EPA: Mining poses risks to Bristol Bay salmon

The battle over the proposed Pebble Mine has been waged for years and extended beyond Alaska's borders, with environmental activists like actor Robert Redford opposing development. Multinational jewelers have said they won't use minerals mined from the Alaska prospect, and pension fund managers from California and New York City last year asked London-based Rio Tinto, a shareholder of mine owner Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd., to divest, a request Rio Tinto said it planned to consider.
EPA has said its goal was to get the science right. McLerran said the report doesn't recommend any policy or regulatory decisions and will serve as the scientific foundation for the agency's response to the tribes and others who petitioned EPA in 2010 to use its authority under the Clean Water Act to protect Bristol Bay. He said no timeline for a response had been set.
The report also found that polluted water from the mine site could get into streams through runoff or uncollected leachate, even with the use of modern mining practices. It noted culvert blockages or other failures could impede fish passage and failure of a tailings dam, where mining waste is stored, could be catastrophic though the probability of such a failure was considered quite low.
http://www.turnto10.com/story/24459496/mining-could-devastate-alaskas-bristol-bay-region