Saturday, January 29, 2011
Water Heroes 2011 - Russ Busch & Harriet Bullitt
In the Pacific Northwest two rivers are coming to life again.
The Elwah River that flows into the Pacific Ocean and Icicle River that flows into the Columbia and on to the Pacific. Both rivers can soon allow the salmon back home after many decades of their return blocked.
Two key water heroes that helped along with many others are featured in this film. Russ Busch and Harriet Bullitt champion the universal spirit of 'Never Give Up' that is allowing these rivers once again to flow free.
http://waterplanet.ws/waterheroesmovie/ for a larger size view of the film.
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
David Rowland Film - Excerpt From The Spokane River History Tour Film - 2010 Part 1
John Osborn gives a brief description of the tragic harms to North Idaho's people and nature from decisions by the new UK Tory Party treasurer, David Rowland, and his Gulf Corporation. For a large size film see:
http://waterplanet.ws/movie/DavidRowland/
For the YouTube version:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTnX35y9CKw
For more articles and information about David Rowland and the Gulf Corporation's decisions see:
David Rowland UK's New Tory Party Treasurer - Links To Articles On Harm To North Idaho People And Nature
www.JohnOsbornMD.com
The full Spokane River History Tour 2010 film is here:
http://waterplanet.ws/movie/SRHTP1/
John Osborn's website is:
www.JohnOsbornMD.com
Facebook
http://www.facebook.com/pages/JohnOsbornMD/128441960530610
Twitter:
http://twitter.com/JohnOsbornMD
http://waterplanet.ws/movie/DavidRowland/
For the YouTube version:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTnX35y9CKw
For more articles and information about David Rowland and the Gulf Corporation's decisions see:
David Rowland UK's New Tory Party Treasurer - Links To Articles On Harm To North Idaho People And Nature
www.JohnOsbornMD.com
The full Spokane River History Tour 2010 film is here:
http://waterplanet.ws/movie/SRHTP1/
John Osborn's website is:
www.JohnOsbornMD.com
http://www.facebook.com/pages/JohnOsbornMD/128441960530610
Twitter:
http://twitter.com/JohnOsbornMD
Movie From Spokane River History Tour - 2010, Part 1
Here is part 1 of the Spokane River History Tour -2010:
http://waterplanet.ws/movie/SRHTP1/
John Osborn introduces the tour, the speakers, the importance of listening to the river and a brief description of the tragic harms to North Idaho's people and nature from decisions by the new UK Tory Party treasurer, David Rowland, and the Gulf Corporation.
For more articles and information about David Rowland and the Gulf Corporations decisions see:
David Rowland UK's New Tory Party Treasurer - Links To Articles On Harm To North Idaho People And Nature
John Osborn's website is:
www.JohnOsbornMD.com
http://waterplanet.ws/movie/SRHTP1/
John Osborn introduces the tour, the speakers, the importance of listening to the river and a brief description of the tragic harms to North Idaho's people and nature from decisions by the new UK Tory Party treasurer, David Rowland, and the Gulf Corporation.
For more articles and information about David Rowland and the Gulf Corporations decisions see:
David Rowland UK's New Tory Party Treasurer - Links To Articles On Harm To North Idaho People And Nature
John Osborn's website is:
www.JohnOsbornMD.com
David Rowland UK's New Tory Party Treasurer - Links To Articles On Harm To North Idaho People And Nature
David Rowland and Gulf Corporation links to articles about the harms their to the people and nature of North Idaho their decisions have caused:
http://johnosbornmd.blogspot.com/search/label/David%20Rowland
http://johnosbornmd.blogspot.com/search/label/David%20Rowland
Monday, July 12, 2010
POISONING CHILDREN
By John Osborn
In 1974 the corporate directors of Gulf Resources and Chemical Company of Houston, Texas faced adecision: Should the company continue operating a damaged Bunker Hill lead smelter in north Idaho?
The dilemma arose because in September, 1973, the lead smelter's primary pollution control device, called the "baghouse,'~ had burned. If Gulf continued operations it would have to vent lead-contaminated smoke directly into the air, poisoning surrounding communities and the vulnerable children who lived there.
But the price for lead was on the rise: Gulf stood to make millions of dollars jfthe company did not shut down the Bunker Hill lead smelter. President Nixon's price controls had just been lifted. Miners' and smelter workers' wages remained low. Lead prices were rocketing.
Early in 1974 when Gulf's directors met, they calculated what the corporate cost for each leaded child would be. They· used detailed information from EI Paso, Texas, where an Asarco Inc. smelter had leaded children, causing health problems ranging from anemia and mental retardation to stomach aches and hyperactivity. Gulf's vice president Frank Woodruff figured the liability: "El Paso-200 children-$S to $10,000 per kid," according to the record. Gulf s directors estimated the liability at "6-7 million" for poisoning the SOO children in Kellogg, Idaho.
Even prior to this, Gulf's directors had known they were putting an Idaho community at risk. In 1972 Gulf asked a Silver Valley physician to check Kellogg children's lead levels: most were elevated. Gulf's response was to begin moving salaried employees out of harm's way. Wage workers, in contrast, were never warned.
The corporate "bottom line" determined the decision of Gulf's directors: Gulf would continue operating the smelter and poison the surrounding communities.
The communities of Kellogg and Smelterville suffered as much lead contamination in the first three months of 1974 as they would have in 20 years of normal smelter operations. Idaho's state government (which had no lead regulations to . enforce) documented lead accumulation in excess of30 tons per square mile over one year's time in Kellogg. But not until Apri I did the state government take effective action to stop the smelter's operation. Gulf repaired the lead smelter's pollution control devices ..
By August the highest levels of lead ever recorded in humans were being recorded in Idaho. A little girl, Arlene Yoss, had blood lead levels of 174 ug/dl (micrograms per deciliter, with 10 ug being the currentthreshold of concern); her sister Edie, 122; and her brother Ray, III. In 1977 the Yosses and another family sued Gulf Resources for $20 million. In 1981 the families settled for $6.5 - $8.8 million, depending on how long the children lived. Later other children joined the original families in seeking damages from Gulf, bringing the total estimated cost of the settlement to about $30 million. The court records were then se~led from the public - later to be opened in 1990 by Judge Ryan.
In 1981 Gulfclosed the Bunker Hill smelter, Idaho's largest employer, putting nearly 2,200 employees out of work and devastating the local economy. Gulf earned more than $88 million in tax credits through the 1981 tax reform.
