The MountainGoat Report

Hay Fever

According to Agri-Pulse Communications, last week Idaho Representatives Mike Simpson and Walt Minnick were signatories on a letter from 75 members of the U.S. House of Representatives to Agricultural Secretary Tom Vilsack requesting that an interim permit be issued to allow planting Roundup Ready Alfalfa this fall.  This just weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a 2007 injunction which had halted further planting of the genetically modified seed pending completion of an Environmental Impact Study by the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.  Citing a draft finding of "no significant impact on the human environment," the letter requested partial deregulation allowing farmers to plant their inventoried seed while the agency finalizes the impact study.

The letter is a stark contrast to the one Secretary Vilsack received last month from 5o congressman and 6 senators, including Montana Senator Jon Tester, asking the secretary to block the planting of Roundup Ready Alfalfa and deny Monsanto's request for partial deregulation.  "We believe that [genetically engineered] contamination will occur and it will result in significant economic harm to both the alfalfa seed and forage export markets and to the organic dairy industry," the letter argues and requests that the agency continue to regulate the genetically modified alfalfa seed.  More here.

For some great background on Monsanto and Roundup Ready Alfalfa and a fantastic read with a local Nampa connection, check out Matt Jenkins' feature "Brave New Hay:  Is Monsanto erasing the line between what is natural and what is not?" published by High Country News in 2007.

Here's a snip:

Alfalfa — the favored fare of dairy cows, beef cattle and health nuts — is an unlikely flash point for the controversy over genetically modified crops. Yet the legal fight over Roundup Ready alfalfa attests to just how far Monsanto’s massive foray into crop genetics has reached — and it is just one piece of a pair of larger, interrelated controversies in which the company is now entangled.

One centers on the environmental impacts of genetically modified crops. Evidence is mounting that such crops, which were introduced after undergoing only cursory review, have led to the appearance of “superweeds” that have themselves mutated to survive Roundup herbicide and threaten to impose new costs on farmers and the environment. And, while the long-term human health implications of those transformed crops are still not understood, there are reports that Monsanto’s proprietary genes have contaminated traditional and organic crops, transforming the very nature of the food we eat.

But Monsanto is also embroiled in a second controversy. The company has intervened not only in the genetic architecture of the nation’s food and feed crops, but in the very business of American farming itself. Monsanto now faces mounting legal challenges from its seed-growing competitors. It appears that the saga of Roundup Ready crops is ultimately less about genetic manipulation than about corporate power. Through a comprehensive scheme of takeovers, acquisitions and alleged strong-arming of competition, Monsanto is building an empire. Along the way, it seems to be erasing the line between what is genetically engineered and what is not.

Find the rest here and find more background on the case, including the Supreme Court decision, at the Center for Food Safety.

Is Roundup Ready Alfalfa the agricultural equivalent of the Deep Water Horizon and do the 75 signatories urging its use echo the feverish chants of "drill, baby, drill?"  How would Monsanto "un-contaminate" genetically natural seed if so?  Or perhaps the better question:  Are you willing to risk finding out?

It's More Than Contaminated Sand

The Idaho Statesman reports today that the contaminated Kuwaiti sand destined for the American Ecology hazardous waste facility in Grandview is just a fraction of the radioactive waste the site has accepted.  In the last several years, the company has made millions of dollars storing more than one million tons of radioactive waste in Idaho through federal government contracts.

Since 2001 American Ecology has been awarded $101.8 million in federal contracts to store contaminated waste, mostly radioactive, with the vast majority ending up at the company's Grandview facility.  The Statesman reports that after purchasing the site in 2001, the company was granted a permit from the state of Idaho to store radioactive waste here, although the story didn't mention that in order to obtain that permit, it was necessary to pass legislation allowing it.

In 2001, with Reps. Julie Elsworth, Cameron Wheeler and Frances Field as sponsors and Roy Eiguren as company lobbyist, House Bill 192 was passed by the Idaho Legislature with only one dissenting vote.  The bill changed how radioactive waste is managed in Idaho, set disposal fees for the waste and assigned regulatory authority to the Idaho Board of Environmental Quality, a seven member board appointed by the governor.

