They say art imitates life. Occasionally it’s the other way around. But sometimes, life imitates … “The Simpsons.”
In an early episode “Two Cars in Every Garage and Three Eyes on Every Fish,” a three-eyed fish shows up in a Springfield river next to the town’s nuclear power plant, despite assurances that the plant is perfectly safe for the environment. Now something similar is happening in Idaho.
The J.R. Simplot Company, a big agribusiness that mines phosphate for fertilizer, has been pushing Idaho to ease water quality standards and allow for increased levels of selenium pollution, which results from phosphate mining. Simplot said the increased pollution would have a “marginal impact” on Idaho fish. The company even commissioned a report to prove it. However, a Wyoming newspaper said the report shows photographs of two-headed fish found in the Sage and Crow creeks in southeast Idaho, near Simplot’s Smoky Canyon phosphate mine. Those creeks flow into the Salt River, which in turn flows into a Snake River reservoir.
What did Simplot representatives have to say about the photos found in a report commissioned by the J.R. Simplot Company and bearing the name “J.R. Simplot Company?” That they had no idea the photos existed.
A spokesman for the company said company officials were not aware of the photos or two-headed fish near the mine. Apparently nobody in the company bothers to read its own reports. It might be for the best that they didn’t: A U.S. Fish and Wildlife researcher said the report was highly questionable, and underestimated the number of deformed fish due to selenium pollution from the mine.
In other words, the situation is even worse than the report believed — two-headed fish photos and all.
On one of their websites, Simplot said selenium isn’t hazardous to humans. But it has been blamed for hundreds of livestock deaths near phosphate mines. And if any higher-ups at Simplot had read the company’s own report, they’d know it can also result in two-headed fish.
Idaho has long been willing to deregulate big business in hopes of attracting corporate money. And Idaho politicians hope to attract big corporate campaign donations. The Idaho legislature’s conservative ideology also makes it difficult to pass essential regulations. Sometimes that means public lands are turned over to private use. Sometimes it means public waterways are polluted for private profits. Sometimes it means people die.
The federal government recently shut down north Idaho’s Lucky Friday silver mine after workers there died in a shaft collapse caused by unsafe mining practices. It’s expected to be shut down for at least a year, and many Idaho miners and contractors have lost their jobs. In their effort to bring jobs to Idaho through low taxes and deregulation, conservative legislators hurt workers and the economy.
It’s time for Idaho to have better environmental protection legislation and stronger regulations to protect workers from being exploited. And it’s time for Idaho citizens to set aside their conservative ideologies and recognize the truth. Deregulation has hurt the nation — and it’s hurting Idaho.