Joel Reynolds, Director of NRDC's Urban Program, the Marine Mammal Protection and So. California Ecosystem projects, Santa Monica, CA

If the proposed Pebble Mine has a best friend, it is silence.

That’s why the Pebble Limited Partnership – the consortium of foreign mining giants behind the uniquely destructive mega-mine planned for the Bristol Bay region of southwest Alaska – hates the Watershed Assessment prepared by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and released by the agency in draft for public comment last May.

Yesterday, the public comment period closed, and the numbers thus far are bad news for the mining partnership -- and very good news for everyone else.  Of an estimated 204,000 comments received by EPA so far, 200,000 support EPA’s assessment and urge regulatory action to stop the Pebble Mine.  Only 4,000 comments urge EPA to stay away.  Stated another way, 98% support EPA’s engagement and a mere 2% do not. And this isn’t even the final tally.

That’s as close to a unanimous endorsement as will ever be found in the world of public policy.  And the reason is clear:

As EPA’s scientific review found, the Pebble Mine would devastate the region – its wild salmon ...

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