Inserted in the bill was language excluding radiologically contaminated waste materials from "Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program (FUSRAP)" sites from the definition of restricted hazardous waste and setting fees for commercial sites accepting this waste at $5 per gate-ton.  This language allowed FUSRAP material to be stored at commercial hazardous waste facilities in Idaho.

FUSRAP is "a program initiated in 1974 to identify, investigate and clean up or control sites that were part of the Nation's early atomic energy and weapons program."  The Army Corps of Engineers has been charged with clean up and disposal of radioactive material at these sites.

The waste from these sites contains radioactive contamination above current federal guidelines but is not regulated by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission or the Atomic Energy Act.  The Idaho Department of Environmental Quality, which through passage of this legislation now regulates such material, classifies it as non-hazardous.

In 2001, with passage of this legislation allowing radioactive FUSRAP waste to be stored in Idaho (including contracts in existence on July 1), American Ecology was awarded $4.4 million in federal contracts.

The dollar amount of the contracts grew in 2002 by over 200 percent to $13.8 million, with American Ecology having been awarded an average of $16.6 million in federal contracts per year from 2002 through 2007.  The majority of these are radioactive FUSRAP waste storage contracts for the company's Grandview facility.

American Ecology, with Roy Eiguren as lobbyist, went back to the Idaho Legislature in 2002 asking the state to reduce the hazardous waste disposal fees in order to allow the company to remain competitive.  This legislation passed with eight dissenting votes.  The company did the same again in 2004, this time the legislation passing with just two dissenting votes.

The state of Idaho collected $1.3 million in fees from the Grandview site in 2001, $1.4 million in 2002 and $2 million in 2003.  These numbers include fees paid by the company for all types of waste stored at the Grandview facility.  [Although not obtained for this report, the company predicted that amounts for successive years would be consistent.]   

Despite the $9.4 million increase in federal contracts awarded between 2001 and 2002 the fees collected by the state of Idaho only increased $100,000.  In 2003 despite an $11.3 million increase from the 2001 amount, Idaho received only $600,000 in additional fees.

According to the Statesman, "company officials say the more money American Ecology makes, the more the state of Idaho benefits."  With these numbers it seems the more money American Ecology makes, the more money American Ecology makes.

It doesn't appear that the citizens of Idaho are being fairly compensated for the increased risk of transporting and storing this contaminated, radioactive material within the state and it appears that the company's generous contributions to Idaho politicians have been rewarded generously.

Also, calling this radioactive material non-hazardous seems a little misleading even if technically accurate.  How many Idahoans realize that our state government has allowed over one million tons of radioactive material to be shipped and stored within our borders?  And are we comfortable with accepting the risks of this long-term storage while others reap the rewards?

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?

Global Warming in Idaho, First-hand

If you haven't yet seen a copy of Backpacker Magazine's September 2007, Global Warming Issue, you really should pick one up.  It's too easy to think of the consequences of global warming as some future abstract event, but this issue clubs you over the head with the real, tangible devastation occurring right now.  Among the articles are first-hand accounts from recreationists who have become the "canary in the coal mine" for global warming. 

One of the more sobering revelations is that, using conservative estimates, by 2030 Glacier National Park will contain no glaciers and that even if the entire planet ceased burning fossil fuels tomorrow, that outcome is inevitable.  The gases already in the atmosphere will continue warming the planet through this century and are enough to overwhelm all the glaciers in the Park for the first time in at least 7,000 years.

Canyon County on Mosquito Patrol

So I'm back from a much-needed break and trying to get caught up on everything that has transpired over the last four days.  It's after eleven o'clock and I've got the windows open enjoying the cool evening air when I finally become aware of the steadily increasing hum outside. 

I also realize that for some time I've been trying, unsuccessfully, to bury that humming in the subconscious.  Unsuccessfully because there it is...humming.  It's something between a boat motor and a leaf blower—just a persistent, annoying...well...hum.

Then the unpleasant, unmistakable odor comes wafting through the window and it's evident that the Canyon County "mosquito patrol" is once again on duty fogging neighborhoods with pesticide.

This is the third time in as many weeks.  The annoying late-night hum of the fogger accompanied by the official, flashing yellow light and the "sweet" stench of pesticide meant to protect citizens from the threat of West Nile Virus. 

