United Steelworkers Local 632 and the Southeast Idaho Mule Deer Foundation have filed motions in U.S. District Court in Idaho to intervene in support of a government land swap with the J.R. Simplot Co. The Shoshone-Bannock Tribes say the swap could lead to greater pollution, a loss of treaty territory, damage to fish and wildlife species, and poor air quality for the Fort Hall Indian Reservation.
Last January the tribes filed a complaint in federal court against the U.S. Department of the Interior (Interior) and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to block the transaction, which would provide Simplot more land for a gypsum stack. Company officials say Simplot needs the land in order for its Don phosphate fertilizer complex west of Pocatello to survive, and that the plant’s long-term viability depends on the company’s ability to handle the gypsum. The gypsum is formed after phosphate is removed from slurry pumped from the company’s Smoky Canyon Mine about 90 miles to the east on the Caribou-Targhee National Forest near Wyoming.
In 2007, Interior and the BLM approved the deal, which would trade approximately 670 acres of Simplot-owned key mule deer winter range near Blackrock Canyon about nine miles southeast of Pocatello for about 720 acres of BLM property on Howard Mountain in the Trail Creek area near the Don plant.
The tribes argue federal regulations were not properly followed when the government approved the swap; that increasing the gypsum stack would degrade air quality and pollute the nearby Portneuf River, which runs through the Fort Hall Reservation. They criticize BLM for not issuing an Environmental Impact Statement on the land swap. The tribes said BLM is commissioned to ensure the land it gets from Simplot is of equal or more value to the Trail Creek area property, much of which was charred by a wild fire in June 2007.
The 2,530 acres on which the Simplot plant and the former adjacent FMC elemental phosphorus plant operated were designated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in 1990 as the Michaud Flats Superfund site. Heavy metals, arsenic, cadmium, selenium, and other industrial-related contaminants have been identified there. FMC ceased making $1.5 million annual environmental impact payments to the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes after its elemental phosphorus plant closed in December 2001.
EPA says phosphogypsum is a radioactive waste product created when phosphate ore is processed. When it decays, phosphogypsum forms radon, a radioactive gas that can cause cancer.
In 2009, federal environmental regulators began pressuring Simplot to do more at its fertilizer plant to stem the flow of phosphates and other pollutants into groundwater and streams. The tribes say they have the right to sue because the Simplot property borders their land and part of their aboriginal homelands. Simplot acquired the acreage near Blackrock Canyon in the early 1990s.
The BLM hosted a public scoping meeting for public comment about the land swap. BLM officials said the land exchange and environmental concerns are separate issues.
In its motion to intervene, United Steelworkers Local 632 said failure to proceed with the land transaction could mean the loss of jobs at the Simplot plant. The labor union represents more than 250 of the 350 plant employees, who earn between $50,000 and $60,000 annually.
Noting that Simplot has been negotiating for more than 15 years with the BLM and other parties to obtain a cost effective expansion of the gypsum stack, the steelworkers said expansion of the stack is essential to the Don plant’s continued operation, contending other proposed options are not economically feasible.
“Having the expansion of the gypsum stack next to the existing plant helps protect the environment by having the operations centrally located for purposes of management and supervision by the company and environmental regulators,” the motion states.
In its June motion to intervene, the Southeast Idaho Mule Deer Foundation said the Blackrock property has long been recognized as important mule deer habitat essential for creating and maintaining healthy deer herds in Southeast Idaho.
Formed in 1999 after years of severe decline in the region’s mule deer populations, the foundation recently began a fencing program along the property’s border to protect deer from getting killed on Interstate 15. It also has planted winter browse such as bitterbrush on public lands to provide food sources for wintering deer.
Representing the intervenors, Pocatello attorney David Maguire said a federal judge could rule on the ShoshoneBannock Tribes’ complaint by this fall.