3 Substandard to the assessment though

 4 I do want to bring up a couple of things. You

 5 guys mentioned a handful of projects in the

 6 assessment, specifically Groundhog Mountain or

 7 the Groundhog project and Humble prospect.

 8 Humble if I understand correctly had their

 9 first drill hole completed last week. The

 10 folks at Groundhog have only done surface

 11 exploration. I'm sure my friends who work on

 12 those projects and their shareholders would be

 13 really glad to know there's a financially

 14 feasible mine project out there. It would save

 15 them a lot of work. But instead this has just

 16 been invented because there happen to be mine

 17 claims on the land because it's assumed in this

 18 assessment that those claims are going to turn

 19 into projects. But that is more often than not

 20 the case.

 21 So I encourage the EPA to go back and

 22 do a more thorough assessment, give the

 23 residents in the state the time to actually

 24 read and understand the document and compare it

 25 to what they know.

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 1 DAVID FARRING: I read a proverb

 2 yesterday that says, and I'll paraphrase it,

 3 the man who answers a question before he's

 4 heard the question's a fool. And it seems to

 5 me that's a little bit of what the EPA is

 6 doing. There's no proposal but they seem to

 7 give an answer to it. And they're making a

 8 guess at what the proposal's going to be.

 9 Now I don't like the fear factor. I

 10 remember the fear factor that happened when the

 11 oil pipeline was built. The fear was that they

 12 said it'll destroy the caribou herds. The

 13 caribou will never migrate again, it'll destroy

 14 them all. Well, you know, guess what, we built

 15 the pipeline and there's more caribou on the

 16 North Slope than there ever was before.

 17 I understand it's a very, very

 18 fearful thing for the people who depend on the

 19 fishing. And to think that all of a sudden

 20 fishing will be destroyed. But, you know,

 21 that's a ridiculous assumption. No one is

 22 going to allow the fisheries to be destroyed.

 23 No one will allow that kind of project.

 24 What we need to find out is how can

 25 we develop this without destroying the fishery.

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 1 That's the challenge. And if there's --

 2 somebody mentioned a railroad. Well, how did

 3 they mine all that copper in the Copper River

 4 over at Kennecott without destroying the Copper

 5 River? One of the biggest king salmon runs in

 6 the state. One of them at the Copper River.

 7 And huge fish. Well, what happened to that?

 8 Did it destroy the run? I don't think it did.

 9 How did they do that without destroying that

 10 run? A whole huge mountain of copper was mined

 11 there back about the turn of the century.

 12 So I don't think the fear factor

 13 needs to be added in. I think we need facts.

 14 And I just say that it's not all or nothing. I

 15 think we can develop a mine, just how do we do

 16 it and how do we protect the fishery.

 17 Thank you.

 18 MICHAEL JESPERSON: I'm Michael

 19 Jesperson. I'm here today representing myself,

 20 my wife and our three children. I did submit

 21 written comments. I'll try to be brief

 22 tonight.

 23 My children range from three to 16.

 24 My oldest despite being autistic is a

 25 sophomore -- just finished his sophomore year

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 1 and passed the high school graduation exam. He

 2 can't be here tonight because his autism gives

 3 him troubles when he's happy in large groups.

 4 But his two favorite sayings both have three

 5 words. The first one is really, serious and

 6 prove it. The second one is -- now I can't

 7 think of it because I want to say it. It's

 8 you're kidding, right?

 9 And those two things are both

 10 appropriate here. You incorporate into your

 11 report studies without having time to fully vet

 12 them, let alone study them or come to decent

 13 conclusions. You incorporate studies into your

 14 draft proposal without the time to decide why

 15 those studies have the conclusions they were

 16 without the time to check the methodology of

 17 those studies and without the time to verify

 18 the results. How therefore can your study be

 19 scientific or fair?

 20 I don't know if the mine should be

 21 put in or not. Quite frankly, I don't care.

 22 If you want to spend another hundred million

 23 dollars over the next ten years pumping it into

 24 the economy here to decide if they should build

 25 it, great. And then maybe they don't get to

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 1 build it. But in the meantime we get another

 2 hundred million dollars into our economy.

