Interveners and proponents have filed affidavits in support of expanding the J.R. Simplot Co.’s Smoky Canyon Mine along the Idaho/Wyoming border, arguing failure to do so could lead to the shutdown of Simplot’s Pocatello fertilizer plant and cause widespread economic pain.
Simplot officials have said the mine’s phosphate reserves will be exhausted by 2010 if the company is not allowed to expand onto two parcels. The mine provides 1.5 million annual tons of phosphate for the plant.
On April 10, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit temporarily halted the mine’s expansion in Caribou County, not far from Afton, Wyo., after environmentalists contended it would contaminate nearby waterways, harm wildlife, and damage roadless areas in the Caribou/Targhee National Forest.
The three-judge panel remanded the case back to U.S. District Judge Mikel Williams, who declined last November to issue a preliminary injunction blocking the mine’s expansion, upholding the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management, who approved it.
The federal appellate judges said Williams failed to consider whether logging and topsoil removal would cause irreparable harm to the Sage Creek area, but said the lower court did not abuse its discretion when it found the environmental groups were unlikely to succeed on the merits of their case.
Last fall, Earthjustice sued on behalf of the Greater Yellowstone Coalition, Natural Resources Defense Council, Sierra Club, and Defenders of Wildlife, saying that expanding the Smoky Canyon Mine would create a major environmental disturbance, and that inadequate scientific review failed to address impacts.
On April 12, Simplot attorneys filed a motion to lift the temporary stay and requested an expedited proceeding. In December, Simplot began its infrastructure work, including clearing trees, paving roads, and installing utilities.
“Stopping work in the middle of a project like this poses problems of preserving the existing work, preventing erosion from untended work, and causes impacts to the workers and to the third-party contractors who have been performing the timbering and well drilling activities,” the lawyers said.
Intervening on April 20 in support of lifting the temporary stay are United Steelworkers Local 632 and the Idaho Farm Bureau Federation; the cities of Pocatello, Chubbuck, Soda Springs, and Afton; and Bannock, Power, Caribou, and Lincoln counties.
Road construction, timbering, and topsoil removal must be allowed for the mine expansion to proceed, Pocatello attorney David H. Maguire stated on behalf of the interveners, noting safeguards are in place to deal with unexpected environmental violations of federal law.
“As far as the interveners are concerned, the alternative – the closing of the mine – is unthinkable. The economic consequences are simply too catastrophic for Southeastern Idaho to consider,” Maguire stated.
Gynii Gilliam, executive director of Bannock Development Corp., said in an affidavit she filed that Simplot’s activities in the Pocatello area have not adversely affected economic development.
“In the event the J.R. Simplot Company plant were to close because of a lack of phosphate ore, 350 people would lose their jobs at the plant in Pocatello. In addition, numerous other indirect employees, contractors and other licensees would be seriously affected because of the shutdown. A closure would have an adverse effect on the local economy, including house sales, retail sales and tax revenues, to name a few,” Gilliam said.
She predicted it would take Pocatello between five to ten years to recover from a Simplot plant closure, even in strong economic times.
“It is virtually impossible for a community our size to recruit a company which would hire 350 employees. This is especially true considering the high wages that J.R. Simplot Company has paid. It has been my experience as director of economic development that we can sometimes recruit companies that hire 10-50 employees. Occasionally, we have been able to recruit companies that will employ at least 100 people or more. However, it has been my experience typically these employers do not pay near the wages, nor the benefits, that J.R. Simplot Company pays.”
Scott Hobdey, regional labor economist for the Idaho Department of Labor, said in his affidavit that if the Smoky Canyon Mine and Simplot’s Don plant were to close, about 1,800 jobs would be lost directly or indirectly, causing $80.2 million in annual earnings reductions.
Pocatello Mayor Roger Chase worked at Simplot’s plant from 1980 to 2001 in sulfuric acid, phosphoric acid, and ammonia production, plus unloading phosphate rail cars. Chase estimated salaries paid by prospective employers who would move to the Gate City would be 20-30 percent less than what Simplot pays.
If the Simplot plant were to close, that would have a significant impact on the phosphate industry in the West and general farm productivity in 24 months, Chase said. “The closing of the Don Plant would have a devastating impact on hundreds of families in Pocatello and Southeast Idaho.”
Rick Keller, Idaho Farm Bureau Federation executive vice president and chief executive officer, said more than 14,000 of the Farm Bureau’s 63,000 members use fertilizer such as that produced by Simplot. The average farm use of fertilizer per member family was $10,600 in 2006, or more than $155 million in annual total fertilizer costs for members, he said, noting the Don Plant produces more than one million tons of low-cost, high-quality fertilizer each year.
Steve Landon, president of United Steelworkers Local 632, which represents 250 union workers at Simplot’s Pocatello plant, who are paid between $50,000 and $60,000 annually, said more than $33 million is paid at the Don Plant in wages, salaries, and benefits to employees who live in Bannock, Power, Bingham, and Bonneville counties.
“Closing the Don Plant would cause enormous financial and social harm to the local community on a scale that we have not witnessed before,” Landon said. “The legacy of the company is not one of corporate irresponsibility and ignorance of regulatory requirements. … The company’s history is one of recognition for the work that they have done in reclamation, commitment to environmental excellence, and agricultural preservation, not pollution and degradation.”