Long-running environmental disputes in Alaska are like the state’s volcanoes. They can be quiet for years, but rumble to life now and then, venting a little steam here, a little lava there. Only once in a while is there a full-blown eruption.
The E.P.A. has proposed to ban the disposal of mining waste in the Bristol Bay watershed, a decision that very likely means the end of the Pebble Mine project.
The immense project would have been one of the world’s largest gold and copper mines, but regulators found it “contrary to the public interest” due to environmental risks in the pristine Alaskan tundra.
House investigators are seeking records from the developers of the Pebble Mine project and the Army Corps of Engineers, to determine whether the company misrepresented its plans.
In secretly recorded meetings, executives with the Pebble Mine project said the operation could run nine times longer than outlined in their permit filings.
