It was announced on Thursday that Alaska's Governor Sean Parnell has ordered an investigation into the practices of the EPA and DEC after an incident last month in the Forty-mile area near Chicken, Alaska, where armed agents with DEC and EPA moved into the area looking for violations of Section 404 of the Clean Water Act.

According to reports, the DEC and EPA agents moved into the area armed and wearing body armor looking for violations. Miners in the area soon made reports of intimidation and needless show of force.

The governor’s investigation into their practices came shortly after his learning that a state investigator joined the seven officers from EPA and BLM in the operation.

“With a mere last minute notification to our DEC commissioner, Alaska’s attorney general, and the Department of Public Safety, the EPA, BLM and a DEC investigator took it upon themselves to swoop in on unsuspecting miners in remote Alaska,” Governor Parnell said.

The Director of the Criminal Investigation Division of the EPA disputed that they gave Alaska’s DEC Commissioner last minute notification saying that the operation had been planned for months.

The governor continued, stating, “This level of intrusion and intimidation of Alaskans is absolutely unacceptable. I will not tolerate any state agency’s participation in this sort of reckless conduct. There are many unanswered questions and I will seek a special counsel to get to the bottom of this matter and work to ensure it never happens again.”

The Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation admits that a state investigator was present during the operation looking for state violations, but the operation was led by federal officials.

Although no arrests were made or no citations issued, the EPA said that during their inspection of 30 mining operations in the area that they found violations and are continuing to investigate them. The EPA defended their use of body armor and show of weapons based on information that they received from the Alaska State Troopers informing them of rampant human and drug trafficking in the area it is reported.

Representative Doug Isaacson representing North Pole in the State House said he was appalled at the tactics, saying, “Imagine these law-abiding miners, minding their own business, trying to follow the myriad of laws, rules and regulations which the government has put upon them, suddenly have a group of eight agents from the FBI, EPA, BLM, Coast Guard, DOD and our own state DEC show up at their camp with flak jackets adorned with POLICE in big, bold letters as if they were presumed criminals. It would be enough to make anyone nervous.”

The Alaska State Troopers deny that the EPA was advised of any such activity by the troopers and say that the troopers have no evidence of such activity in the area. According to reports, the troopers role in the operation at forty-mile was limited to loaning them a four-wheeler.

Alaska’s Senators Begich and Murkowski have also inquired into the incident and met with EPA to discuss the complaints.

Governor Parnell also called on EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy to review and reevaluate how her agency handles Clean Water Act investigations. He also encouraged her to join the State of Alaska in ensuring the use of needless show of force tactics never happens again in Alaska.