In 1982 Gulfsold the Bunker Hill properties for $9.8 million to Bunker Limited Partnership of Jack Kendrick, J.R. Simplot, Harry Magnuson, and Duane Hagadone. Bunker LTD dismantled and sold parts of the Bunker Hill complex: in 1987 more than 4 miles of lead-contaminated railroad ties and rails were removed. What Bunker LTD did with the salvaged materials is unknown, but it was speculated that railroad ties were sold to unsuspecting families in nearby Spokane for landscaping.
Bunker Limited Partnership had help from Idaho's political establishment. James McClure, former U.S. Senator and current lobbyist in Washington, D.C., for mining companies, helped secure the appointment of Robie Russell as EPA's regional administrator in 1986 and 1989. With Russell at EPA, Bunker LTD transferred assets elsewhere to avoid liability. Russell thwarted his EPA staff. The EPA staff then secrctly contacted the A TSDR (Agency for Toxic Substances and Diseasc Registry).' ATSDR took the steps to protect human hcalth. Russell's actions were documented in a 1990 report by EPA's inspector general. Immediately prior to the report's release Russell abruptly resigned.
Bunker LTD was not alone in trying to dodge cleanup costs.
Gulf also worked to transfer assets. In 1989 Gulf's move to Bermuda was blockcd by EPA and the Dept. of Justice (DOJ). EPA and DOJ failed, however, to block subsequent Gulf efforts at transferring assets out of the United States. Gulf corporate officials, led by David Rowland and Graham F. Laccy, were later accused of systematically looting $ I 75 million between 1989 and 1992. Gulfleft behind enormous debts to pensioners in Idaho and Washington, debts for the cleanup, and debts to bondholders. As a result of bankruptcy proceedings ending in 1994, pensioners lost25 percent of their medical benefits. Most of Gulf's cleanup costs, estimated at $1 00 million, will now fall to taxpayers in Idaho and nationally.
The cleanup is underway. In 1982 EPA created the nation's second largest Superfund site, a "box" covering 21 square miles and 7 river miles - a small fraction of the contaminated Spokane-Coeurd' Alene watershed. In 1985 Superfund cleanup projects began and continue today. In 1991, in part because of the failure to clean up the larger Spokane-Coeur d'Alene watershed outside the "box," the Coeur d' Alene Tribe sued 8 mining companies, Union Pacific Railroad, and the State of Idaho.
There is good news: The children's blood lead levels have dropped dramatically since 1974 due largely to closing the smelter, removing soil from yards, and teaching parents how to limit exposure. In 1994 blood lead levels sampled inside the Superfund "box" were the lowest since testing began in 1974. Still, 17 percent of the 416 children tested had levels above 10 ug/dl. The figure is up compared with data from 1993 when 14.8 percent of those tested were above the 10 ug mark. Outside the Superfund "box," data on children's lead levels are unavailable.
Resource extraction is giving way to tourism in Idaho's Silver Valley. Some of America's richest and most dramatic mining, forest, and railroad history occurred in Idaho's Silver Valley, and this potentially lucrative history is now "mined" by a growing recreation trade. Towering above the Bunker Hill complex is Silver Mountain where skiers now ride a state-ofthe-art gondola (funded in part by local taxpayers and by McClure's $6.4 million addition to the Forest Service 1987 appropriations bill).
And what of the future of the cleanup effort in one of the world's most contaminated watersheds? For a society more comfortable with "quiCk fixes," the long-term commitment needed to restore the Spokane-Coeur d' Alene watershed is a challenge. Yet failure to clean up will continue to result in significant impacts on the health of humans, wildlife and fish, and the region's economy.
Recognizing this, the state of Idaho under recently-rctired Cecil Andrus worked with the Coeur d' Alene Indian Tribe to develop a proposal that combined (I) funding with (2) an institutional framework for the long-tcrm cleanup. Both former Speaker Tom Foley and Rep. Larry LaRocco committed themselves publicly to cleaning up the watershed.
Today Andrus, Foley, and LaRocco are gone from political power. But the heavy metal problems remain - compounded in the Spokane-Coeurd' Alene watcrshed by massive ovcrcutting of forests. Elections in 1994 may have changed political decision-makcrs, but they did not erase the huge environmcntal deficits that have been accumulating here during the past century. Political leadership and courage is needed now more than ever.
November/December 1994 TRANSITIONS 3
In 1974 the corporate directors of Gulf Resources and Chemical Company of Houston, Texas faced adecision: Should the company continue operating a damaged Bunker Hill lead smelter in north Idaho?
The dilemma arose because in September, 1973, the lead smelter's primary pollution control device, called the "baghouse,'~ had burned. If Gulf continued operations it would have to vent lead-contaminated smoke directly into the air, poisoning surrounding communities and the vulnerable children who lived there.
But the price for lead was on the rise: Gulf stood to make millions of dollars jfthe company did not shut down the Bunker Hill lead smelter. President Nixon's price controls had just been lifted. Miners' and smelter workers' wages remained low. Lead prices were rocketing.
Early in 1974 when Gulf's directors met, they calculated what the corporate cost for each leaded child would be. They· used detailed information from EI Paso, Texas, where an Asarco Inc. smelter had leaded children, causing health problems ranging from anemia and mental retardation to stomach aches and hyperactivity. Gulf's vice president Frank Woodruff figured the liability: "El Paso-200 children-$S to $10,000 per kid," according to the record. Gulf s directors estimated the liability at "6-7 million" for poisoning the SOO children in Kellogg, Idaho.
Even prior to this, Gulf's directors had known they were putting an Idaho community at risk. In 1972 Gulf asked a Silver Valley physician to check Kellogg children's lead levels: most were elevated. Gulf's response was to begin moving salaried employees out of harm's way. Wage workers, in contrast, were never warned.
The corporate "bottom line" determined the decision of Gulf's directors: Gulf would continue operating the smelter and poison the surrounding communities.
The communities of Kellogg and Smelterville suffered as much lead contamination in the first three months of 1974 as they would have in 20 years of normal smelter operations. Idaho's state government (which had no lead regulations to . enforce) documented lead accumulation in excess of30 tons per square mile over one year's time in Kellogg. But not until Apri I did the state government take effective action to stop the smelter's operation. Gulf repaired the lead smelter's pollution control devices ..
