Changes to environmental assessments puts health, safety at risk, say critics
February 20, 2012
Heather Scoffield
THE CANADIAN PRESSOTTAWA—A group of environmental lawyers, doctors and academics says the federal government will endanger health and safety if it curtails the environmental assessment process in a “haphazard” way.
They fear the federal government, in its zeal to streamline approvals for resource projects, is developing a process that would be blind to long-term effects on people and communities.
“We know that some of the reforms they are planning are going to drastically limit public participation and probably be at the expense of the environmental protection,” said lawyer Rachel Forbes of West Coast Environmental Law.
If anything, she said, the federal government needs to strengthen public participation in environmental reviews, since local people know their environment best.
“We can’t afford to get these decisions wrong — the whole point of environmental assessment is to protect Canadians and their environment from danger,” said Gideon Forman, executive director of Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment.
Ottawa is soon expected to announce changes for environmental reviews to speed up the system.
Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver says he wants to shorten time allotted to public hearings, reduce overlap with the provinces and clarify how best to consult aboriginal communities. He wants to sharpen the government’s focus on major projects and not get too concerned about the small ones.
“The ultimate goal is simple in itself, but not that simple to attain: one project, one review in a clearly defined time period,” he said in a speech in Calgary last week.
He says Canada is scaring away investors with convoluted and arcane procedures. Despite tinkering by several different governments over the years, including Stephen Harper’s, Oliver says a major overhaul is needed to clean up and modernize the process.
But Oliver and Harper have also complained about the long list of intervenors at hearings into the Northern Gateway pipeline to the West Coast, branding them as “radicals” backed by foreign money who are needlessly delaying things.
21 Feb
Government putting our health & safety at risk….still.
19 Feb
The Politics of Transborder Pollution – Great review of a book regarding Teck
A dear family friend, Ali Soltani, sent me the below review of the book “Smelter Smoke in North America: The Politics of Transborder Pollution”. Teck Smelter is one of the two smelters – and the Trail Smelter Case from 1933 involving Northport landowners as the plaintiffs is discussed at length. Excellent review, I am excited to read the book! **Thank you Ali for your kind words and support – I am honored you would take the time to even read my blog. I hold your opinion in very high regard.** -Jamie Paparich_____________________________________________________________________________________
John D. Wirth. Smelter Smoke in North America: The Politics of Transborder Pollution. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2000. xx + 264 pp.
Reviewed by Rachel D. Shaw (Department of History, University of California, San Diego) Published on H-Environment (March, 2000)
A Tale of Two Smelters
In Smelter Smoke in North America John D. Wirth uses two case studies to explore transborder pollution and regulation in North America. Through an exploration of the Trail smelter case of 1927-1941 and the Gray Triangle litigation of the 1980s, Wirth argues that the smelting industry has thought in con- tinental terms at least since the 1920s, and that it was the development of a federal regulatory framework in the 1970s which later permitted environmental policy to operate under similar principles.
Wirth draws on a wealth of archival data, includ- ing Canadian sources and the unpublished papers of USDA scientists, to challenge existing interpretations about the significance of the Trail arbitration (usu- ally reduced to the principle of “the polluter pays”). A sub-argument considers how legal pressures and political wrangling impeded the efforts of the USDA scientific team. In the second half of the book Wirth makes extensive use of interviews with activists, in- dustry officials, and political figures to narrate the later U.S.-Mexican negotiations over the Douglas Re- duction Works in Arizona, and to argue that, a gener- ation after Trail, the political context has significantly shifted. Now grassroots activism plays a critical role in environmental regulation, and nations are learning to cooperate across borders on continental environ- mental issues. The importance of Wirth’s findings is considerable, but the book overall suffers from prob- lems with presentation.