You'd think they'd give some kind of warning:  Don't open your windows, stay indoors...something...anything.  (Perhaps even note the fogging schedule on the Canyon County Mosquito Abatement website.  Turn up the volume before clicking.) 

Instead we got nothing.  Just lungs full of pesticide.

I think I'd rather risk getting the virus.

Help Save Yellowstone

All renewable energy resources are vital to weaning the U.S. off foreign oil and off environmentally unfriendly energy sources such as coal.  Geothermal energy is one of the under-developed resources in the U.S. and in Idaho. 

The Raft River Geothermal Project located in southern Cassia County, Idaho is set to go online by September or October of this year with the potential of producing up to 110 megawatts of power.  The area is predicted to contain the capability of producing 15.6 megawatts per square mile and was rated first in the "Final High Temperature Ranking: Pacific Northwest" of geothermal sites in the four state Pacific Northwest region.

But that's not the only area in Idaho that has geothermal potential.  Check out these links from the state Department of Water Resources and this Energy Atlas sponsored by the Hewlett Foundation and the Energy Foundation.

Now comes news that the federal government is looking at possibly leasing geothermal resources on public lands close to Yellowstone National Park which could damage the geysers and other features that make Yellowstone, Yellowstone.

From the Greater Yellowstone Coalition:

Yellowstone National Park boasts roughly 10,000 geothermal features, including more than 200 geysers, and is the largest remaining intact geyser system in the world. These features were largely responsible for Yellowstone's designation as this country's first national park in 1872.

The hot water aquifers necessary to feed Yellowstone's geothermal features extend beyond the Park boundaries and are vulnerable to geothermal development. The federal government is developing criteria for developing geothermal resources on lands managed by the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management. Geothermal development just outside the Park could permanently alter or destroy the Park's fragile hydrothermal systems.

Developing geothermal resources is vital and necessary, but let's not destroy Yellowstone National Park in the process.  Especially when there are so many other potential development sites available. 

Go to this link to take action.

Obliterating the Portage at Great Falls

If you've ever wanted to see the site that took Lewis and Clark and the Corps of Discovery nearly a full month to portage around, you should go quickly.  Lewis' journal described the falls at this point in the Missouri River as a "truly magnificent and sublimely grand object which has from the commencement of time been concealed from the view of civilized man." 

It's the thing that gives Great Falls, Montana its name.  Soon the site may never be the same.  In an essay by Stephenie Ambrose Tubbs, High Country News reports that a coal-fired electric plant is proposed for the site.

A proposed coal-fired electric power plant, now in the early stages of permitting, would be sited on a bank of the Missouri river downriver from the city. But it won’t be located on just any bank along the Mighty Mo; the plant happens to be planned for the exact place on the bank where the Lewis and Clark expedition scrambled up as it made its way around the falls in 1805. The land alongside this part of the river is much the same as it was when the expedition came through; you don’t even have to squint to imagine it as it was then. For some, the entire 4,000-mile-long trail has no more sacred spot. Here Lewis and Clark and the Corps of Discovery were tested beyond all reasonable expectation, and then proceeded on.

And here is where the officials of the Southern Montana Electrical Co-op, representing five rural power co-ops and the city of Great Falls, want to build a coal-fired, 250-megawatt power plant, which would include a 400-foot-tall smokestack, wind turbines, rail lines, transmission lines, roads, lights, steam, noise and mile-long coal trains that would effectively render the Lewis and Clark portage site unrecognizable. American taxpayers are being asked to back a loan for 85 percent of the $720 million construction price (Congress is expected to consider approving the loan later this year), with the citizens of Great Falls backing the remaining portion.

Surely this is a site worth preserving.

Cleanup at Black Pine

Seeing the headline, "Former gold mine nearly ready to open to public" at the South Idaho Press was a nice little surprise.  The story had to be referring to the Black Pine Mine so I clicked the link and then saw the picture. 

There's still a big, huge gaping hole in the side of the mountain and apparently that's how it's going to remain.

Forest Service Minidoka District Ranger Scott Nannenga said reclamation is all but finished, lacking only a few minor details. He said he expects the area will be open to the public in 2008.

