Mining, clean water, and healthy ecosystems can and do coexist. This is the idea behind corporate social responsibility initiatives in the extractive sector. The mining industry produces waste that has negative impacts on the environment; however, mining companies have and continue to make major changes and investments in research and development in order to modernize past practices. The industry is proactive and demonstrates strong environmental leadership. To maintain licenses to operate, companies must consider and address social issues and environmental concerns throughout the project lifecycle, from design, to closure, and future impacts. Recently, green mining initiative groups (particularly in the United States and Canada) have begun working closely with governments, industry, academia, NGOs and other stakeholders to improve the environmental performance of the mining sector and create opportunities of green technology.Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd is a publicly traded mineral exploration and development company that is part of the Hunter Dickinson Group headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia. Northern Dynasty's sole focus is the advancement of the Pebble Project, the world's largest undeveloped gold and copper project in Alaska. With many more milestones ahead, Northern Dynasty is well positioned with the support of a leading force in the mining sector, associated company Hunter Dickinson. There are eight public companies within the group. CEO Ronald Thiessen describes the group as an “incubator” of mineral resources companies. The group places a project within the company and takes care of it for that company's shareholders until they make the decision to put it into a joint venture... halfway through the document... he "...l The EPA released drafts of the watershed assessment in May 2012 and April 2013, to widespread criticism of the report's flawed methodology and findings, including from the state of Alaska, Alaska Native groups and expert auditors. federal agency-mandated peers” and insists that “EPA (had) repeatedly failed to meet its own guidelines and policies for watershed assessment, risk assessment, and peer review, and violated the US Information Quality Act.” Thiessen also adds that the report does not contain any suggestions or regulatory actions that could influence the future development of the project and looks forward to “… establishing a proposed development plan for Pebble and have it reviewed by federal and state regulatory agencies under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) in the months and years ahead” (Lazenby, 2014).