THE TRUE SIGNIFICANCE OF TRAIL: NARRATIVE
Smelter Smoke in North America opens with an examination of the Trail smelter litigation of the early twentieth century. In the 1890s, two smelters opened on both sides of the U.S.-Canada border in British Columbia and Washington. The Washington smelter in the town of Northport was closed in 1921 due to an inability to secure long-term contracts; the Canadian smelter in Trail, the Consolidated Mining and Smelting Company, went on to form the industrial hub for mining and smelting in the region. As Trail boomed, Northport declined. During the 1920s, farmers in Northport formed the Citizens’ Protective Association and filed suit against Consolidated. Caught in a community with a stagnant economy and declining land values, they targeted the pollution emanating from the Canadian smelter as a crucial factor in their unhappy condition.
What was initially a local dispute soon expanded to engage both the Canadian and U.S. governments at the federal level. The usual methods of compensation for smoke damage purchase of affected lands and payment of damages failed in this case. Washington did not permit foreign ownership of state lands, and the farmers were not satisfied with the monetary com- pensation offered by Consolidated. Unable to resolve the issue using local or state authorities, the Citizens’ Protective Association enlisted the help of the State Department; this in turn led Consolidated to ask the Canadian government for assistance.
The case was submitted to arbitration under the International Joint Commission, a body formed to resolve international disputes. Between 1927 and 1931, scientists operating under the auspices of the USDA and the National Research Council of Canada sought information about the extent and character of damage caused by the smelter’s emissions of sulfur dioxide. Central to the dispute was the so-called “in- visible injury thesis”; in the 1880s German scientists had raised the possibility that damage caused by sul- fur dioxide exposure was limited not only to visible burns, but also included chronic, long-term “invisible” damage. USDA scientists followed this line of inquiry, while the Canadian scientists (and scientists friendly to the smelter industry on both sides of the border) challenged it.
However, Wirth argues, the resolution of a scientific question was not, ultimately, the main focus of the scientific activity that occurred relative to the Trail case. Instead, scientists on both sides worked to defend the legal interests of their particular constituencies (the farmers for the USDA, Consolidated for the Canadians) and their scientific data was, as a result, limited to proving legally defined damage to crops.
USDA scientists were able to make a convincing case that exposure to sulfur dioxide emissions did cause measurable damage, even when it was not visible to the casual observer. In the pro-industry climate of the times, the Commission did not seek to punish Consolidated; instead they were impressed by the company’s innovative efforts to reduce air pollution through a variety of control systems. Weighing these efforts with the findings of the USDA scientists, the Commission tried to strike a balance in their decision, and awarded the farmers $350,000 in damages in 1931 (half of what they’d been demanding) while requiring Consolidated to maintain its new regula- tory regime. The Commission’s ruling was rejected by the U.S. plaintiffs (who felt the penalty was inad- equate), and a second set of hearings was held before the three-judge panel of the newly created Trail Arbitral Tribunal from 1937-1938.
This time, the U.S. side was trounced by Consolidated and its supporters. Funding deficits during the Depression hampered USDA research, while Canadian research was revitalized by an infusion of funds from Consolidated. Canadian efforts were further supported by pro-industry scientists on both sides of the border – including some within the U.S. Bureau of Mines. The result was that the USDA’s claims about invisible injury were discounted. Moreover, Consolidated’s promotion of innovative recovery techniques (which reduced pollution) and the pro-industry attitude of the Tribunal’s scientific experts swayed the decision in favor of the smelter industry. A new, smaller penalty ($78,000) was assessed in 1938, and Consolidated continued operating under the new regulatory regime it had helped establish.
THE TRUE SIGNIFICANCE OF TRAIL: AR- GUMENT
I provide this lengthy narrative because it is dif- ficult to properly appreciate Wirth’s argument with- out it. There are three important assertions made here. First, Wirth argues that the Trail case is significant primarily because it demonstrates that crossborder alliances–at least for industry are nothing new. This challenges the dominant narrative of international policy regulation, which holds that regulating transnational corporations is a recent problem.
