Alaskan Miners Want Answers After EPA Storms Mine

Some miners in Alaska want the feds to start digging for answers. A task force including members of 10 state and federal law enforcement agencies descended on a gold mine in the tiny town of Chicken (pop. 17) last month, in what locals described as a raid. “Imagine coming up to your diggings, only to see agents swarming over it like ants, wearing full body armor, with jackets that say "POLICE" emblazoned on them, and all packing side arms,” gold miner C.R. Hammond told the Alaska Dispatch. “How would you have felt? You would be wondering, ‘My God, what have I done now?” A spokesman for the federal Environmental Protection Agency did not deny that agents wore body armor and carried guns, but said it was not a "raid." "The ongoing investigation conducted by the AK Environmental Crimes Task Force -- consisting of EPA, ADEC, USFWS, ADFG, BLM, Coast Guard, FBI, Alaska State Troopers, NOAA, & US Park Service -- did not result in a raid," the statement read. "The Task Force members involved in the investigation during the week of August 19, 2013, were EPA's Criminal Investigation Division & Bureau of Land Management's Office of Law Enforcement & Security, in cooperation with ADEC's Environmental Crimes Unit." The investigation was into possible violations of the Clean Water Act, according to the EPA. The officers were part of the Alaska Environmental Crimes Task Force and visited the outpost near the Canadian border during the third week of August to investigate water discharges into rivers, streams, lakes and oceans. Late Thursday, Alaska Gov.Sean Parnell announced he had ordered an investigation into the incident, adding, "this level of intrusion and intimidation of Alaskans is absolutely unacceptable." EPA law enforcement officers, according to the statement, are not only authorized but required to carry firearms to safely and effectively perform their jobs. Several local lawmakers, including U.S. Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Mark Begich, have inquired about the incident, but EPA officials have thus far “refused to publicly explain” why it utilized the armed officers during the operation, according to the Alaska Dispatch...more