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Any final action by the federal government blocking large-scale mining in the Bristol Bay region will likely have to wait until the next presidential administration, a top Environmental Protection Agency official said Monday.

Dennis McLerran, administrator for EPA’s Pacific Northwest region, said litigation by the company seeking to build the controversial Pebble Mine has forced a delay in action on the agency’s plan to use a Clean Water Act provision to prevent a big mine from being built in the salmon-rich region.

EPA’s Bristol Bay Watershed Assessment, launched in 2011 in response to concerns in Alaska about Pebble impacts, resulted in a 2014 decision to start a Clean Water Act process precluding development of large-scale metals mining there.

Three lawsuits filed by the Pebble Limited Partnership have prevented EPA from carrying out that administrative action, allowed under Section 404(c) of the Clean Water Act, McLerran said. But the watershed assessment justifies such action, he said.

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