Washington, D.C.-based Defenders of Wildlife wants to expose the American Farm Bureau Federation. In its 98-page report, Amber Waves of Gain: How the Farm Bureau is reaping profits at the expense of America’s family farmers, taxpayers and the environment, Defenders accuses the Farm Bureau of bowing to conglomerates, carrying an anti-wildlife agenda and aligning itself […]
Energy & Industry
Posted inSeptember 11, 2000: Holy water
Coalition ushers a mine off sacred ground
Agreement will fill a hole dug for the fashion industry
Posted inAugust 28, 2000: The mine that turned the Red River blue
Who’ll clean up a mining mess?
Idaho wrangles with the feds over a Superfund site COEUR D’ALENE, Idaho – For years, a handful of locals in Northern Idaho have grumbled that federal cleanup efforts were botched and that Bunker Hill, the largest Superfund site in the country, was still unsafe after 20 years. Now, the cleanup is supposed to wind down […]
Posted inAugust 28, 2000: The mine that turned the Red River blue
The mine that turned the Red River blue
Activists turn the tables on the biggest, slipperiest mine in the Rio Grande watershed
Posted inAugust 28, 2000: The mine that turned the Red River blue
The life and times of a mining town
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. 1921 Molybdenum Corp. of America (later abbreviated to Molycorp) begins underground mining in the Red River Canyon east of Questa, milling 50 tons of ore per day. Miners and their families live on site in a self-contained company town. 1964-5 As high-grade veins of […]
Posted inAugust 28, 2000: The mine that turned the Red River blue
‘If you want the jobs, you’re going to have to deal with it’
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. Alice Martinez, shown above left at the Questa Senior Center, says she lived a good life because of the mine, where her husband worked for many years. Alice Martinez: “We had a group of Concerned Citizens here in Questa. And they were forever – […]
Posted inAugust 28, 2000: The mine that turned the Red River blue
‘A mine divides a community’
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. Life-long resident Berlinda Trujillo has been involved in labor and environmental struggles stemming from the Molycorp mine for over 30 years. Berlinda Trujillo: “Of course, a mine divides a community. You can’t even talk environmental issues, because if somebody else is not for it, […]
Posted inAugust 28, 2000: The mine that turned the Red River blue
‘The mine is everything’
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. “Laura Griego” is fervently loyal to thecompany that has employed her husband for 30 years. At her request, we are not using her real name. Laura Griego: “The mine is everything, really, because it’s given us everything. If Molycorp wasn’t here, we wouldn’t have […]
Posted inAugust 14, 2000: Meth invasion
A leaky mine must get in line
IDAHO When the Grouse Creek Mine opened in 1995, it was hailed as an example of mining done in harmony with the environment. But the central Idaho gold mine closed in 1997 because it wasn’t making enough money, and its 500 million-gallon tailings pond leaks and has been contaminating streams with cyanide. Now federal and […]
Posted inAugust 14, 2000: Meth invasion
Farm it or mine it?
OREGON A gravel company’s proposal to mine 550 acres of farmland near the Willamette River has farmers fighting to save their soil. A mild, wet climate and top-grade soils make Oregon’s Willamette River Valley a prime farming location. “Anything you put in it will grow,” says Thom Lanfear, planner for Lane County. The river valley, […]
Posted inAugust 14, 2000: Meth invasion
Farm workers’ kids exposed to pesticides
Some children of farm workers in Washington state show elevated levels of pesticide exposure, according to a study by University of Washington researchers. In 1995, urine samples from 109 children in agricultural counties in eastern Washington – almost all children of farm workers – were tested for two pesticides known as organophosphates. Results show 56 […]
Posted inAugust 14, 2000: Meth invasion
Small mines stay under the radar
Environmental laws, designed to regulate the big boys, overlook some big messes
Posted inJuly 31, 2000: Out of the darkness
Mining out the middleman
In Montana, locals and industry bypass agencies and forge a new road
Posted inJuly 31, 2000: Out of the darkness
Up in smoke: Hanford fire releases plutonium
Activists worried about airborne ash
Posted inJuly 31, 2000: Out of the darkness
Out of the darkness
A Western Colorado community meets a coal boom halfway
Posted inJuly 3, 2000: A river resurrected
Tooele opens the door to more toxics
UTAH Writer Chip Ward has called his home turf of Tooele County, Utah, the “most extensive environmental sacrifice zone in the nation” (HCN, 2/14/00: Canaries in the Utah desert). The 7,600-square-mile county on the western edge of the state is home to a chemical-weapons burner, a biological warfare proving ground, a bombing range, a hazardous-waste […]
Posted inJuly 3, 2000: A river resurrected
Idaho labs blow another stack
IDAHO Last winter, when Jackson Hole, Wyo., residents sued the Department of Energy to stop a nuclear waste incinerator planned for Idaho, it was just the tip of the smokestack (HCN, 4/10/00: Incinerator plans go up in smoke). In early June, two conservation groups, Keep Yellowstone Nuclear Free and Idaho’s Environmental Defense Institute, notified the […]
Posted inJuly 3, 2000: A river resurrected
Drying up the Melon capital
Farmers in a small Colorado town plan to sell their water
Posted inJune 19, 2000: Accidental refuge: Should we save the Salton Sea?
Colorado considers a mining ban
In the wake of Summitville, Colorado could follow Montana’s lead and outlaw cyanide mining
Posted inJune 5, 2000: Change on the Plains
Seattle passes on greenhouse gases
WASHINGTON Politicos in Seattle, Wash., took Earth Day to heart. Mayor Paul Schell and the city council made an unprecedented pledge: to meet Seattle’s future electricity needs without increasing net greenhouse gas emissions. Scientists say these gases, some of them produced by burning fossil fuels such as coal, make the Earth’s temperature rise. “The mayor […]