Arsenic is Good for You! (the play)

Arsenic is Good for You! is an Augusto Boal style (Theatre of the Oppressed) style production. The play was developed by a team of students in my Politics of Technical Decisions class, including Anne Michaud, Scott Parini, Samantha Sheble, and Anthony Willard.

The towns of Butte, Anaconda, and Opportunity are located in the upper Clark Fork River basin of western Montana--in the midst of America's largest Superfund site.

Around the year 1900, the region was the world’s leading copper producer. Smelters spread great quantities of sulfuric acid, arsenic, and heavy metals throughout the upper Clark Fork River valley--60,000 pounds per day during peak years.

Despite common medical knowledge that arsenic was harmful, Copper Kings such as Marcus Daly and William Clark maintained that arsenic was good for human health—-and especially good for women’s complexions!

Of course, Daly and Clark did not spend much time in Butte or Anaconda. Daly preferred his horse farm near Hamilton, Montana, while Clark preferred his mansion “on the avenue, Fifth Avenue” in New York City.

Act I

Butte children (played by Willard and Michaud)thank Marcus Daly for the breakfast they are about to receive:

Mother (played by Sheble) serves up the Arsenic Flakes:

When the fussy children refuse to eat, Uncle Marcus (played by Parini) convince them that "Arsenic is good for you!"

Act II
Local residents ask, “Why did the Environmental Protection Agency set our arsenic action levels – the level at which arsenic will be cleaned up from residential areas – at 250 parts per million?” Certainly, this seems particularly unjust when, nationwide, the agency has typically set arsenic action levels at 25 to 50 parts per million. Why is it that our communities have levels that are five to ten times higher than the national norm?

The answer: the notorious piglet study. In 2003, the Arco (the corporation legally responsible for our Superfund site) funded a study by a veterinarian. The vet fed arsenic-laced Butte soil to the little pigs for 12 days. The little piggies were just fine, therefore Arco concluded that local arsenic levels would not harm people over the course of their lifetime.

A little piggy (played by Michaud) eats its arsenic:

Arco's veterinarian (played by Willard) explains that 250 ppm arsenic is perfectly safe--when fed to a piglet for 12 days:

A nice Gothic couple (played by Parini and Sheble) prepare to work in their garden:

They dig a few carrots. Mmmm... yummy & juicy:

And deadly:

Act III
The 2003 piglet study – funded by Arco – was accepted by the Enivronmental Protection Agency as evidence that human exposure to arsenic levels of 250 parts per million would not be harmful. Remember after 12 days – yes, you heard right, twelve days – the little piggies were just fine!

I’m sure Marcus Daly and William Clark were careful never to spend more than 12 consecutive days in Butte! The piglet study is over. The arsenic action level has been set. Is there any going back? Let’s ask Arco! Let’s ask the EPA!

Anaconda (Parini) and Butte (Michaud) meet on the street: Hi Butte, how's she goin'? Hey, An-da-con-da, good'n'you? She's gotta go! Hear about that nice Gothic couple that died? No, what happened? Ar-sen-ic poisoning!

As they chat, Arco surreptitiously chains them together--with a 250 ppm ball of arsenic attached:

They prepare to go on their way: Tap 'er light, Butte! You betcha, An-da-con-da! But they find that they are chained together and now share a common problem & a common destiny:

They ask the EPA for help, but are told "Go away! Arco said it was safe, the decision has been made, and there is no help for you:"

After the second performance of Act III, spectators became spect-actors taking on roles in the play and shifting the story in unexpected ways.

Justin Ringsak (left) steps in as Arco and makes all the usual excuses: Arco didn't know there was environmental liability when it bought the Anaconda Copper Mining company; Arco has given the towns a golf course and ball fields, what more could it do?; Arco has already spent too much money locally, and has mere billions in profits to work with:

Shawn Crowe (right) substitutes for EPA and explains that the decision was made after careful judgment, and the public's chance to weigh in is long past:

Dick Gibson (right) becomes Butte and calls "BS." The public needs to know about the flimsy basis for the arsenic decision and the potential long-term health hazard:

Together, the new cast goes round and round about the issue:

Then Mary Kay Craig gets chained up as Anaconda:

She points out that Butte and Anaconda, working together, can pressure the agency to protect public health. She also points out a crucial problem: EPA & Arco often deal directly with one another & cut the public out of deliberation & decision-making processes. Furthermore, when EPA & Arco are forced to deal with public concerns, they do so as remotely and with as little interaction as possible:

Although we cannot solve local concerns about human health in a short play, we can raise awareness and brainstorm strategies that might change our future. Stay tuned for Act IV...