By August the highest levels of lead ever recorded in humans were being recorded in Idaho. A little girl, Arlene Yoss, had blood lead levels of 174 ug/dl (micrograms per deciliter, with 10 ug being the currentthreshold of concern); her sister Edie, 122; and her brother Ray, III. In 1977 the Yosses and another family sued Gulf Resources for $20 million. In 1981 the families settled for $6.5 - $8.8 million, depending on how long the children lived. Later other children joined the original families in seeking damages from Gulf, bringing the total estimated cost of the settlement to about $30 million. The court records were then se~led from the public - later to be opened in 1990 by Judge Ryan.
In 1981 Gulfclosed the Bunker Hill smelter, Idaho's largest employer, putting nearly 2,200 employees out of work and devastating the local economy. Gulf earned more than $88 million in tax credits through the 1981 tax reform.
In 1982 Gulfsold the Bunker Hill properties for $9.8 million to Bunker Limited Partnership of Jack Kendrick, J.R. Simplot, Harry Magnuson, and Duane Hagadone. Bunker LTD dismantled and sold parts of the Bunker Hill complex: in 1987 more than 4 miles of lead-contaminated railroad ties and rails were removed. What Bunker LTD did with the salvaged materials is unknown, but it was speculated that railroad ties were sold to unsuspecting families in nearby Spokane for landscaping.
Bunker Limited Partnership had help from Idaho's political establishment. James McClure, former U.S. Senator and current lobbyist in Washington, D.C., for mining companies, helped secure the appointment of Robie Russell as EPA's regional administrator in 1986 and 1989. With Russell at EPA, Bunker LTD transferred assets elsewhere to avoid liability. Russell thwarted his EPA staff. The EPA staff then secrctly contacted the A TSDR (Agency for Toxic Substances and Diseasc Registry).' ATSDR took the steps to protect human hcalth. Russell's actions were documented in a 1990 report by EPA's inspector general. Immediately prior to the report's release Russell abruptly resigned.
Bunker LTD was not alone in trying to dodge cleanup costs.
Gulf also worked to transfer assets. In 1989 Gulf's move to Bermuda was blockcd by EPA and the Dept. of Justice (DOJ). EPA and DOJ failed, however, to block subsequent Gulf efforts at transferring assets out of the United States. Gulf corporate officials, led by David Rowland and Graham F. Laccy, were later accused of systematically looting $ I 75 million between 1989 and 1992. Gulfleft behind enormous debts to pensioners in Idaho and Washington, debts for the cleanup, and debts to bondholders. As a result of bankruptcy proceedings ending in 1994, pensioners lost25 percent of their medical benefits. Most of Gulf's cleanup costs, estimated at $1 00 million, will now fall to taxpayers in Idaho and nationally.
The cleanup is underway. In 1982 EPA created the nation's second largest Superfund site, a "box" covering 21 square miles and 7 river miles - a small fraction of the contaminated Spokane-Coeurd' Alene watershed. In 1985 Superfund cleanup projects began and continue today. In 1991, in part because of the failure to clean up the larger Spokane-Coeur d'Alene watershed outside the "box," the Coeur d' Alene Tribe sued 8 mining companies, Union Pacific Railroad, and the State of Idaho.
There is good news: The children's blood lead levels have dropped dramatically since 1974 due largely to closing the smelter, removing soil from yards, and teaching parents how to limit exposure. In 1994 blood lead levels sampled inside the Superfund "box" were the lowest since testing began in 1974. Still, 17 percent of the 416 children tested had levels above 10 ug/dl. The figure is up compared with data from 1993 when 14.8 percent of those tested were above the 10 ug mark. Outside the Superfund "box," data on children's lead levels are unavailable.
Resource extraction is giving way to tourism in Idaho's Silver Valley. Some of America's richest and most dramatic mining, forest, and railroad history occurred in Idaho's Silver Valley, and this potentially lucrative history is now "mined" by a growing recreation trade. Towering above the Bunker Hill complex is Silver Mountain where skiers now ride a state-ofthe-art gondola (funded in part by local taxpayers and by McClure's $6.4 million addition to the Forest Service 1987 appropriations bill).
And what of the future of the cleanup effort in one of the world's most contaminated watersheds? For a society more comfortable with "quiCk fixes," the long-term commitment needed to restore the Spokane-Coeur d' Alene watershed is a challenge. Yet failure to clean up will continue to result in significant impacts on the health of humans, wildlife and fish, and the region's economy.
Recognizing this, the state of Idaho under recently-rctired Cecil Andrus worked with the Coeur d' Alene Indian Tribe to develop a proposal that combined (I) funding with (2) an institutional framework for the long-tcrm cleanup. Both former Speaker Tom Foley and Rep. Larry LaRocco committed themselves publicly to cleaning up the watershed.
Today Andrus, Foley, and LaRocco are gone from political power. But the heavy metal problems remain - compounded in the Spokane-Coeurd' Alene watcrshed by massive ovcrcutting of forests. Elections in 1994 may have changed political decision-makcrs, but they did not erase the huge environmcntal deficits that have been accumulating here during the past century. Political leadership and courage is needed now more than ever.
