The Shoshone-Bannock Tribes have filed a lawsuit in federal court against the U.S. Department of the Interior and the Bureau of Land Management to halt a government land swap with J.R. Simplot Co., which the tribes contend could lead to greater pollution and poor air quality.
The suit was filed Jan. 6 in Boise’s U.S. District Court. Simplot spokesman David Cuoio told Green Markets the company preferred not to comment.
In 2007, Interior and BLM approved the transaction, which would trade about 680 acres of Simplot-owned key mule deer winter range near Blackrock Canyon south of Pocatello for about 720 acres of BLM property in the Trail Creek area near Simplot’s Don phosphate fertilizer complex.
Simplot wants to use the land to expand its gypsum stack, formed after phosphate is removed from slurry pumped from the company’s Smoky Canyon Mine about 90 miles to the east of the Caribou-Targhee National Forest near Wyoming. In the past, company officials have said the Don plant’s long-term viability depends on the company’s ability to handle the gypsum.
The tribes argue federal regulations were not properly followed when the government approved the swap, and that increasing the gypsum stack would degrade air quality and pollute the nearby Portneuf River, which runs through the Fort Hall Indian Reservation.
The Simplot plant and the adjacent former FMC elemental phosphorus plant are on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Michaud Flats Superfund site, so designated because of heavy metals, arsenic, and other industrial-related contaminants.
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 is next to their land and part of their aboriginal homelands.
Simplot acquired the 680 acres near Blackrock Canyon in the early 1990s. Much of the BLM’s Trail Creek acreage was charred in June 2007 by a wildfire. 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. They said BLM is commissioned to ensure the land it gets from Simplot is of equal value to, or more than, the Trail Creek area property.