Second, according to Wirth, the Trail case was not about establishing an international precedent for addressing transborder pollution as has been generally assumed. Although the Trail case did establish the principle of “the polluter pays,” both the United States and Canada were actually trying to avoid setting a comprehensive precedent. The United States was concerned that any such precedent could be brought to bear against U.S. companies that polluted across both Canadian and Mexican borders. Similarly, Canada was concerned about Canadian smelters in the Great Lakes region. The result was that both sides worked assiduously to keep the Trail ruling localized, and the final ruling favored a standard based on the “best available control technology” rather than adherence to a stricter absolute standard.
Third, Wirth argues that the hearings’ emphasis on legally defined damage distorted the science of the case. Instead of promoting “good” science, the legal demands of the hearings reduced what could have been a vigorous but productive scientific debate to a series of legal counterclaims. Even as industry cooperated across borders, Wirth argues, scientists were divided into opposing camps unable to share information for fear of compromising their legal positions. (Wirth places a bit too much faith in the ability of scientists to do “objective” work under other condi- tions, in my opinion, but his argument still stands.)
THE MEANING OF THE GRAY TRIANGLE
The story of the efforts to regulate, then shut down, the Douglas Reduction Works is more straight forward. Douglas, a smelter run by the Phelps Dodge Corporation in Arizona, was “brought on line” in the early 1900s and became an important fixture in the corporate, community, and industrial landscapes along the border. Even more so than Trail’s Consolidated, the Douglas smelter operated in a crossborder environment. Employing both American immigrants and Mexican labor, smelting ores from both sides of the border, paying damages to Mexican farmers and supported by the Arizona state legislature, Phelps Dodge transcended national boundaries. That this was recognized early on can be seen in the fact that the Douglas works were among those that U.S. officials involved in the Trail dispute had in mind when they advocated keeping Trail local.
Initially Phelps Dodge, like Consolidated, enjoyed a position of power and comfort; neighboring communities perceived smelter pollution as “the smell of money” and the state economy was invested in keeping the mining and smelter industry running at full throttle. Local protests, few in number, achieved about as much success as the Citizens’ Protective Association in Northport would have had without fed- eral support which is to say, little or none beyond some small monetary compensation for visible damage.
However, in the 1970s, the context in which Dou- glas and other smelters operated shifted. A num- ber of factors accounted for this change. First, the 1970 Clean Air Act and subsequent establishment of the Environmental Protection Agency provided a new regulatory framework, at least in the United States. Armed with this new tool, citizen activists came to play a crucial role in challenging smelter pollution. Second, national and public opinion had shifted away from industry. The position of privilege that had en- abled companies like Consolidated to call the shots relative to their own regulation had eroded by the 1980s. Issues of health and quality of life became much more salient. Third, research into the causes and effects of acid rain demonstrated decisively that border pollution was not a local issue, but rather one with continental significance. Finally, the presence of two Mexican smelters across the border (the other two legs of the so-called “Gray Triangle”) brought provided additional reasons to regulate Douglas. Failure to bring Douglas into compliance with federal and state standards, it was argued, would weaken the position of those in the United States who ad- vocated regulation of the Mexican smelters, whether to control acid rain caused by smelter smoke or to prevent less-regulated Mexican companies from out- competing their regulated U.S. counterparts. The “Gray Triangle” also provided an important incentive for the creation of binational regulatory frameworks, such as the precedent-setting La Paz agreement of 1983.
The result, argues Wirth, was that citizen activists were able to marshall an attack against the Douglas Reduction Works on a number of fronts, armed with the new authority the Clean Air Act and recent scientific research gave them. In the earlier Trail case, the smelter industry as represented by Consolidated was able to fend off its critics by installing innovative control technology. In the “Gray Triangle” case the industry could only play for time. Although cheap to run uncontrolled, the Douglas plant was too old to upgrade without incurring expenses the company was willing to pay. Ultimately, the combination of new regulatory mechanisms, citizen activism, and the “Mexican linkage” resulted in the closure of the Douglas Reduction Works in 1987. The conclusion that Wirth draws from this is that policy, like industry, must operate across borders, and that it must offer a role for citizens to play.
