The office of inspector general (OIG) for the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Wednesday issued its independent report, concluding a 17-month review of the agency’s actions and decision to conduct an assessment of Alaska’s Bristol Bay watershed, clearing the EPA of bias or a pre-determined outcome.
However, OIG noted that an EPA employee might have misused his position by providing, through a personal non-governmental email account, comments on a Clean Water Act Section 404(c) petition drafted by six Alaska Native tribes, before the tribes submitted the petition to the EPA.