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A short video of "Arsenic is Good for You!" is available on the newspaper website for the Montana Standard.

Butte's First Cold Snap: 22 below & counting

Morning temperature was 22 below zero earlier this week, with daytime highs below zero for several days. You can get a pretty good idea of the outside temperature from the behavior of Phoebe The Cat. The colder it is, the more she clings to your lap. Here's PTC at morning coffee:

In the perfectly still, cold air snow was like fine dust, as I found while wiping my boots on the front mat, watching powdery snow drift up in little clouds of smoke. Here's some cold smoke from walking along the path from Walkerville to Montana Tech:

Still, when the sun shone in the afternoon with temps hovering around 5 below RTD & I had a nice walk following fox and rabbit tracks, and checking on the progress of the pronghorn antelope carcass someone dumped out back along Ryan Road. A few coyotes are still visiting the site, but even the ravens now spurn the gleaming skeleton.

Fox tracks on a cold morning, eloquent nature, grace & beauty writ in snow:


When the cold front blew in it felt much colder (at 15 or so below) with winds gusting out of the north-east at 20 to 30 miles per hour. The fine snow built up in lee areas on the street around the parked Rover and pick-up. Normally, snow at this temperature is easy to sweep away with a push broom. But the wind packed it into tough layers, sort of like a low-density, weak form of stone.

For the walk with RTD -- a little one-mile or so jaunt out back -- I wore wool pants, fleece pullover, down vest, and wind shell. And long underwear, of course. Walking up the alley in the shelter of the houses and garages, it did not feel too cold. But when we hit the wide-open area past the Powers house, the old dog wanted to head home. We continued up and over the ridge toward Ryan Road, and I wished I'd worn choppers instead of gloves.

In most years, southwestern Montana gets a blast of this subzero Arctic air in late November, with gradually declining temperatures leading up to it. But fall has been mild, with many days in the mid- to high-30s, and most nights in the teens. Spoiled so, this first taste of real winter is a bit of shock.

We are now in a brief interlude with afternoon temperatures in the teens. Walking out into a zero degree morning feels balmy! But by the weekend we are to be 30 below or so at night, so I'll keep that goosedown vest handy...

Butte, America: Open Air Superfund Factory

In its heyday as an Anaconda Company mining town, Butte, Montana, was an island of mining activity surrounded by barren dirt. A large factory without walls, neighborhoods clustered around head frames where ore was lifted to the surface from deep mine shafts. Ore cares rumbled along tracks crisscrossing the town. Smelters belched arsenic and sulfur laden fumes into the air, killing grass and trees for miles around. Silver Bow Creek, the headwater tributary of the mighty Clark Fork River and once a spawning ground for huge bull trout, was an open industrial sewer. The grim reality of this hellish landscape pervaded every aspect of work and leisure.

Today, Superfund has replaced mining as the most visible feature of the Butte landscape. Like the Anaconda Company, Superfund has turned Butte into a large factory without walls. Polluted land and water have replaced ore as the raw material. Revegetation and treated water have replaced copper as the product.

Board members of the Clark Fork River Technical Assistance Committee (CFRTAC) visited Butte for a tour of the Butte Hill and Silver Bow Creek Superfund site. This EPA-funded citizens group is active in promoting good cleanup and restoration of the Clark Fork River and Milltown Dam Superfund sites. But Butte sits at the headwaters of the Clark Fork, and so CFRTAC folks are interested in what's going on upstream, too. Also, the Citizens Technical Environmental Committee (CTEC) -- a Butte-based EPA-funded citizens group -- is trying to get on its feet after years of inactivity, and so a few CTEC folks also joined the tour.

