Washington Democratic Sen. Maria Cantwell on Tuesday called for the Justice Department to investigate whether Pebble Mine executives have lied to Congress and in documents submitted to the federal government about their plans for tapping into a massive gold, copper and molybdenum deposit in the Bristol Bay region of southwest Alaska.
The region’s freshwater rivers, streams and lakes support the spawning of the world’s largest sockeye salmon runs, which hundreds of Washington fishermen head north to Alaska each summer to help harvest. And Cantwell, for years, has been a critic of the mine and the risks that its development would pose to the salmon resource.
Cantwell’s request for the Justice Department investigation follows the release earlier in September of secretly recorded conversations of Pebble Mine executives by the Environmental Investigation Agency. These recordings indicate officials are contemplating a larger and longer mining operation than outlined