it's bad for bristol bay. go ahead and light it. >> under a special provision of federal law, several tribal leaders near bristol bay asked the environmental protection agency, to stop pebble mine going forward. saying it's a risk to their life. >> my grandmother taught me to do it. >> this is a tradition. >> it is. >> that goes back how long? >> thousands of years. i can't imagine a day where my kids or my grand kids or my great grand kids can't put up salmon. >> earlier this year, the epa put out this report condemning the mine. arguing that it would have irreversible effects on bristol bay salmon. filing for apermit, something the agency has done only twice in its history. the mining company along with the state of alaska which supports the mine, has sued. saying they acted illegally. >> what if the permit process goes through? >> we'll still fight it. if i'm not here my kids will fight it. >> as strongly as native groups oppose the mine others closer to the mine support it. lisa reimers is a president of a

nearly 2,000 boats fish the nearby waters of bristol bay. you know they are talking about jobs but what happens to the jobs that the fishery industry. you are sighing three or four people on every boat. and they have been doing it for years and the families have been doing it for years and it is a lifeline. >> more has seen the mind when pebble was fist being planted she was part of a tour the company gave local business people. >> set me down and said is the river doesn't flow here, it comes out about two miles down. where the heck do you think the wattser coming from. didn't take me long to say you guys are out of your minds. >> the fishing industry is one of the most powerful groups in alaska. along with it's allies it has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars lobbies against pebble. polls show more than 60% of alaskaians oppose the mine. beyond with the clash, the divide also runs through the native alaska community. each summer, the salmon return to bristol bay. each summer is native alaskaians come to catch them. no, pull it. >> this

environmental groups and fishermen worried about the impacts to the world's largest salmon run in bristol bay fought the bay from the beginning. >> people from alaska asked the epa to come in and take action. we're not getting our concerns heard by the state of alaska. >> reporter: the epa did act using the 1972 clean water act for the first time ever to stop a mine before the owners came out with a detailed plan. >> the intent of the epa is to take on an authority that nowhere has congress given them and be able to go across america and determine where development should occur and where it shouldn't occur before anybody ever files a permit. >> reporter: the epa said it only got involved after alaska natives asked for a veto in 2010. internal e-mail suggests the agency wanted to sabotage the e-mail before then. an e-mail reads we should be the ones to shape the discussion. we will need to do tribal outreach. >> why do we need a federal agency to have this control over private land. they can argue all they want about this. this is a take. >> reporter: pebble partnership along with state of ala

america worth hundreds of billions of dollars and thousands of good paying jobs but it's also in the bristol baynd not on this issue and not at this time, when are they going to use it? there's so much at risk. >> now the government oversight committee and inspector general are looking into whether the epa violated the law by killing the mine before anything was filed. one reads "we should be the ones to shape the discussion. we will need to do tribal outreach. they need to understand the risk." >> allowing a federal agency to have this control over private land, they can argue all they want about this. this is a taky. >> the epa says it did nothing wrong but can't find one of the employees on that e-mail and mysteriously two years worth of his e-mails have vanished. john? >> missing e-mails. where have we heard that before? >> i know. >> dan springer in our northwest newsroom. >> you've been getting my e-mails, right, john? >> i do get yours. >>> an aggressive phone call between comcast and a customer caught on tape but that customer service rep wasn't doing exactly what his bosses wanted. deta