“We’re just about done with the reclamation, so that people who come up here can’t hurt it anymore,” he said.

For those who don't know the area, the Black Pine Mine is located on Black Pine Mountain in southeastern Cassia County approximately thirty miles north of the Utah border.  The mine is located on the east side of the mountain where some prospecting had been occurring off and on for several generations.

It's located in a farming/ranching area that has been economically depressed for several decades despite the best efforts of the local community of hard working, salt-of-the-earth type people.  The main employers in the valley, outside of various agricultural operations, have been the elementary and high schools and the rural electric company. 

The area was home to a government geothermal demonstration project during the energy crunch of the 1970's which generated power for a short time and then was abandoned in the early 80's putting many people out of work.  (Incidentally several years ago, with revived interest in renewable energy, the Raft River geothermal site was rediscovered and plans to build and operate a power plant at the site are well underway.)

When Pegasus Mining began operating in the early 1990's, the Black Pine Mine provided welcome employment opportunities to the community at a time when they were desperately needed.

Then Pegasus Mining filed bankruptcy in 1997.  Since that time the Forest Service has been using the bond money to complete closure and cleanup at the open pit, heap leach mine (similar to the proposed mine in Atlanta) which at one time was designated a superfund site due to contaminated tailings from previous mining at the site.

Word of the nearly complete cleanup at the mine is welcome news.  Apparently the scars carved deep into Black Pine Mountain will remain and that is heartbreaking. 

Canadian company to search for uranium in Idaho

Reading in the Wood River Journal we find an interesting piece of news in an editorial that up to this point has escaped notice.

On November 8 and 29 of last year the Journal stood against the development of nuclear power plants. Today we are standing against the granting of permission by the U.S. Forest Service to allow a Canadian-based company, Magnum Minerals USA, to search for uranium in the Salmon-Challis National Forest.

The editorial goes on to describe some of the reasons for taking a position against this move.

Radon and radium are two radioactive elements found in uranium tailings. Radon is a gas that pollutes the atmosphere and if not properly stabilized can do so for 100,000 years. In addition, radon exposure from a mining site can occur hundreds of miles away.

Radium pollutes our ground water and threatens our waterways, such as, the Salmon River. Uranium tailings have been shown time and time again to leach into waterways.

And concludes with what seems to many to be the obvious alternative.

We need to look at solar, wind, geothermal, hydroelectric and the improvement of transmission lines. We also need to write to the U.S. Forest Service voicing our opposition to granting permission to search and possibly mine for uranium in our state.

Helpful links:

• Find more, including maps and technical information, here.
• Find links to the U.S. Forest Service offices here.
• Find links to contact officials in the Salmon-Challis National Forest here.

Joining the Salute to ICARE

The MountainGoat Report wants to join Red State Rebels in saluting Alma Hasse, Kathy Stone and everyone at Idaho Concerned Area Residents for the Environment for being the recipients of the 2007 Max Dalton Open Government Award, a $1,000 public service award sponsored by the Idaho Newspaper Foundation. 

Idaho Concerned Area Residents for the Environment was selected for the award because of the group's dogged pursuit of the facts surrounding lax inspections and poor regulatory oversight of large cattle feedlots in Payette and Washington counties.

Hasse formed the non-profit corporation after their numerous attempts to prompt the Idaho Department of Agriculture and the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality to enforce water pollution laws-- in connection with feedlots near their respective homes-- proved fruitless. Hasse and Stone utilized numerous public records requests from these state agencies, in addition to the Environmental Protection Agency, in order to substantiate their suspicions of inadequate enforcement.

ICARE was formed with the mission of educating those in other parts of Idaho who face similar environmental hazards and providing suggestions on what can be done to create accountability and positive change in the regulatory process.

Read Julie's post for more details on the award and the upcoming presentation.

NASCAR Gets the Lead Out

For the first time in history NASCAR Nextel Cup cars used unleaded fuel for the race at the California Speedway on Sunday.  NASCAR has been trying to get the lead out for several years and now in partnership with the EPA and Sunoco, the fuel supplier, has come up with a fuel that they plan to use full time by 2008.

Using unleaded fuel isn't green enough for some who would like to see the sport switch to ethanol.  Many drivers, owners and NASCAR officials are on board and recognize the sport's ability to influence mainstream America.

