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Poison in Our Backyard

Posted on: April 13, 2007

by John Hart
Hart is communications manager for Greater Yellowstone Coalition. He also serves on the Board of the Idaho Economic Development Association

Eastern Idaho’s outdoor backyard is a beautiful, wild place that is cherished by those of us who live here and by many annual visitors. This recreational playground includes clear streams, backcountry trails, Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks, and a vast area of national forests and BLM lands.

The lifestyle afforded by these resources is a key selling point in attracting new businesses and professionals to the region. Regional economic developers market our outdoor lifestyle to attract high-paying technology companies and jobs. HOKU is one recent success. INL also attracts many high-level professionals and new companies, not just because of the high-tech desert laboratory but because of the mountain recreation surrounding it. Our big-sky backyard also attracts millions of visitors annually and their tourist dollars. These beautiful places are an economic treasure chest that must be carefully used and diligently protected to retain their long-term value.

Yet there is a poison building slowly in the heart of our scenic backyard. Selenium contamination coming from many phosphate mines on and around the Caribou-Targhee National Forest has been building up in streams, aquifers, soils and plants for decades. Selenium is a naturally occurring element locked away under the mountains and valleys of eastern Idaho. When these lands are torn open by strip mining, the selenium is released in toxic amounts into surrounding waterways and lands.

Increased concentrations of selenium are dangerous to fish, game, other wildlife and even people. Warnings have been issued by the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare for children due to the threat of ingesting high concentrations of selenium in fish caught near phosphate mines. Recent research by scientists from Idaho State University shows that the concentrations of selenium found in fish caught downstream from mines could result in overall trout population reductions of more than 90 percent.

As selenium slowly seeps out of exposed mine waste, it persists long into the future. If the responsible companies do not begin cleanup efforts now, the existing contamination from past decades of phosphate mining combined with new contamination from proposed future mines will only increase the threat in coming years. Without cleanup and more protective mining methods, the future of our water, lands and way of life will be in jeopardy. Senior Forest Service scientist Dr. Dennis Lemly warned, “This ecosystem is a tinder box and allowing additional selenium discharges will likely start a cascade of irreversible events, culminating in severe toxic impacts … for many years to come.”

The time has come to clean up this growing poison in our valued forestlands and require new accountability from an industry that is steadily siphoning the wealth of our remarkable backyard treasure. For more information, visit www.cariboucleanwater.org.

You can contact the author at jhart@cariboucleanwater.org

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About Dave Langston

Outdoor writer Dave Langston resides in Chubbuck. He grew up in the Midwest and south fishing and hunting across the country.

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