November/December 1994 TRANSITIONS 3
Transitions Article Index - In Original Publication Date Order
| Title | Publication | Date | Author | Trns. Issue | Page |
| What else lies buried in Bunker Hill's mess? | Lewiston Morning Tribune | 2/28/90 | Editorial | Nov-94 | 73 |
| Cleaning up or clearing out? | Spokesman-Review | 8/19/90 | Editorial | Nov-94 | 56 |
| Bunker files for bankruptcy, lays off 60 | Spokesman-Review | 1/19/91 | Steve Massey | Nov-94 | 61 |
| Ex-Gulf executives accused of | Spokesman-Review | 1/29/91 | Steve Massey | Nov-94 | 62 |
| looting | |||||
| Andrus fears company will dodge cleanup bill | Spokesman-Review | 12/27/91 | Steve Massey | Nov-94 | 57 |
| Head of Gulf USA ousted to prevent bankruptcy filing | Spokesman-Review | 7/23/93 | Steve Massey | Nov-94 | 66 |
| Gulf USA traces funds to Swiss bank | Spokesman-Review | 1/1/94 | Steve Massey | Nov-94 | 59 |
| The miners pay while smelter owners skate | Lewiston Morning Tribune | 1/9/94 | Editorial | Nov-94 | 69 |
| Gulf USA investigation justified, long overdue | Spokesman-Review | 2/2/94 | Editorial | Nov-94 | 70 |
| Wallets out, suckers: | Lewiston Tribune | 2/8/94 | Editorial | Nov-94 | 71 |
| Bunker Hill bill is due | |||||
| Gulf insurers balk at paying claims | Spokesman-Review | 4/1/94 | Steve Massey | Nov-94 | 68 |
| Gulf hit with two claims exceeding $1 billion | Spokesman-Review | 4/12/94 | Steve Massey | May-94 | 45 |
| Gulf settlement proposal may not help basin | Spokesman-Review | 4/19/94 | Steve Massey | Nov-94 | 68 |
| Gulf, Hagadone settle legal dispute | Spokesman-Review | 4/24/94 | Steve Massey | Nov-94 | 64 |
| Gulf deal leaves little for Bunker Hill waste cleanup | Spokesman-Review | 8/13/94 | Steve Massey | Nov-94 | 67 |
| Bunker Hill's fleecing of Idaho isn't over yet | Lewiston Morning Tribune | 10/25/94 | Editorial | Nov-94 | 58 |
| POISONING CHILDREN | Transitions | 11/1/94 | John Osborn | Nov-94 | 2 |
| CEO says Gulf officials plotting rip-off | Spokesman-Review | 11/11/94 | Steve Massey | Nov-94 | 63 |
| Blowing the stacks, and bad memories, at the Bunker Hill | Lewiston Tribune | 5/26/96 | Jim Fisher | Nov-94 | 21 |
Blowing the stacks, and bad memories, at the Bunker Hill
By Jim Fisher
One day late in J 98 J, the last president of The Bunker Hill Co. held a rare news conference at company headquarters in Kellogg to discuss Bunker Hill's selllement of a lead-poisoning lawsuit against it and the pending shutdown of its mine and smelting complex. One of the least significant questions asked of Jack Kendrick Was what would become of the huge smokestacks that had distributed smelter pollution Over a wider area since they were erected only four years earlier.
They would probably have to come down, Kendrick said.
And when they did, he added, that Would be the end of "monuments to environmental insanity."
Today, the stacks-monuments to a different kind of environmental insanity than Kendrick meant-become history.
I don't know how many people I will rub shoulders with to watch the most dramatic step in the current Superfund cleanup of the Bunker Hill site, but I know enough about Shoshone County to be certain it will be more than a few. People there don't need much excuse for a party, and the "Blowing Our Stacks" bash they have planned for today should be a doozy.
But for most, I suspect, it will be a billersweet affair.
By now, nearly everyone is eager to be rid of Bunker Hill's contaminated legacy, and probably any other reminders of how a distant corporation can plunder and abandon a community by remote control. But included among the crowd will be many people who spent their working lives at the mine, the lead smelter or the zinc plant. And when the stacks disappear into dust, part of them will too.
Although Bunker Hill provided the life blood for the company town from the legendary discovery of the mine by Noah Kellogg's jackass, the company's latesl years were hardly covered wilh glory. Taken over by lhe HOUslon wheeler-dealers al Gulf Resources and Chemical Corp., "Uncle Bunker" became the kind of outfit that would deliberalely poison its workers and neighbors rather than shul down afler ils Pollulion-collecting baghouse burned in late 1973. And Wilh the kind of managemenllhat Would build lall slacks lo spread lOxic chemicals like lead Over a wider area rather than cOOlain lhem in 1977.
The slacks lhal come down today should never have been built. Dilulion is not lhe SolUlion to pollution. And under normal procedures, and environmental regulations, they never Would have been built.
BUl former Idaho Sen. James McClure saw to it that they were built anyway, under extraordinary procedures. McClure attached to federal legislalion a special dispensation for the Bunker Hill smelter, allowing illo shoot ils pollutants up huge stacks rather than to remove them from its discharges.
McClure might have honestly thoughl at the time he was ensuring the smelter's future, but he was really sealing its doom. Bunker Hill was enabled to avoid installing lhe costly pollution-control equipment that Asarco added atlhe time to ils smelleral Easl Helena, Mont. BUllhal only boughllime for Gulf Resources to take what bOOlY it could get from lhe smelter during lhe nexl few years and lhen abandon it. Meanwhile, Easl Helena kept operating, as il does today.
This is a more complele version of lhe Bunker Hill story 'lhan I was familiar wilh when I moved away from the Silver Valley in 1982. As editorofthe Kellogg Evening News, I knew the aflernoon lhe Bunker Hill ShUldown was announced lhal my OWn days in lhe area were numbered. BUl I did not know how cynically the people of Kellogg had been treated by the likes of Robert H. Allen, CEO of Gulf Re1!ources and Mexican money launderer for lhe J 972 Richard Nixon re-election campaign.
Only later Would dOcumeOls from the lead-poisoning lawSUil be released, revealing how Gulf Resources direclors had coldly balanced lhe cost of paying for poisoning children againsl the cost of ShUlling down their Kel/ogg smelter. before
deciding to keep it running Wilhout a baghouse.
"EI Paso-200 children_$5 to $10,000 per kid," Vice President Frank Woodruff jOlled down al lhe time. And he followed thal Wilh a calculation that liabilily for poisoning 500 Kel/ogg children could lOlal $6 million lo $7 million.
The calculations were based on a 1970 lead"poisoning incidenl at an Asarco lead smelter in EI Paso, Texas.
Allhough $6 million lo $7 million mighl Sound like a huge liability for a business lo take On VolUOlarily, lead prices were soaring at the time, and Bunker Hill's profits for the following year reached $25.9 million.
The lallesl of lhe four stacks that demolition experts will bring down at Kellogg today is the tallest one ever felled on lhis cOOlineOl, 7 J 5 feet high. That's a big monument, aIl right-a monument lo moral depravity as weIl as to environmental insanity.
Jim Fisher is a Tribune columnist and editorial writer.
Lewiston Tribune May 26, 1996
September - October 1996 TRANSITIONS 21
One day late in J 98 J, the last president of The Bunker Hill Co. held a rare news conference at company headquarters in Kellogg to discuss Bunker Hill's selllement of a lead-poisoning lawsuit against it and the pending shutdown of its mine and smelting complex. One of the least significant questions asked of Jack Kendrick Was what would become of the huge smokestacks that had distributed smelter pollution Over a wider area since they were erected only four years earlier.