 3 Let's give the process a chance.

 4 Let's use real science instead of relying on

 5 studies that were done for dubious reasons.

 6 Thank you.

 7 DONNE FLEAGLE: My name is Donne

 8 Fleagle. I'm an Alaskan resident and an

 9 employee of a Bristol Bay Alaska Native Village

 10 Corporation subsidiary. My role is to inform

 11 800-plus shareholders in realtime about the EPA

 12 Bristol Bay watershed assessment.

 13 This year's EPA's deadlines and

 14 schedules have been for me inconsistent and

 15 troublesome as I'm trying to keep our

 16 membership informed of EPA's actions,

 17 activities and intentions. The nomination

 18 period for the EPA scientific peer review

 19 committee was extended. The draft assessment

 20 was 18 days late. The job I have been charged

 21 to perform is challenging in a number of ways.

 22 Aside from the transportation and logistical

 23 challenge of meeting with people in the hope of

 24 keeping them informed or up to speed, the

 25 largest challenge comes from the fact that the

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 1 Bristol Bay region is now in a state of

 2 movement. During this time of year the annual

 3 migratory and seasonal pattern has started.

 4 People are preparing for commercial or

 5 subsistence fishing. Bear hunting has started.

 6 Guides are out in the field. School is out.

 7 Fish camps are being occupied. Construction

 8 work is in full swing. Sports fishers are

 9 going. Lodges are open. And many of the

 10 tradesmen are not in their home villages.

 11 Tribes and tribal organizations have a number

 12 of capital improvement projects as well as

 13 program goals to accomplish before the ground

 14 freezes again. Everyone is busy and their

 15 attention and focus is on the work season and

 16 its summer activities.

 17 The designated 60-day comment period

 18 would be ideal if it was in the dead of winter.

 19 THE FACILITATOR: Thank you.

 20 LAURA GORMAN: Hi, my name is Laura

 21 Gorman. I'm not only an Aleknagik Natives

 22 Limited shareholder, I'm a Bristol Bay Native

 23 Corporation shareholder, a former driftnet

 24 commercial fisherman from Bristol Bay and

 25 subsistence in the Bristol Bay region.

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 1 I wanted to give first of all a

 2 special thanks to the Environmental Protection

 3 Agency for being here. This is an assessment;

 4 you have the right to be here. You're doing

 5 your job. You have a job to protect the

 6 environment, the water, the wetlands. These

 7 are precious wetlands; it's the spawning

 8 grounds for salmon. It's a $480 million

 9 industry. These other folks have their own

 10 interests at heart. I have to ask those folks

 11 out there, do you have salmon in your

 12 refrigerator or your freezer? Do you give it

 13 to your family? Do you ship it out? Okay.

 14 I'm sure you do. And not just salmon either,

 15 you got other fish.

 16 Anyhow, I have to -- there's a verse

 17 that I really want to say, a proverb. And it

 18 says, only when the last tree has died and the

 19 last river has been poisoned and the last fish

 20 been caught will we realize that we cannot eat

 21 money. It's a Cree Indian proverb.

 22 The Pebble Mine people will come, and

 23 they'll rape the area; they'll walk out with

 24 dollars in their pockets, smiling. The land

 25 will be butchered. There will be acidic

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 1 fallout, and it will affect the land. That's

 2 where the salmon spawn and come back and have

 3 come back for 4,000 years.

 4 It is a subsistence area. I grew up

 5 in the village. And I can tell you I drank the

 6 water out of the lakes. I packed the water in

 7 a boat in the --

 8 THE FACILITATOR: Thank you.

 9 VAL ANGASAN: Thank you. My name is

 10 Val Angasan and I'm -- the best and the

 11 worst-case scenario instead of July 23rd would

 12 be at least after, you know, hunting season

 13 which would be in October. That would be a

 14 worst case -- best of the worst case. The best

 15 of the best case, you have taken enough

 16 research to tell you that you've already

 17 compromised the process. And your own

 18 scientists are probably tweaked at this point.