ASSESSMENT
Smelter Smoke in North America thus offers a number of useful insights about transnational pol- lution and environmental regulation, and interesting observations about the role of science and grassroots activism. Moreover, Wirth deliberately includes the industry perspective in his examination, arguing – with some justification – that it has been excluded from many histories of environmental policy. All of these things make Smelter Smoke in North America worthy of examination by the reader interested in the history of air pollution and its regulation in North America.
However, three things make Wirth’s argument less effective than it could be. First, although the book ar- gues in favor of a continental perspective on air pollu- tion, it tends to emphasize the U.S. side. The account of Trail is fairly balanced indeed, Wirth makes use of Canadian sources that had been used only in a limited way prior to his account – but the research on the Gray Triangle is noticeably titled in favor of U.S. sources. Wirth relies heavily on interviews with peo- ple involved in the litigation such as Arizona governor Bruce Babbitt and activists Richard Kamp, Robert Yuhnke, and Priscilla Robinson. Given that the Douglas case was resolved less than twenty years ago, this use of oral sources is both appropriate and useful. However, interviews with corresponding Mexican fig- ures are lacking, and even the Mexican archival data is relatively sparse in comparison to the wealth of ma- terial gleaned both from the U.S. activists and from Phelps Dodge.
Second, the effectiveness of Wirth’s argument is undercut by problems of presentation. For one thing, the prose is studded with acronyms, perhaps unavoidable when writing a history that focuses on the actions of bureaucracies, activist organizations, and complex technological processes. A list at the beginning of the book provides some assistance, but I found it awkward to keep flipping back to see to what the author was referring. Moreover, not all acronyms or abbreviations were listed. For example, the Consolidated Mining and Smelting Company, listed as COMINCO in the list of abbreviations, was referred to far more often in the text as “C. M. & S.” On several occasions, heavy use of acronyms produced sentences like the following: “The EPA might be prepared to grant an NSO variance to the SIPs, but not without changes in the way the SCS at Douglas was being operated and a plan to capture fugitive (nonstack) emissions” (p. 194). If the acronyms were leavened more regularly with the names of the organizations and processes involved, it would make the argument easier to follow.
Third, the non-text sections of the book fail to adequately support the text. (Reflecting this lack of attention to visual materials, perhaps, there is no list of maps and tables.) Placement is ineffective, with maps and illustrations often coming several pages after being discussed in the narrative. Maps, which one would think both appropriate and necessary in a book dealing with boundaries, are inadequate. There is no map, for example, showing the location of the Trail smelter relative to the U.S-Canadian border. The five maps which are included do not provide the reader with the information needed to perceive the spatial relations which Wirth describes (such as the location of affected communities relative to the “Gray Triangle” or the direction of prevailing winds). Instead, the maps provided are primary sources themselves, and thus better suited to illustrating contemporary perceptions of the issue than supporting Wirth’s ar- gument directly.
Charts and tables are hit-or-miss in their effec- tiveness. Some, like the chart showing the reduction of sulphur emissions from the Trail smelter between 1900 and the mid-1990s, are clear and effective (p. 6). Others, like the table “Expenditures on the Two Smelter Fumes Investigations” are more confusing than enlightening (p. 65). This table accompanies an analysis of spending discrepancies between the government funded USDA research team and the Canadian team, which was supported by funds from both the government and, increasingly, the Consolidated Mining and Smelting Company. The table lists the budgets for the USDA research team between 1928 and 1938, broken down yearly and clearly revealing a steady reduction over time. However, the Canadian government funding is represented by a single lump sum for the years 1927-1931. The funds received from Consolidated do not appear at all, although they can be deduced by subtracting the government figure from the total. This makes it difficult to assess the changes in the Canadian situation. Moreover, the U.S. figures are in U.S. dollars, and the Canadian figures in Canadian dollars, precluding an easy comparison of the two.
