Susan, you know nothing about my portfolio and to presume otherwise makes you foolish. You are so wrong and nieve w/r/t to the federal government and the political games it plays with the general public.
You seem to have difficulty in reading between the lines. You also keep misinterpreting NAK's meaning describing the EPA's actions as being "unprecedented". It's unprecendented because the EPA is not following appropriate regulatory process according to the Clean Water Act ... which is so typical of the Obama "machine politics, thug" way of doing business.
In the end, current EPA officials will fall on their own swords, and ethical business practices will surely be restored following the election. Until then, the EPA will continue to play games ... the Watershed Assessment and Peer Review Panel is purely a political ploy to buy time and keep events (and emotions) from unraveling prior to an election. Like I've said earlier, EPA has enough egg on their faces with the Keystone Pipeline FUBAR.
Pebble needs only to wait it out. And, the best thing locals could do for themselves is to hire a Tailings Management Consultant to serve as their "big gun" representative during mining development plan negotiations.