They would probably have to come down, Kendrick said.
And when they did, he added, that Would be the end of "monuments to environmental insanity."
Today, the stacks-monuments to a different kind of environmental insanity than Kendrick meant-become history.
I don't know how many people I will rub shoulders with to watch the most dramatic step in the current Superfund cleanup of the Bunker Hill site, but I know enough about Shoshone County to be certain it will be more than a few. People there don't need much excuse for a party, and the "Blowing Our Stacks" bash they have planned for today should be a doozy.
But for most, I suspect, it will be a billersweet affair.
By now, nearly everyone is eager to be rid of Bunker Hill's contaminated legacy, and probably any other reminders of how a distant corporation can plunder and abandon a community by remote control. But included among the crowd will be many people who spent their working lives at the mine, the lead smelter or the zinc plant. And when the stacks disappear into dust, part of them will too.
Although Bunker Hill provided the life blood for the company town from the legendary discovery of the mine by Noah Kellogg's jackass, the company's latesl years were hardly covered wilh glory. Taken over by lhe HOUslon wheeler-dealers al Gulf Resources and Chemical Corp., "Uncle Bunker" became the kind of outfit that would deliberalely poison its workers and neighbors rather than shul down afler ils Pollulion-collecting baghouse burned in late 1973. And Wilh the kind of managemenllhat Would build lall slacks lo spread lOxic chemicals like lead Over a wider area rather than cOOlain lhem in 1977.
The slacks lhal come down today should never have been built. Dilulion is not lhe SolUlion to pollution. And under normal procedures, and environmental regulations, they never Would have been built.
BUl former Idaho Sen. James McClure saw to it that they were built anyway, under extraordinary procedures. McClure attached to federal legislalion a special dispensation for the Bunker Hill smelter, allowing illo shoot ils pollutants up huge stacks rather than to remove them from its discharges.
McClure might have honestly thoughl at the time he was ensuring the smelter's future, but he was really sealing its doom. Bunker Hill was enabled to avoid installing lhe costly pollution-control equipment that Asarco added atlhe time to ils smelleral Easl Helena, Mont. BUllhal only boughllime for Gulf Resources to take what bOOlY it could get from lhe smelter during lhe nexl few years and lhen abandon it. Meanwhile, Easl Helena kept operating, as il does today.
This is a more complele version of lhe Bunker Hill story 'lhan I was familiar wilh when I moved away from the Silver Valley in 1982. As editorofthe Kellogg Evening News, I knew the aflernoon lhe Bunker Hill ShUldown was announced lhal my OWn days in lhe area were numbered. BUl I did not know how cynically the people of Kellogg had been treated by the likes of Robert H. Allen, CEO of Gulf Re1!ources and Mexican money launderer for lhe J 972 Richard Nixon re-election campaign.
Only later Would dOcumeOls from the lead-poisoning lawSUil be released, revealing how Gulf Resources direclors had coldly balanced lhe cost of paying for poisoning children againsl the cost of ShUlling down their Kel/ogg smelter. before
deciding to keep it running Wilhout a baghouse.
"EI Paso-200 children_$5 to $10,000 per kid," Vice President Frank Woodruff jOlled down al lhe time. And he followed thal Wilh a calculation that liabilily for poisoning 500 Kel/ogg children could lOlal $6 million lo $7 million.
The calculations were based on a 1970 lead"poisoning incidenl at an Asarco lead smelter in EI Paso, Texas.
Allhough $6 million lo $7 million mighl Sound like a huge liability for a business lo take On VolUOlarily, lead prices were soaring at the time, and Bunker Hill's profits for the following year reached $25.9 million.
The lallesl of lhe four stacks that demolition experts will bring down at Kellogg today is the tallest one ever felled on lhis cOOlineOl, 7 J 5 feet high. That's a big monument, aIl right-a monument lo moral depravity as weIl as to environmental insanity.
Jim Fisher is a Tribune columnist and editorial writer.
Lewiston Tribune May 26, 1996
September - October 1996 TRANSITIONS 21
Sunday, July 11, 2010
Transitions Articles On UK's New Tory Party Treasurer - Who's Global Corporation Brought Harm To Idaho's Silver Valley
The following articles were sent to London's Daily Mail newspaper for the following article that was just published in London.
Articles soon to come:
Download a pdf of the articles.This is a Preliminary Draft that needs to be compared to the original articles.
Download a pdf of the scanned original articles.
Articles soon to come:
Download a pdf of the articles.This is a Preliminary Draft that needs to be compared to the original articles.
Download a pdf of the scanned original articles.
David Rowland, UK's New Tory Party Treasurer - Brough Harm To North Idaho
(Preliminary Draft ONLY)
The following article by London's Daily Mail newspaper is based on the information I sent them. The Daily Mail neglected to include the full context of the corporate decision and the health consequences of heavy metals that I sent them. David Rowland's global corporation - Gulf - based their decision on the possible costs of harming the children in particular and people and nature of the Silver Valley in general.
By Andrew Pierce
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1293533/Revealed-The-dirty-past-tax-exile-whos-new-Tory-Treasurer.html#
Last updated at 1:41 AM on 10th July 2010
Every spring, thousands of beautiful swans fly to the spectacular Coeur d'Alene River in Idaho in their annual migration.
In the wetlands of the lower river, they feast on its verdant plants. Their arrival in this sacred Native American homeland is one of the marvels of nature and draws ornithologists from all over the world.
But some of these birds never make it out of the marshes again because their feeding grounds have been poisoned by pollution from a huge lead smelting plant.
Observers report the pitiful sight of poisoned birds gasping for breath and too weak to take flight.
At least 150 carcasses are found in the wetlands each year. And it is not only animals that are paying a heavy price for the fallout from the industry which has blighted this rural location.
Local children have also suffered acute respiratory health problems as a result of what is now regarded as one of the worst industrial pollution scandals in America.
Ask people who they blame for the problem, and you will be pointed to one man. David Rowland is not well-known, but he is the man David Cameron appointed this month as Tory Party Treasurer.
He takes up the post in October.
Though he was not involved with the company at the time the pollution occurred, residents in Idaho claim that after Rowland bought the firm which owned the smelting plant, he deprived the environmental clean-up operation in their area of vital funds, and thereby prolonged the suffering of their community.