 19 So I would highly recommend that you let the 65

 20 permits that are required to be done done. And

 21 then go ahead and implement and override Army

 22 Corps of Engineers as you see fit at that

 23 point.

 24 The other thing that I want to say

 25 that I don't like, feel intimidated living in

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 1 Dillingham, I do. I don't like it when my wife

 2 is intimidated when someone is standing outside

 3 a place where people from Africa were invited

 4 to in good faith, to the extent that her

 5 friends would not come to a meeting in

 6 Dillingham. That doesn't set well with me. It

 7 never did. I don't think you can have a fair

 8 hearing in Dillingham. I think there'll be

 9 enough intimidation over there to include that.

 10 And I'm telling you that I've taken enough

 11 graduate research classes to say that.

 12 Thank you.

 13 BARBARA WINKLEY: My name is Barbara

 14 Winkley, and I'm a 45-year resident of Alaska.

 15 I reside in Anchorage.

 16 This proposed mine and urban dam

 17 would be built and operated in the headwaters

 18 of the Bristol Bay salmon fishery which

 19 encompasses many square miles of rich

 20 sediments, rivers and streams. Jay Hammond

 21 knew the value of the Bristol Bay fishery and

 22 he cared for the people who depended on this

 23 valuable renewable resource. He opposed the

 24 oil lease sales in Bristol Bay and when he

 25 became Governor bought back the oil leases in

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 1 Kachekmak Bay that had been sold by a previous

 2 administration. We have no Jay Hammond now,

 3 only the federal government to slow us down

 4 from our short-sighted greed and long-term

 5 consequences.

 6 A similar mine at Queenstown,

 7 Tasmania went into operation over a hundred

 8 years ago. And the King River, which was

 9 recipient of much of the mine's sludge is only

 10 just now starting to recover.

 11 I come today to voice my opposition

 12 and oppose the permit for the biggest urban dam

 13 in North America and the Pebble Mine. Thanks

 14 to you fellas for holding these hearings.

 15 JIM WHITLOCK: Good evening. I'm Jim

 16 Whitlock, Alaska resident. I'm a professional

 17 mining engineer, have been for 35 years.

 18 Regarding Pebble I can't say I'm in

 19 favor of it or against it at this time because

 20 the mine plan has not been submitted. And so I

 21 would ask the EPA to table their process on the

 22 404(c) to preemptively take this opportunity

 23 away from the mining company to go through the

 24 normal permitting process that has worked well

 25 here in Alaska and to get all the State and

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 1 federal permits.

 2 To answer so many of these questions

 3 that have come up today, we talked about

 4 questions on fugitive dust and it's too much

 5 water hauled out and can't handle the tailings

 6 dam. All that will come out in 60-some permits

 7 that will be addressed over time.

 8 All I can ask is you allow that

 9 process to take place and all that to be

 10 answered in due time. And if that is not

 11 possible you can at least extend the comment

 12 period for another 120 days.

 13 That's all I have. Thank you.

 14 KAREN MATTHIAS: Thank you. My name

 15 is Karen Matthias, and I support responsible

 16 resource development that both protects the

 17 environment and provides jobs and economic

 18 benefit.

 19 One of the things that makes this

 20 country great is respect for due process. It's

 21 a cornerstone of our democracy. Preempting the

 22 existing regulatory laws and policies is

 23 harmful to our country. It sets a dangerous

 24 precedent to prohibit a project before it has

 25 even made a permit application. That precedent

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 1 could be applied to any large project in any

 2 industry. This discourages investment and

 3 economic development which seems like the worst

 4 message we could send at a time of economic

 5 hardship in our nation.

 6 It would be completely irresponsible

 7 to preemptively approve the Pebble Project.

 8 It's equally important that it not be

 9 preemptively vetoed. Our State and federal

 10 regulations set a very high bar. The

 11 multi-year process requires dozens of permits

 12 involving many federal, State and local

 13 agencies. And there are numerous opportunities

 14 for public input. I've heard a lot of concern

 15 about the State process. I think people are

 16 forgetting that it is state, federal and local.