"Without a doubt, I think we should look into it," driver Jeff Burton said. "Although our impact on environmental issues is probably very, very small from an actual use standpoint, from a marketing standpoint, we could have a major impact."

Driver Kyle Petty says NASCAR's marketing horsepower might drive alternative fuels into the mainstream, helping consumers get over the image of hippies tinkering with their 1980s Mercedes to make them run on vegetable oil.

Good for NASCAR.  If arguably the most popular and the most conservative spectator sport in America is on board with cleaning up the environment, surely the rest of the country can't be far behind.

Don't Pee in the Pool

Ah, the cesspool that is the Treasure Valley air.  How many yellow alerts have we had this winter?  According to a story in the Idaho Statesman, Canyon County legislators are having a hard time signing on to the Treasure Valley Air Quality Council's [TVAQC] new plan for cleaning up the Treasure Valley's air.  Maybe a bodily fluid analogy will help explain the problem.  [What? a two-fer?...bodily fluids and information...in the same post?  This should be exciting.] 

Everyone's been to a public pool in the summer.  It's a great way to cool off from the sweltering heat and let the kids splash around.  Public pools are usually pretty safe places to be—life guards on duty enforcing rules and lots of parents watching or playing with their kids.  Nearly every public pool also has some sort of visible sign with the pool's rules and there's always the universal rule, "Don't pee in the pool," or words to that effect and for obvious reasons.

Now imagine if you were to go to a public pool and the sign said, "Don't pee in the deep end of the pool," but left the pee status of the shallow end unknown.  Now as you don your swim trunks and walk toward the pool with your beach towel and kids in tow, which end would you jump in?  Which end would you let your kids jump in?

So, you say you wouldn't jump in that pool at all?  And for obvious reasons, right.  If people are allowed to pee in the shallow end of the pool, there is no way that any of the water is clean.  It's just the nature of water and pee.

[I'm not naively suggesting that public pools are pristine water sources—they're far from it actually.  Not everyone follows the rules unfortunately.  But imagine what the pH of that pool would be if there wasn't the universal rule.]

Now let's apply that analogy to the Treasure Valley air.  Since 1984 Ada County residents have been required to have their cars' emissions tested while in neighboring Canyon County, nothing.  It's as if lawmakers from Canyon County believe that the atmosphere understands and obeys county lines—like there's some invisible barrier that separates the air from the two counties.  But just like that urine filled public pool, pollution in one end of the valley circulates throughout the entire valley.  It's just the nature of atmosphere and pollution.

The pollution we create by driving untested cars is largely to blame for that ugly, unsafe air we get during the inversion season.  By not having emissions testing in Canyon County we're peeing in the shallow end of the pool folks.   

The plan the TVAQC has developed for emissions testing in Canyon County is fairly painless.  It basically identifies gross polluters and requires them to be fixed.  A side effect is that the money spent on tuning up that pollution-mobile could easily be made back in better fuel efficiency.  According to the Council's 2006 Draft Plan [large pdf]

A recent study of Ada County emissions testing records analyzed the production of hydrocarbons (VOCs) by 1990 model vehicles. The study determined that failing vehicles produced, on average, over 9 times as much hydrocarbon as the average 1990 vehicle and that the dirtiest vehicle emitted over 100 times as much as the average vehicle. Numerous other studies, conducted throughout the country, have consistently shown that 10% of all vehicles produce over 50% of vehicular pollution. These studies emphasize the importance of identifying gross emitters and requiring them to get repairs.

The plan would also eliminate tail pipe testing in Ada County and require all Treasure Valley vehicles '96 or newer to be OBD [that's on-board diagnostic] tested every other year except new vehicles which wouldn't be tested until after five years.  There would also be a $5 emissions testing fee collected with vehicle registration.  Read all of the Council's recommendations starting on page 92 of the plan.

It appears that most of the local Canyon County officials, mayors and commissioners, are on board.  According to the Statesman it's the Canyon County state legislators that haven't signed on.  The kicker is that if we don't sign on to do something locally, the EPA will come in and do it for us.  Come on Canyon County delegation—let's quit peeing in the pool.