CONCLUSION
Smelter Smoke in North America offers an interesting look at transnational industry and pollution. For readers interested in policy and the legal aspects of transborder disputes, this book offers many valuable insights. For readers less familiar with the intricacies of international law, federal bureaucracies, the smelter industry, and localized grassroots activism, it can be hard going. While this book makes a noteworthy contribution to the history of international pollution, problems in presentation make it difficult for the general reader to fully appreciate the importance of Wirth’s argument.
Copyright (c) 2000 by H-Net, all rights reserved. This work may be copied for non-profit educational use if proper credit is given to the author and the list. For other permission, please contact h-net@h- net.msu.edu.
If there is additional discussion of this review, you may access it through the list discussion logs at: http://h-net.msu.edu/cgi-bin/logbrowse.pl.
Citation: Rachel D. Shaw. Review of Wirth, John D., Smelter Smoke in North America: The Politics of Transborder Pollution. H-Environment, H-Net Reviews. March, 2000.
URL: http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=3937
Copyright © 2000 by H-Net, all rights reserved. H-Net permits the redistribution and reprinting of this work for nonprofit, educational purposes, with full and accurate attribution to the author, web location, date of publication, originating list, and H-Net: Humanities & Social Sciences Online. For any other proposed use, contact the Reviews editorial staff at hbooks@mail.h-net.msu.edu.
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14 Feb
Bockemuehl Jewelers – A store not only with jewelry of gold, but with a heart of gold!
The items in this store are as beautiful and rare as the generosity and kindness of the owner and operator. Thank you Bockemuehl Jewelers – thank you William H Bockemuehl !
____________________________________________
Bockemuehl Jewelers
Bockemuehl Jewelers would like to invite all members and friends of Northport Buy, Sell and Trade to shop at our store, either online at http://bockemuehljewelers.com/ or at our store in Spokane. We are offering a 10% discount for your purchase and will donate 10% to the Northport Project! This offer is good both online and at our store (hint: there are many items at the store that are not online, plus because shipping is included in the online price, it’s cheaper at the store). We are related to the Phillips, Sowards, Days and many more, and hope to raise money for the Northport Project to help all our friends and family from Northport. We do have to charge sales tax, sorry!
celticjewelryspokane.com or http://bockemuehljewelers.com/
12 Feb
THE NORTHPORT PROJECT **FUNDRAISER** – Details of Program
THE NORTHPORT PROJECT
**FUNDRAISER**
Help Raise $3,200.00 for
The Northport Project’s Community Protection & Awareness Program
FUNDRAISER GOALS
Our fundraiser goal is to raise money to provide free heavy metal hair element tests to all past and present Northport residents.
The results will provide participants with information to assist them with current or possible future health issues, and will also provide the data needed to obtain more interest from medical research groups to continue epidemiological studies on the many different health clusters diagnosed in the community.
Lastly, it will assist in obtaining the extensive support and funding needed to accomplish the Program’s long-term goals.
PROGRAM GOALS
Goal #1 – PROTECTION PROGRAM
A) Provide FREE annual health screenings, physicals and heavy metal testing to all Northport residents.
B) Offer a year round Northport Community Wellness Program Designed to aid any interested residents with on-going FREE services to help them create a healthy lifestyle, or help them maintain their current one. This program would offer Northport residents free use of a:
– Nutritionist;
– Naturopathic Specialists;
– Physical Therapist; and
– Community Fitness Center with specialty designed fitness programs
C) Psychologist/Psychiatrist available four days every month for in-person appointments, and available Monday through Friday for phone appointments.
Goal #2 – AWARENESS PROGRAM
A) Provide FREE workshops and webinars lead by physicians and toxicologists to provide preventative health information and suggestions regarding the possible health issues and the known diseases and illnesses commonly triggered or caused by chronic exposure to the heavy metal toxins Northport residents have been exposed to for decades. The knowledge provided to residents, such as being able to recognize early symptoms of illnesses, could lead to early detections and diagnosis’ of many diseases and cancers – increasing the chances of survival and/or remission.
