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
Showing posts with label David Rowland. Show all posts
Showing posts with label David Rowland. Show all posts
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
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.
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