 17 If the process determines that a

 18 project as designed cannot protect the

 19 environment and the other resources then it

 20 does not receive approval to move forward.

 21 That is due process. That is what's fair.

 22 I urge you to first let the Pebble

 23 Project make its application and then evaluate

 24 the project in accordance with the law.

 25 Thank you.

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 1 JOEL STEFANSKI: My name's Joel

 2 Stefanski, and I'm representing myself and my

 3 family. Did a good deed tonight and you showed

 4 me what the federal government's all about.

 5 And you also educated my son who is a

 6 third-year geology student on the public

 7 process and some issues he's going to be

 8 dealing with the next 30 to 40 years hopefully.

 9 Thank you, EPA, for being interested

 10 in the great state of Alaska. Your premature

 11 assessment is terribly flawed. EPA has

 12 fast-tracked their fake science by fear in this

 13 information to Alaskans. EPA says it's done an

 14 assessment in a year and a half, but during

 15 that time there's only been a six-month period

 16 with non-winter so they can do a sound

 17 assessment and come up with good scientific

 18 facts when there's no ice and snow on the land.

 19 It takes the Municipality of

 20 Anchorage six months to approve a house site in

 21 Anchorage. EPA takes -- talks about

 22 hypothetical mining scenarios like -- words

 23 like "likely, could, potential, low probability

 24 of failure."

 25 Questions for EPA are: What are the

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 1 possible effects on Alaska for not developing a

 2 large-scale mineral site?

 3 There's room in Alaska for all, not

 4 just special interest groups. Alaskans have

 5 the will power and technology to develop our

 6 resources in a sound manner. EPA's assessment

 7 is an embarrassment to all Alaskans. I support

 8 an extended public process. This is a State

 9 issue, not a federal issue. If this 404(c)

 10 goes through, it will stop all resource

 11 industries including the fishing in Bristol

 12 Bay. What a failure of the public process.

 13 Nay-sayers said the TransAlaskan

 14 Pipeline couldn't be built and they were so

 15 wrong. I'd like to think that our future here

 16 is bright and there's room for all of us.

 17 MIKE REDMOND: My name is Mike

 18 Redmond. I'm a registered professional

 19 engineer, retired. That's why I can wear a

 20 sweatshirt. My background is structural and

 21 geotechnical engineering. And specifically I'm

 22 going to address -- I'm going to keep my

 23 comments to the science used in the draft

 24 watershed assessment only, and specifically on

 25 section 6.

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 1 My review of section 6, it looks like

 2 the people that wrote it had natural resource

 3 background, were biologists or chemists. And

 4 you need to have engineers be a part of the

 5 assessment team because they need to look at

 6 the structures and all the structural integrity

 7 and all of the engineering aspects that go

 8 along with this assessment.

 9 When Pebble ends up submitting their

 10 request they have one of the most sophisticated

 11 mines that engineering event -- project that's

 12 ever been done. And you need the proper team

 13 on board at the EPA in order to provide a

 14 proper scientific assessment of that.

 15 Thank you.

 16 THE FACILITATOR: Thank you.

 17 (Meeting was concluded at 9:56 p.m.)

 18

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 1 CERTIFICATE

 2 I, KRISTIN L. O'REILLY, Notary Public for

 3 the State of Alaska, and Registered Professional

 4 Reporter, do hereby certify that the foregoing

 5 proceedings were taken before me at the time and

 6 place herein set forth; that the proceedings were

 7 reported stenographically by me and later

 8 transcribed by computer transcription; that the

 9 foregoing is a true record of the proceedings taken

 10 at that time; and that I am not a party to, nor do I

 11 have any interest in, the outcome of the action

 12 herein contained.

 13 IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set

 14 my hand and affixed my seal this 19th day of June,

 15 2012.

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 17

 18

 19 __________________________

 Kristin L. O'Reilly

 20 Notary Public, State of Alaska

 My Commission Expires: 12/18/2014

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 Northern Lights Realtime & Reporting, Inc.

 (907) 337-2221