Here are John Metesh (left) of the Montana Bureau of Mines and Geology and Matt Vincent (right) of the Clark Fork Watershed Education Program. Matt set up the tour, and John was a featured speaker who explained the Butte groundwater aquifer:

The area where we began the tour is at a groundwater divide between the Berkeley Pit and Silver Bow Creek. The creek became an open, industrial sewer during the mining days. Today, the upper reach is referred to as the "Metro Storm Drain," pictured here with the city/county shops on the upper right:

All of this area sits atop a vast mine waste dump known as the Parrot Tailings. Scientists such as Metesh of the MBMG conclude that with removal of the Parrot Tailings, the ground water aquifer feeding Silver Bow Creek would recover (become clean) in less than 100 years. However, it would cost about $20 million to remove the tailings and relocate the city/county shops. EPA did not want to impose this cost on Arco-BP, the responsible party that must pay for remedy. [note problem with the engineered solution, in comments]

Instead of permanent cleanup, water will be intercepted from the Parrot Tailings/Metro Storm Drain and treated in perpetuity. Forever. And that's a long time. Pioneer Technical Services, a local engineering company, is contracted to operate the water collection and treatment plant. Collected water is treated with lime in the building (right), held in ponds where metals precipitate out as sludge, and then discharged to Silver Bow Creek:

Brad Archibald (center right), Pioneer's president, led us on a tour of the water treatment facility with the plant operator, Dave Griffis (left):

This trench ("hydraulic control channel") captures the acidic, metals-laden ground water flowing down from the Butte Hill:

Where the water is pumped into this building, mixed with lime, and distributed through the various settling ponds before discharge to Silver Bow Creek (plant interior with Michael Kustudia, CFRTAC facilitator):

Pioneer has done an excellent job of upgrading & improving the operation & effectiveness of this plant in recent years. Lime precipitation of metals is not rocket science, but it's not some guy stirring a vat with a canoe paddle, either. You get some idea of the technical control of the process by this glimpse of the control panel:

Water discharged to the creek currently meets all state water quality standards. Unfortunately, there are other sources that continue to pollute Silver Bow Creek with toxic metals:

(1) Apparently, the creek below the treatment facility is a "gaining reach," where water percolates up from the Butte Hill aquifer, bringing mining & smelting pollution with it. This pollution demonstrates that the "engineered solution" is not capturing & treating all of the ground water from the Butte Hill Superfund site. [note clarification on this point in comments]

(2) The treatment facility captures only groundwater. Surface water runoff from the Butte Hill, especially during high flow events (rainstorms, snowmelt) continues to flush polluted sediments and water into Silver Bow Creek.

Mine dumps are spread all over the Butte Hill, and still contribute metals pollution to the creek with surface run-off of rain and melting snow. For the most part, EPA has not required Arco-BP to remove these dumps. Instead, EPA has allowed a "cover up" approach: mine waste is capped, covered with 18 inches of clean soil, and planted with various seed mixes. The early treatments often used exotic grasses, but more recent treatements utilize a mix of native grasses, forbs, and shrubs.

The tour stopped near the Travona mine to examine one of the earlier cover-up treatments:

Here is the Travona head frame (aka gallows frame); visitors see the Travona as they enter Butte from the I-15/90. Oops! Who didn't check to see that the "E" is hidden from view? Butt, Montana, indeed:

Vegetation is sparse:

to non-existent on this covered-up mine dump. Old manganese tailings have poisoned even the hardy, exotic grasses:

The Butte Hill remedy is a case of "adaptive management"--an increasingly common strategy for complex Superfund sites. Instead of doing a once-and-for-all time cleanup, adaptive management is a matter of cut & try. Various small cleanup & treatment strategies are implemented -- in a somewhat piecemeal fashion -- and monitored. As in the case of the ongoing pollution of Silver Bow Creek, it is apparent that not enough is being done. At some point, it is hoped, EPA will require Arco-BP to implement additional cleanup & treatment until (eventually) clean up targets are met.

"Widespread feminisation of male wildlife"

Wow. This might explain the anterless, mature bull elk I killed this year.