Indeed, Rowland has been accused of 'looting' tens of millions of dollars that should have been destined for the clean-up operation by diverting funds into a property deal in New Zealand.
The pollution was caused by a smelting factory at Bunker Hill which for six decades spewed contaminated smoke into the air, poisoning surrounding communities, and causing serious damage to the health of hundreds of children.
Eventually the smelter was closed down, and it was eight years later that David Rowland acquired Gulf Resources (the firm which owned the plant) and subsequently became president and chief executive.
At that point, he became responsible for the massive clean-up operation ordered by the American authorities, and expected to cost $100 million.
Despite this, in the years that followed Rowland was accused of transferring the company's assets overseas and depriving former employees of their rightful pension and health insurance entitlements, of which more later.
So what else do we know about this remarkably secretive man - who has rarely been photographed in public since the Seventies?
Now 65 and worth £730 million, Rowland is the son of a scrap metal merchant, and left the comprehensive Glastonbury School in Morden, South London, without even sitting a single O-level.
After started his working life as an office boy, he bought his first house when he was 18, sold it, bought another one, sold that and formed his own property company.
Increasingly flexing his commercial muscles, after a series of audacious takeovers of rival firms - a tactic which would become the hallmark of his business methods - he'd made his first million by the time he was 23.
He floated his company, Fordham, on the Stock Exchange a year later. The precocious entrepreneur was dubbed 'Spotty' - because of his relative youth and lingering acne - and the nickname has stuck.
The joke among his rivals is that as a result of his aggressive corporate raids, Mr Rowland single-handedly caused more City takeover rules to be tightened than any other figure in the 1970s and 1980s.
His UK interests were first controlled by companies in the Bahamas and Panama before they were transferred under the aegis of family trusts in the tax haven of Guernsey, where Rowland has a mansion. (Intriguingly, a more recent picture shows him and his wife laughing with a tuxedo-wearing Prince Andrew as they mark the private unveiling of a life-sized statue of Rowland on the island.)
Documents registered at Companies House state his business was controlled via a discretionary family trust, of which he was described as 'a discretionary object' - meaning he's a beneficiary of the money in the trust.
Having made his first fortune from the Seventies property boom, he became a virtual recluse. He left Britain for life as a tax exile in the Channel Islands early 1970s.
But his business activities would keep him in the headlines.
He was one of the first financiers to spot the potential money-making value of top soccer clubs, and was the secret figure behind the £800,000 takeover of Hibernian football club in Scotland in 1987 which later went into receivership.
In addition, he used one of his trusts to buy the upmarket estate agents Chesterton, which later also went into receivership after 200 years of trading.
Other recent business interests have included the acquisition in 2008 by a small Rowland hedge fund, Blackfish Capital, of the Luxembourg operations of the collapsed Icelandic bank Kaupthing.
It has now been renamed Banque Havilland after his mansion in Guernsey.
But it was last year that Mr Rowland, a regular name in the financial pages of British newspapers, raised eyebrows at Westminster and in the City when he announced he was returning to live in Britain in order that he could begin donating money to the Tory Party (foreign donations are not allowed under Parlimentary rules).
Since he returned and took up residence in a house in Mayfair, Central London, he has given £2.7 million in just 12 months, making him the party's most generous benefactor.
Now, such munificence has been rewarded in spectacular fashion with his appointment as Tory party Treasurer.
So how will the party - and its other principal donors - not to mention the Opposition react?
Many fear that after the controversy over another Tory Treasurer, Lord Ashcroft, David Cameron has created a huge hostage to fortune.
Labour attack dogs are now rubbing their hands with glee at the prospect of going after the new Tory Treasurer.
'David Rowland makes Lord Ashcroft seem like a nun,' said one senior Tory source last night. The question, of course, is how much Mr Rowland's friends and enemies know about his role in the environmental disaster at Coeur d'Alene.
In 1977 - well before Rowland became involved, it should be stressed - nine children successfully sued for $20 million for health problems due to lead poisoning.
Mr Rowland found himself embroiled in the dispute in February 1989 when his UK property company Inoco, which was controlled by a family trust, bought Gulf Resources which took over ownership of the smelter plant.
He immediately sparked huge political opposition when he attempted to move ownership of some of the company's assets to the tax haven of Bermuda - which would have prevented them being used to finance the environmental clean-up.
The move was blocked by the U.S. Justice Department.
Mr Rowland then, through Gulf, sunk $120 million in a property deal in New Zealand, thus putting those funds beyond the reach of the U.S. authorities.
Gulf also attempted a hostile takeover of an Australian mining company which would have taken even more money away from the clean-up.
At the time these considerable investments were being undertaken, tests had shown that children were still being contaminated by lead deposits that had leached into the soil in Idaho. Lead ingestion can cause nerve, brain and kidney damage and can impair foetal development in pregnant women.
In October 1990, Mr Rowland sent a letter to 5,000 residents in an area that stretched for 21 miles across the Coeur d'Alene Mountains.
'It is not now nor has it ever been the intent of Gulf to sidestep any responsibilities,' he wrote. 'We continue to pay our share while others have failed to pay their share.'
Not everyone agreed.
Cecil Andrus, the Idaho Governor, wrote to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency which was spearheading the clean-up: 'I have grave concerns over Gulf transferring its assets to avoid paying its share of the clean-up for this environmental degradation.'
Within a year of Mr Rowland's pledge about not shirking his financial responsibilities, he sold his interests in Gulf.
In the end, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency picked up the majority of the bill for the clean-up.
Ray Givens, the Idaho lawyer who successfully sued Gulf on behalf of those nine children in 1977, and later won a $20 million settlement for the Coeur d'Alene Indian tribe, told me last night: 'While running Gulf Resources, this man [Rowland], in a cold, calculated way, pocketed over $100 million.
'The money should have gone to the pensions of the workers who built the company with their sweat at a cost to their health, and to clean up the environmental wasteland the company had created with its mine wastes.
We have a saying: "The leopard changes colour with the seasons, but not his spots."
'It is sad that this man has been given a position of responsibility by the new British Government.'
Further allegations - described as unsubstantiated and false by Mr Rowland's spokesman - were made in the U.S. Court of Appeal in September 1997.
In an action launched by lawyers who cited a series of allegations by retired Gulf employees, Mr Rowland was accused of raiding company assets which should have been used for the clean-up operation.
