Idaho To Get Giant Kuwaiti Litter Box

At New West this week, Jill Kuraitis reported that 6,700 tons of soiled Kuwaiti sand is in the process of being shipped to Idaho as we speak.  The sand, contaminated with depleted uranium and lead, is bound for a hazardous waste storage facility near Grandview.  The reason for the shipment, according to the project manager from the American Ecology facility, "It's not something you want laying around in Kuwait."

If it's too dangerous to be laying around in Kuwait, why would we want it laying around in Idaho?  One good question among many.

I suppose the answer the company would give is that the facility is set up to store and contain this sort of material; the company's website calls it "an ideal choice to minimize environmental liability."  In fact, the project manager says they handle material much more hazardous than this on a daily basis and have been accepting military waste for twenty years.

Maybe the real answer is that hazardous materials storage is a lucrative business; American Ecology reported gross profit of $13.4 million for the first quarter of 2008, a 17% increase over the same quarter last year.  They also reported record disposal volume, revenue and operating income for the quarter.

"Record waste volumes made possible by recent capital investments helped us deliver record operating profits for the quarter," said Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer Stephen Romano. "While our Idaho site led the way, recent investments in new waste treatment and storage capacity at our Texas and Nevada sites helped each of these operations deliver superior performance as well."

[As a side note:  their quarterly report contained this curious bit, "Our other industry revenue increased 129% in the first quarter of 2008 compared to the first quarter of 2007. This increase was due primarily to a large project for an electric utility customer which was shipped to our Grand View Idaho site in the first quarter of 2008."  I wonder what sort of "large project" that was.]

At least American Ecology is familiar to Idaho politicians; Betsy Russell reports they've been paying generously into the campaign coffers of Republican elected officials since at least 2002 and they have on the payroll lobbyist Roy Eiguren (of the University Place fiasco and contributing generously to Idaho politicians himself).

The company CEO Stephen Romano is not stingy with his own money either.  Since 1998 he has given the Idaho congressional delegation $4,457 from his own pocket, including a $1,000 contribution this cycle to Jim Risch's Senate campaign, plus $3,700 to statewide and legislative candidates in 2006.

Seems everything is about the money. 

There are larger questions, though.  Do Idahoans realize that they've become this record-setting waste repository for hazardous materials and is minimizing environmental liability good enough?  Although maybe the largest:  How do Idahoans feel about being the world's litter box?

Comments

[bill]

It's our own litter, though.

I don't think the Kuwaitis had all that much depleted uranium lying around before we showed up.

Oil's their thing. Not uranium refining and DU munitions.

And since some of the DU originated in Idaho, it's only fair that the Kuwaitis might want you to take it back.

(Maybe this is something we might have wanted to consider before we made all this stuff in the first place)

Just think how big the pile of dirt and scrap metal is going to get when the Iraqis ask us to take possession of all the nasty stuff we've been dropping on them for the last 5 years.

Idahoans will have another mountain to ski on.