B) Offer monthly conference calls on a variety of topics related to the research and studies done on cumulative health impacts in other communities similar to Northport.
IMPACTS OF THE PROGRAM
The participation of residents in the above programs will also result in the community coming together with scientists and research groups to study the cumulative health impacts to residents from communities around the world who have also been, or will
be, chronically exposed to the same heavy metal toxins.
This research partnership has the potential of saving thousands upon thousands of lives in the future generations throughout the world.
FOR MORE INFORMATION
LEARN MORE
To learn more about The Northport Project, visit: www.northportproject.com
CONTACT US
Have a question? Want to tell us your story? E-mail us at: northportproject@hotmail.com
DONATIONS
Any amount, no matter how big or small, is greatly needed and appreciated.
click here to donate
“When you find the cause you have found the cure.”
With many thanks,
The Northport Project
Direct Contact:
Jamie Paparich
Northportproject@hotmail.com
11 Feb
Citizens for a Clean Columbia (CCC)
Become a member of the Citizens for a Clean Columbia (CCC)!
Please take a moment to do so at: CCC Membership Application
The annual membership fee of $25.00 and any donations (to donate go to: CCC Donation Info) go towards the tremendous work all the dedicated members donate their spare time to.
The work they have accomplished, and continue to accomplish, is on behalf of every resident living in the communities along the upper Columbia River that don’t get updates and technical documents or any information at all.
Currently their attention is focused mainly on the workplans for upcoming and already completed testing/sampling done in the Upper Columbia River Remedial Investigation/Fesability Study (RI/FS) being done by Teck, and the EPA’s on-going Human Health Risk Assessment (HHRA).
With the extensive knowledge and experience all the board members bring to their work, they are able to catch possible in discrepancies or issues in past and current researches and data collection.
They are a respected organization who both Teck and the EPA rely on to point out issues or problems in their on going investigations. They are the watchdogs for all the communities impacted from the Smelter’s pollution.
Because of them each resident from these communities are being given a voice and the most important thing being said ,on your behalf, to Teck and the US Agencies involved is “someone is watching, this time things will be done correctly or we will not only stop them, we will hold you accountable.”
8 Feb
Northport WA Community Awareness & Protection Program Fundraiser
To read more about this worthy cause and/or to contribute to the fundraiser please click link below. Any amount no matter how great or small is helpful and so very appreciated!
Northport Washington Community Awareness & Protection Program Fundraiser
3 Feb
“To Whom it May Concern….”
Currently I am pouring over all the heartbreaking e-mails I have received from over 3 generations of the “insignificant”, (as the EPA referred to them in a 1992 memo), past and present Northport residents and the toll the chronic exposure to Teck Resources pollution has take on not only their health, but those of their children, grandchildren, friends, neighbors, etc ….
I have been collecting these personal stories/e-mails since I began this project in 2008. I finally decided the best way to tell the story of Northport, WA and it’s residents was to let them tell their own story.
I have been placing the letters and e-mails in a logical order/chapter form with the narrative I have written. I am hoping to publish a book titled “To Whom it May Concern….”, with all the proceeds going towards the town and the free annual health screenings.
I am especially proud of the title, as for decades these hard working folks began their correspondents to the State and Federal Agencies, created to protect their health and safety, with that identical salutation……what it took decades for them to realize, my Grandparents included, was that the people they counted on to watch over and protect them, the “whom it may concern” group of people they were trying to reach, were the very “whoms” to which the undeniable health clusters being diagnosed monthly in the small community were being ignored, and were of “no concern” to them because of the ; “insignificant amount of people” located in the area. So the concerns the residents continued to voice to multiple Federal and State agencies year after year, decade after decade, fell on deaf ears until it became clear to this physically and mentally exhausted community there were no “whoms,” or even so much as a “who” that might be concerned about them or their safety.