Claim documents stated: 'In their complaint, the Trustees allege that the Rowland Directors and Inoco [his main company] after taking control of Gulf, engaged in a course of conduct designed to loot and waste the assets of the company.
'They allege that the defendants entered into a series of transactions by which they transferred Gulf's assets into their control.
'When creditors became concerned over Gulf's ability to meet its obligations, Rowland sent a letter to former employees of Bunker Hill in Idaho, assuring them Gulf would meet its obligations for employee benefits and environmental clean-up, assurances alleged to be false and fraudulent.
In 1991, the Rowland Directors sold Inoco and their shares in Gulf.' Dr Katherine Aiken, the Dean of the College of Letters, Arts & Social Sciences in Idaho, who has written a series of books on the pollution of the river and the ensuing health problems, says: 'Many of the pensioners who used to work for the smelter have serious long-term health problems.
'When Mr Rowland left Gulf Resources, the money was gone, which is why so many people went to court to try to get some back.
'People in local bars curse when David Rowland's name is mentioned. Gulf Resources was the villain here.'
So what does the next Tory Party Treasurer have to say in response to the quiet fury which still simmers in the area he promised to help?
Mr Rowland, who is married to Sheila who he met when he was 21, and has five children, declined to speak to the Mail.
But in a statement, he made clear that the 1997 claim was concluded without him having to pay any money.
A spokesman for Mr Rowland issued a statement which said: 'Unsubstantiated and false allegations were made in pleadings in a contingency lawsuit in the U.S. [in 1997]. There were multiple defendants in the case - we believe 23 in all - and it is customary in such American cases for extreme claims to be made.
'No evidence was submitted in support of these false claims. The case was settled with no payment being made by David Rowland nor by any company connected with him nor by any other associates of his.'
In a rare public comment last year, Mr Rowland explained why he was now giving money to the Tories for the first time: 'I made the donation as a result of my passionate concern for liberty and the economic future of Britain. We need fresh ideas, national renewal and above all a Government that sets the people free.'
A Conservative Party spokesman confirmed that Mr Rowland is now domiciled in the UK for tax and electoral purposes.
'He has moved back to Britain, he is on the electoral register, and is domiciled in the UK for tax.'
He has a company in Norwich and has made a £10,000 donation to the constituency party of the Tory MP there.'
And the man himself once ruefully commented: 'Money just complicates things. And the more you get, the more complicated your life becomes.'
When he becomes Treasurer of the Prime Minister's party, one suspects his life will become more complicated still.
The following article by London's Daily Mail newspaper is based on the information I sent them. The Daily Mail neglected to include the full context of the corporate decision and the health consequences of heavy metals that I sent them. David Rowland's global corporation - Gulf - based their decision on the possible costs of harming the children in particular and people and nature of the Silver Valley in general.
Revealed: The dirty past of the former tax exile who's the new Tory Treasurer
London Daily MailBy Andrew Pierce
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1293533/Revealed-The-dirty-past-tax-exile-whos-new-Tory-Treasurer.html#
Last updated at 1:41 AM on 10th July 2010
Every spring, thousands of beautiful swans fly to the spectacular Coeur d'Alene River in Idaho in their annual migration.
In the wetlands of the lower river, they feast on its verdant plants. Their arrival in this sacred Native American homeland is one of the marvels of nature and draws ornithologists from all over the world.
But some of these birds never make it out of the marshes again because their feeding grounds have been poisoned by pollution from a huge lead smelting plant.
Controversial: David Rowland early in his career
At least 150 carcasses are found in the wetlands each year. And it is not only animals that are paying a heavy price for the fallout from the industry which has blighted this rural location.
Local children have also suffered acute respiratory health problems as a result of what is now regarded as one of the worst industrial pollution scandals in America.
Ask people who they blame for the problem, and you will be pointed to one man. David Rowland is not well-known, but he is the man David Cameron appointed this month as Tory Party Treasurer.
He takes up the post in October.
Though he was not involved with the company at the time the pollution occurred, residents in Idaho claim that after Rowland bought the firm which owned the smelting plant, he deprived the environmental clean-up operation in their area of vital funds, and thereby prolonged the suffering of their community.
Indeed, Rowland has been accused of 'looting' tens of millions of dollars that should have been destined for the clean-up operation by diverting funds into a property deal in New Zealand.
The pollution was caused by a smelting factory at Bunker Hill which for six decades spewed contaminated smoke into the air, poisoning surrounding communities, and causing serious damage to the health of hundreds of children.
Eventually the smelter was closed down, and it was eight years later that David Rowland acquired Gulf Resources (the firm which owned the plant) and subsequently became president and chief executive.
At that point, he became responsible for the massive clean-up operation ordered by the American authorities, and expected to cost $100 million.
Despite this, in the years that followed Rowland was accused of transferring the company's assets overseas and depriving former employees of their rightful pension and health insurance entitlements, of which more later.
So what else do we know about this remarkably secretive man - who has rarely been photographed in public since the Seventies?
Now 65 and worth £730 million, Rowland is the son of a scrap metal merchant, and left the comprehensive Glastonbury School in Morden, South London, without even sitting a single O-level.
After started his working life as an office boy, he bought his first house when he was 18, sold it, bought another one, sold that and formed his own property company.
Increasingly flexing his commercial muscles, after a series of audacious takeovers of rival firms - a tactic which would become the hallmark of his business methods - he'd made his first million by the time he was 23.
He floated his company, Fordham, on the Stock Exchange a year later. The precocious entrepreneur was dubbed 'Spotty' - because of his relative youth and lingering acne - and the nickname has stuck.
The joke among his rivals is that as a result of his aggressive corporate raids, Mr Rowland single-handedly caused more City takeover rules to be tightened than any other figure in the 1970s and 1980s.
His UK interests were first controlled by companies in the Bahamas and Panama before they were transferred under the aegis of family trusts in the tax haven of Guernsey, where Rowland has a mansion. (Intriguingly, a more recent picture shows him and his wife laughing with a tuxedo-wearing Prince Andrew as they mark the private unveiling of a life-sized statue of Rowland on the island.)
Documents registered at Companies House state his business was controlled via a discretionary family trust, of which he was described as 'a discretionary object' - meaning he's a beneficiary of the money in the trust.
