by Tom Kruzen
Now that we are beginning the summer swelter, several issues have persisted and some have even festered.
Doe Run is up to their old tricks again. The Peruvian government just granted Doe Run another three years to clean up. Government bends to the corporate will. That also means three more generations of children having to live with lead. Poisoning people in Herculaneum, Missouri or in La Oroya, Peru is just not acceptable. Lead and other heavy metals that Doe Run processes in these places are toxic to people—period! Doe Run had promised to clean up in 1997 when it purchased the Peruvian smelter. Nine years later, the people of La Oroya enjoy almost a total lead-poisoned population and an ambient lead level 25 times higher than allowed in the U.S.
I’m aware of the ambivalence of the Peruvians because Doe Run does bring jobs and income to a poor country. The same arguments are made in Missouri. The real illness, however, is an affliction that infests much of corporate America: Greed and putting profits before people. It will be our downfall. No human being should live in such places as Herculaneum or La Oroya.
History has shown us that smelters and people are bad mixes. Glover, Missouri is a ghost town today because of lead smelting. Other smelter towns such as Kellogg, Idaho; East Helena; Montana and Port Piri, Australia have all suffered from lead smelting. Doe Run would gain in public relations, and the people would all benefit, if they provided housing miles from these fire-breathing beasts of poison and build cleaner machines from the start instead of rube-goldberging these dinosaurs from another age. Doe Run once again is allowed to play and not pay.
Next, and smelling worse each day, is the bull-dozing of the South Prong of the Jacks Fork River, which occurred in 2004 at a little known place in Texas County known as Dixon Crossing. The pierce Township (of Texas County) Road Crew hired a bulldozer to redirect (change the course) the main channel of the river from south of an island to the north. Two large and straight channels were cut across the island and tons of gravel piled on both sides at sharp angles, killing much of the stabilizing bank side vegetation. Approximately 600 yards of riverbed were dozed as well as another 600 yards of nearby tributary Little Pine Creek. No permits were requested by the township to change the course of the river.
After much phone-screaming from this Sierran, the Missouri Department of Natural Resources, the Missouri Department of Conservation, the National Park Service, the Army Corps of Engineers and the Region VII EPA all showed up—some the next day and some within a week. They photographed, measured, took samples and discussed amongst themselves who would take the county to task for violating the Clean Water Act and damaging a National Scenic River. It was decided that the EPA would take the “lead.” Months went by. I periodically called Region VII and tried to pry some updates from them. A year went by. Nothing. Not an iota of enforcement or sanction. We are now coming upon the two-year anniversary of this travesty. I called the EPA last week and one of their lawyers told me they were working on it. When I mentioned that they had had almost two years to work on it, a strange silence befell lawyer, Howard Bunch. Bunch told me that “EPA has already begun efforts to negotiate a resolution of these matters with the parties responsible for the in stream activities that you have described.” Negotiate! What’s to negotiate? They broke the law. Force them to cease and desist such behavior and force them to pay for a restoration. I reminded Mr. Bunch that this river enjoyed some sort of FEDERAL PROTECTION. He reminded me that he could comment no further as this was an “ongoing enforcement action.” The next time you get a speeding ticket, try to “negotiate” your penalty! So please call Region VII at 800-223-0425 and ask for Howard Bunch. Ask him to enforce the federal law.
Last, but not nearly least, the good citizens of Springfield ignored the Sierra Club’s arguments concerning City Utilities proposed $700 million “clean coal” power plant! The vote was 59 percent in favor, 41 percent against. A vote two years ago rejected the idea. Sierrans in Springfield continued to educate the people about alternative clean and renewable ways to generate electricity. They were countered with a well-financed CU campaign to promote coal. CU commissioned a study which projected dubious costs if a coal plant weren’t constructed. CU also got the local news media on board early and the Club found it difficult to get printed or get its message out on TV or in the paper. We did counter that an aggressive conservation campaign and new sources of wind-generated electricity would offset the need for a new plant. That message apparently succumbed to well-financed falsehoods.
Meanwhile in West Plains, closer to home, the city council is looking to produce “cheap” electricity by burning tires, wood and garbage from Fort Leonard Wood. Many in the area met recently to oppose this cockamamie idea. Such a waste to energy incinerator would produce air-born dioxin, furans, and heavy metals such as lead and mercury. The good citizens in opposition to this wrong-headed plan will offer concrete ways for the city and its citizens to conserve electricity and produce it from solar and wind sources. Smart building practices alone could save the need to build new power plants.
Last year in California and other places in the west, we observed huge wind farms, producing clean and totally renewable electricity.These wind generators are in a mountain pass between Riverside and Palm Springs, California and represent part of the solution of the current energy/global warming crisis. If it can happen there, why can’t it happen here? .