As the story unfolds through the residents letters of heartbreak and loss they have suffered for decades, and my narrative and interpretation of my experience through my journey, which includes discovering the lies and incorrect data a Canadian smelter as well as our own Government Agencies provided the community to give them a false sense of safety, and the deeply painful and personal stories of loss and suffering the Northport residents, both past and present, have been gracious enough to share with me over the past three years by meeting with me, calling me and flooding me with emails. Each and everyone of them would break anyones heart, but in my case some of these e-mails were very personal, not simply a research assignment. They were coming from family members, long time friends of my family, my dad’s classmate’s children, who had not been as fortunate as we had been when my Fathers doctors caught his cancers early enough to save his life. Hearing how quickly their Mothers and/or Fathers had been diagnosed, and the pain and anger they felt from losing them way to early was not fair, and so began another portion of my journey- to do the one thing I do best, talk and talk and talk and talk some more…. until someone finally listens. So I did. Until I made those people “to whom were not concerned” for decades take notice that not only was I not going away, I had the facts, the misinterpretations they presented to the community, and I also had original documents on the testing done on my Grandparents farm they claimed they had no evidence of ever doing. Once you line up that sort of information, with the results of the health questionnaires I collected from past and present Northport residents (outlining multiple health clusters in a town with a population of 375 people), and copied all their bosses, all the innocent residents of Northport, as well as the residents of the other small communities along the Upper Columbia River who had been treated the same, armed with the obvious fact I was not going to “go away”, it was impressive how quickly those unconcerned people all the sudden seemed to have a great deal of concern in what this community had to say.
The book title is not so much a reference to those not concerned, but more to those who really are. All the emails and stories had, and continue to have in common is the shared sense of loss…a loss that could have been avoided, and more importantly so many of the letters or conversations I have had with these wonderful, big hearted, far from “insignificant” people were stories that I could immediately sense needed to be told, if for no other reason than to give them a chance, finally, to tell their side of the story – a way to express to others, myself included, the pain and suffering only people who have experienced similar heartbreak and unfair treatment could understand, in short just having someone actually listen to them, understand and offer….well the only thing I could offer with certainty – true compassion, sorrow and concern seemed to be all most of them really wanted. I hope some of those people found in me the “whom”, or rather the “who” they had been searching for, through decades of letters, that their story might actually concern.
It is my intention to let them tell their stories, in their own words, in this book through the letters and emails and my recollection of conversations I have shared with people. All proceeds of the book with be given back to the town, towards raising funding to offer free annual health screenings to all Northport residents.
Time is something you cannot get back, but by sharing their stories and their willingness to participate in programs such as The Northport Project, and the NIEHS‘s Cummulative Health Impact Program is a testament to the character of the people of this community. They are willing to use the negative impacts the pollution from the smelter ,they were unknowingly exposed to for decades, caused to their health to work with researchers, scientists and epidemiologists to turn those negative impacts into something positive by protecting future generations from going through the same thing.
If you have a story you would like to share, about yourself, a family member, a friend, a neighbor….please e-mail me at: paparichj@live.com or northportproject@hotmail.com.
The e-mails don’t have to be about the health issues or possible causes, e-mails just celebrating the people whose lives were cut short with stories and memories of them are just as welcome. Please pass this along to anyone who might be interested in participating. E-mails can be unanomouyous if requested, and there is no minimum length. One sentence can say a lot more than three pages in some case.
I hope you will take a moment to participate – please do not hesitate to contact me with any questions.
Sincerely,
Jamie Paparich
The Northport Project
775-750-6384
- The story of the residents of Northport, WA told i their own words.
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Found at bee mp3 search engine |  |
25 Jan
Your Way Latte’, Northport Coffee Shop voted best coffee!!
Northport’s Your Way Latte’, named one of the best coffee shops in the Statesman Examiners “2012 Stevens County Best Coffee Contest”
CONGRATULATIONS!
22 Jan
Northport Buy Sell Trade!
Click the link above to go to a wonderful Facebook group created by Northport Washington residents to buy, sell or trade with others!!