Having made his first fortune from the Seventies property boom, he became a virtual recluse. He left Britain for life as a tax exile in the Channel Islands early 1970s.
But his business activities would keep him in the headlines.
He was one of the first financiers to spot the potential money-making value of top soccer clubs, and was the secret figure behind the £800,000 takeover of Hibernian football club in Scotland in 1987 which later went into receivership.
Party: David Cameron has appointed Rowland as Tory treasury. He will take up the post in October
Other recent business interests have included the acquisition in 2008 by a small Rowland hedge fund, Blackfish Capital, of the Luxembourg operations of the collapsed Icelandic bank Kaupthing.
It has now been renamed Banque Havilland after his mansion in Guernsey.
But it was last year that Mr Rowland, a regular name in the financial pages of British newspapers, raised eyebrows at Westminster and in the City when he announced he was returning to live in Britain in order that he could begin donating money to the Tory Party (foreign donations are not allowed under Parlimentary rules).
Since he returned and took up residence in a house in Mayfair, Central London, he has given £2.7 million in just 12 months, making him the party's most generous benefactor.
Now, such munificence has been rewarded in spectacular fashion with his appointment as Tory party Treasurer.
So how will the party - and its other principal donors - not to mention the Opposition react?
Many fear that after the controversy over another Tory Treasurer, Lord Ashcroft, David Cameron has created a huge hostage to fortune.
Labour attack dogs are now rubbing their hands with glee at the prospect of going after the new Tory Treasurer.
'David Rowland makes Lord Ashcroft seem like a nun,' said one senior Tory source last night. The question, of course, is how much Mr Rowland's friends and enemies know about his role in the environmental disaster at Coeur d'Alene.
In 1977 - well before Rowland became involved, it should be stressed - nine children successfully sued for $20 million for health problems due to lead poisoning.
Mr Rowland found himself embroiled in the dispute in February 1989 when his UK property company Inoco, which was controlled by a family trust, bought Gulf Resources which took over ownership of the smelter plant.
He immediately sparked huge political opposition when he attempted to move ownership of some of the company's assets to the tax haven of Bermuda - which would have prevented them being used to finance the environmental clean-up.
The move was blocked by the U.S. Justice Department.
Mr Rowland then, through Gulf, sunk $120 million in a property deal in New Zealand, thus putting those funds beyond the reach of the U.S. authorities.
Gulf also attempted a hostile takeover of an Australian mining company which would have taken even more money away from the clean-up.
At the time these considerable investments were being undertaken, tests had shown that children were still being contaminated by lead deposits that had leached into the soil in Idaho. Lead ingestion can cause nerve, brain and kidney damage and can impair foetal development in pregnant women.
In October 1990, Mr Rowland sent a letter to 5,000 residents in an area that stretched for 21 miles across the Coeur d'Alene Mountains.
The question is how much Mr Rowland’s friends and enemies know about his role in the environmental disaster at Coeur d’Alene.
Not everyone agreed.
Cecil Andrus, the Idaho Governor, wrote to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency which was spearheading the clean-up: 'I have grave concerns over Gulf transferring its assets to avoid paying its share of the clean-up for this environmental degradation.'
Within a year of Mr Rowland's pledge about not shirking his financial responsibilities, he sold his interests in Gulf.
In the end, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency picked up the majority of the bill for the clean-up.
Ray Givens, the Idaho lawyer who successfully sued Gulf on behalf of those nine children in 1977, and later won a $20 million settlement for the Coeur d'Alene Indian tribe, told me last night: 'While running Gulf Resources, this man [Rowland], in a cold, calculated way, pocketed over $100 million.
'The money should have gone to the pensions of the workers who built the company with their sweat at a cost to their health, and to clean up the environmental wasteland the company had created with its mine wastes.
We have a saying: "The leopard changes colour with the seasons, but not his spots."
'It is sad that this man has been given a position of responsibility by the new British Government.'
Further allegations - described as unsubstantiated and false by Mr Rowland's spokesman - were made in the U.S. Court of Appeal in September 1997.
In an action launched by lawyers who cited a series of allegations by retired Gulf employees, Mr Rowland was accused of raiding company assets which should have been used for the clean-up operation.
Claim documents stated: 'In their complaint, the Trustees allege that the Rowland Directors and Inoco [his main company] after taking control of Gulf, engaged in a course of conduct designed to loot and waste the assets of the company.
'They allege that the defendants entered into a series of transactions by which they transferred Gulf's assets into their control.
'When creditors became concerned over Gulf's ability to meet its obligations, Rowland sent a letter to former employees of Bunker Hill in Idaho, assuring them Gulf would meet its obligations for employee benefits and environmental clean-up, assurances alleged to be false and fraudulent.
Concerns: Some fear that after the controversy over Lord Ashcroft, David Cameron has created a another hostage to fortune.
'When Mr Rowland left Gulf Resources, the money was gone, which is why so many people went to court to try to get some back.
'People in local bars curse when David Rowland's name is mentioned. Gulf Resources was the villain here.'
So what does the next Tory Party Treasurer have to say in response to the quiet fury which still simmers in the area he promised to help?
Mr Rowland, who is married to Sheila who he met when he was 21, and has five children, declined to speak to the Mail.
But in a statement, he made clear that the 1997 claim was concluded without him having to pay any money.
A spokesman for Mr Rowland issued a statement which said: 'Unsubstantiated and false allegations were made in pleadings in a contingency lawsuit in the U.S. [in 1997]. There were multiple defendants in the case - we believe 23 in all - and it is customary in such American cases for extreme claims to be made.
'No evidence was submitted in support of these false claims. The case was settled with no payment being made by David Rowland nor by any company connected with him nor by any other associates of his.'
In a rare public comment last year, Mr Rowland explained why he was now giving money to the Tories for the first time: 'I made the donation as a result of my passionate concern for liberty and the economic future of Britain. We need fresh ideas, national renewal and above all a Government that sets the people free.'
A Conservative Party spokesman confirmed that Mr Rowland is now domiciled in the UK for tax and electoral purposes.
'He has moved back to Britain, he is on the electoral register, and is domiciled in the UK for tax.'
He has a company in Norwich and has made a £10,000 donation to the constituency party of the Tory MP there.'
And the man himself once ruefully commented: 'Money just complicates things. And the more you get, the more complicated your life becomes.'
When he becomes Treasurer of the Prime Minister's party, one suspects his life will become more complicated still.
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