Francis Bardanouve is not the man you might expect to see leading one of the year’s most contested environmental initiatives. A rancher from Harlem, Mont., he spent nearly 30 years in the state Legislature, where he was known as a conservative Democrat. But along with a businessman, a retired rancher and a Republican legislator, Bardanouve […]
Pollution
Posted inOctober 14, 1996: Greens prune their message to win the West's voters
Who you gonna call?
Are you distressed about a nearby mine polluting streams, groundwater or soils? The Mineral Policy Center in Washington, D.C., might be able to help. It recently published the Green Mining Guide: Mining Experts You Can Call, which lists 101 consultants, government employees and mining specialists from across the country. The experts range from hydrologists and […]
Posted inSeptember 30, 1996: Can this man break the right's grip on Idaho?
Feds go after Summitville boss
Taxpayers got mixed news in late August about the cleanup of southern Colorado’s notorious Summitville gold mine. The good news came from the Justice Department, which announced that it had convinced a Canadian bank to freeze $152 million in stocks owned by the mining executive who oversaw Summitville. That mine’s toxic wastes killed 17 miles […]
Posted inJuly 22, 1996: Glen Canyon: Using a dam to heal a river
Getting the lead out
The nonprofit Inland Empire Public Lands Council, based in Washington state, broke new ground in public outreach when it dropped 10,000 video cassettes on Spokane Valley doorsteps in May. It produced the 10-minute video, “Get the LEAD out!” to alert residents to the legacy of toxins from mining in the Spokane-Coeur d’Alene watershed. “We want […]
Posted inApril 29, 1996: A park boss goes to bat for the land
Fish kill doesn’t sway the EPA
For years, the EPA has agreed with mining officials that toxic sediments stuck behind the Milltown Dam on the Clark Fork River near Missoula, Mont., were best left alone. But when polluted waters escaped from the dam in February, they killed fish and energized activists, who renewed their call for the agency to remove the […]
Posted inFebruary 5, 1996: Lack of enchantment: Santa Fe's boom goes flat
Montanans take to the ballot
In Montana, where author Norman Maclean was haunted by moving waters, a new coalition of sportsmen, ranchers and environmentalists hopes voters will approve a fall ballot initiative toughening the state’s water quality laws. If passed, the initiative could create significant new challenges for two large-scale mining projects, one proposed for a site near Yellowstone National […]
Posted inDecember 11, 1995: Hunting: Its place in the West comes under attack
1995: Did toxic stew cook the goose?
BUTTE, Mont. – For 342 migrating snow geese, the infamous Berkeley Pit became their final stop. The birds were first discovered Nov. 14, their carcasses floating in the toxic waters of the shut down, open-pit copper mine. The initial body count at this federal Superfund site was 149; the total rose when officials realized the […]
Posted inOctober 2, 1995: Did Idaho libel the feds?
Congress fights to restore a filthy past
What follows sounds like a nightmare. But it’s not. It’s true. If you have a weak stomach, don’t read it. I grew up in an area of Kansas City, Kan., called Armourdale, which was bordered on the east by two meat-packing companies, on the west by two soap factories, on the north by the Santa […]
Posted inSeptember 18, 1995: The West's fisheries spin out of control
Restoring a watershed
RESTORING A WATERSHED As part of a cooperative effort to restore Idaho and Washington’s polluted Spokane-Coeur d’Alene watershed, the Sierra Club has created a colorful map of the drainage. The region needs help: mining has left pollution and aquifer contamination; logging and farming have eroded soil. The group’s advice includes cleaning up mine wastes, preventing […]
Posted inMay 29, 1995: Politics 101
Citizen action gets results
Spurred by a Sierra Club lawsuit, Texaco has agreed to prevent further contamination of the North Platte River by its defunct oil refinery near Casper, Wyo. If the EPA and Justice Department approve the consent decree next month, Texaco must clean up the river, report monthly to the Sierra Club, and step up efforts to […]
Posted inNovember 28, 1994: Beauty eludes the beast
Horses must back off
Horses can’t poop in a source of drinking water for 25 homes in Lama, N.M. The Taos County court recently found Dr. John Wilson and his wife Barbara guilty of allowing their horses to pollute the El Rito de Lama Acequia, reports The Taos News. For more than 200 years, the acequias – irrigation ditches […]
Posted inAugust 8, 1994: Glitz and growth take a major hit in Santa Fe
The list no Idaho stream wants to be on
Prodded by court order, the EPA has increased its official list of polluted streams and lakes in Idaho from 36 to 800. The agency had been relying on information compiled by the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality, but the Idaho Conservation League and Idaho Sportsmen’s Coalition sued, claiming that hundreds of polluted waterways had been […]
Posted inJune 13, 1994: A doomed species?
The Great River becomes a great sewer
FORT HANCOCK, Texas – Red-headed Jimmy Frank Rogers, a junior and an agile receiver on Fort Hancock High’s six-man football team (school enrollment: 102), straddled some spindly salt cedar on the steep banks of the Rio Grande and surveyed what was once the Great River. “I’d guess maybe 20 yards across,” offered Rogers, tugging at […]
Posted inApril 18, 1994: The salmon win one
From driveways to watersheds
Suburbs and ranchettes sprouting across the Western landscape often add pollution to already burdened watersheds. Residential pollution comes from oil, pesticides, and fertilizers washed off driveways and yards. The University of Nevada Cooperative Extension in Reno has launched an effort to reduce nonpoint pollution of the Truckee River by educating residents about sources of pollution […]
Posted inApril 18, 1994: The salmon win one
Seattle resident turns open sewers back into streams
After John Beal returned to Seattle from the Vietnam War, he and his family often picnicked on a wooded hillside where a large pond fed a meandering stream. Twelve years ago, developers bought the property and sold it to a sand-and-gravel pit operator. “I watched over a period of five years as it was absolutely […]
Posted inMarch 7, 1994: Pay as you waste, says EPA
From driveways to watersheds
When oil became scarce in the 1970s, New Mexico’s solar industry quickly boomed and then busted. State tax subsidies had helped sell complicated new systems that sometimes didn’t work, and by the mid-80s many people ditched their solar designs. In an effort to rebuild its solar industry, the New Mexico Natural Resources Department has published […]
Posted inMarch 7, 1994: Pay as you waste, says EPA
Wet and wild symposium
With memories of drought still fresh in the West, the Montana Environmental Education Association is sponsoring “Water, Wet & Wild: Flowing into the 21st Century” from March 25-27 in Billings, Mont. Designed for elementary and high school teachers, the meeting offers workshops on water pollution and water rights and exhibits by film makers and publishers. […]
Posted inFebruary 7, 1994: Can she save ecosystems?
Idaho’s unsettling sediment
A new government study shows that Idaho’s Lake Coeur d’Alene is one of the most contaminated bodies of water in the world. The U.S. Geological Survey estimates that 85 percent of the 50-square-mile lake bed is contaminated with 75 million metric tons of sediments containing silver, copper, lead, zinc, cadmium, mercury and arsenic. The contamination […]
Posted inNovember 29, 1993: Butte, Montana, seeks a new life
Defunct refinery fouls Wyoming river
The Sierra Club charges that a Texaco oil refinery is polluting the North Platte River in Wyoming. To read this article, download this HCN issue in PDF format. This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Defunct refinery fouls Wyoming river.
Posted inJune 14, 1993: Oregon's Trojan horse
Drought costs firms big bucks
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Drought costs firms big bucks.