Woster eyes chemical toilet; more refugees in Basin

How bad does it have to get before Marty Jackley files lawsuits against Black Hills Power, the Conoco/Phillips refinery in Billings, against plants in North Dakota, and/or the Colstrip Generating Station?

Kevin Woster tells readers in a series of articles why environmental lawyers are patriots and Republicans are responsible for killing people. From the Rapid City Journal:

Coal-fired power plants like those operating across the region are easy targets when it comes to fixing blame for mercury pollution, because they do release mercury in their emissions. Trevor Selch, a former South Dakota State University doctoral student now working as a biologist in Montana, did research on the mercury impacts in South Dakota from 2004 to 2007. He sampled about 1,000 fish for mercury during that time and saw strong evidence of “the reservoir effect.”

And, from another Woster piece in the Journal:

South Dakota has been using a mercury threshold of 1 part per million to determine when to issue a fish-consumption advisory for a given lake or other fishable water. That standard is used by the Food and Drug Administration, but the federal Environmental Protection Agency prefers a lower standard of 0.3 ppm. Scientists for the state Department of Environment and Natural Resources are recommending use of the more stringent standard.

Here is more from the eastern South Dakota chapter of the Sierra Club:

Anglers who come to South Dakota for toxin-free fishing may soon lose that luxury and South Dakota, in turn, will lose the revenue from fishing tourism. Mercury contamination is harder to repair than farm run-off---like cleaning up mercury from a broken thermometer, it's hard to do. Also, the costly burden of clean-up is too often on the State and local governments and not the polluter. Since mercury removal is often too much for state governments; it is easier to tell the public not to eat the fish.

Montana is experiencing some runoff woes of its own. From the Helena Independent Record:

Even though heavy rains and snowmelt are causing bright acidic orange water to flow out of old mines and into Ten Mile Creek — one of the sources of Helena’s drinking water — officials say it doesn’t pose any health hazard, and most don’t believe it may carry heavy metals that could recontaminate roads and yards in Rimini that recently were replaced.

Much to the frustration of locals, EPA moved much of Rimini's contaminated soil to a mine in upper Basin Creek where it was encapsulated.

Basin jazz maven, MJ Williams, tells listeners about the power of the music on Mountain West Voices. She and Nancy were at the potluck we hosted for the Montana Artists Refuge last night. The current refugees were in attendance including plein air artists Amy MacLennan and her husband Mike. Newlywed writing duo, Amber and Aaron, helped us fill sandbags on the creek the other day. Glen Chamberlain, an adjunct MSU professor, is writing more short stories and awaiting the release of her new book. She and ip had a long discussion about Montana politics. Twenty people and two four-leggeds shared wine, dinner, and dessert.

We have been getting more heavy rain this morning.

Mike Sanborn posted a response to my calling out Rapid City for what it is. Here's the chance to take your best uncensored shots at ip.

Wildfire Today spots a must-read in the Arizona Republic:

Stephen J. Pyne, Regents Professor in the School of Life Sciences at Arizona State University, is the author of numerous books, including Fire: A Brief History, Tending Fire: Coping with America's Wildland Fires, and Voyager: Seeking Newer Worlds in the Third Great Age of Discovery. He says, "We aren't going to stomp fire out, and we can't afford to outsource it to lightning, arsonists, and sloppy campers. We know better. We've known better for years. We just can't muster the social consensus to fix it. It's finally worth noting that only a scratch line in the duff separates tragedy from travesty."