--------------------------------------
ChemTrust

Press Release

Widespread feminisation of male wildlife raises the alarm.
A report released today by CHEM Trust shows that male fish, amphibians, reptiles,
birds and mammals have been harmed by chemicals in the environment. Widespread
feminisation of male vertebrate wildlife is highlighted. These findings add to mounting worries about the role of hormone-disrupting or so-called ‘gender-bending' chemicals in the environment, and the implications for human health.

In mammals, genital disruption in males has been widely reported, including: intersex
features (such as egg tissue in the testes of the male); small phallus; small testes;
undescended testes; abnormal testes; or ambiguous genitals.

In the UK, effects on otters and seals are generating concern. A UK study of road kill otters published last year noted that otters with higher levels of organochlorine contaminants had shorter baculums (penis bones),1 and this year more otters than ever previously reported have been found with un-descended testes.2 Furthermore seal populations have not increased again since they were decimated by the outbreak of phocine distemper virus in 2002. The reduced number of seals in the North Sea off eastern England is puzzling scientists, who are now planning to examine their reproductive health.3

Species across the globe have been damaged, including polar bears in the Arctic and
eland antelopes in Africa.4

The males of egg-laying species including fish, amphibians, birds, and reptiles have
also been feminised by exposure to sex hormone disrupting chemicals and have been
found to be abnormally making egg yolk protein, normally made by females. Affected
species are widespread, and include, flounder in UK estuaries, cod in the North Sea,
cane toads in Florida, peregrine falcons in Spain, and turtles from the Great Lakes in North America.

Gwynne Lyons, author of the report and director of CHEM Trust commented,

“Urgent action is needed to control gender bending chemicals, and more resources
are needed for monitoring wildlife. Man-made chemicals are clearly damaging the
basic male tool-kit. If wildlife populations crash, it will be too late. Unless enough males contribute to the next generation, there is a real threat to animal populations in the long term.

It has now been shown, beyond doubt, that several ‘gender benders’ can act
together as a mixture or cocktail to cause effects even when individually each
chemical is below the concentration at which it would cause harm on its own. EU
regulators must ensure legislation takes this real-world ‘mixture effect’ into account or reproduction will be put in jeopardy. Sadly, during negotiations of the
forthcoming EU pesticides Regulation, the UK Government was one of just 3
Member States5 not to back the proposed tough controls to cut-off the use of
hormone disrupting pesticides."

There are various ways that man-made hormone disrupting chemicals can undermine
the sexual health of male wildlife. For example, chemicals which block the male
hormone androgen, the so-called anti-androgenic chemicals, can cause un-descended
testes and can feminise males. Similarly, some sex hormone disrupting chemicals can
mimic oestrogen, the female hormone, and also feminise males.

Many man-made chemicals can block androgen action, and these include several
pesticides and some phthalates, used in consumer products to make plastics flexible.
Worryingly, a study of effluents from UK sewage works has found that around three
quarters of these discharges have considerable anti-androgenic activity,6 and
investigations are underway to identify the chemicals to blame.

For more information contact:
Gwynne Lyons, Tel: 01603 507363 Mobile: 07944 422 898.
Gwynne.lyons@chemtrust.org.uk
or Elizabeth Salter Green, Tel: 020 8360 1259 Mobile: 07976 273 157.
Elizabeth.saltergreen@chemtrust.org.uk
Notes for Editors:
1 Simpson, V.R. (2007) Health status of otters in Southern and South-West
England 1996-2003. Science Report SC010064/SRI, ISBN: 978-1-84432-7157,
Environment Agency, Bristol. (online) http://publications.environmentagency.
gov.uk/pdf/SCHO0307BMKL-e-e.pdf?lang=_e
2 Contact Elizabeth Chadwick, Tel: 02920 874046
Email: chadwickea@Cardiff.ac.uk
3 Britain holds 40% of the total European harbour seal population, and the
numbers of harbour seals in eastern England have not increased since the end
of the 2002 phocine distemper epidemic. Indeed, apart from around the Inner
Hebrides, there is evidence of a general decline in large harbour seal colonies
around Britain.
Contact Ailsa Hall, Deputy Director, Sea Mammal Research Unit, University of
St Andrews. Email: ajh7@st-andrews.ac.uk
Tel (work): 01334 462634 Mobile (Sunday & eves): 07786 358981.

Whitebark Pine: endangered species status?

Like the American pika and other alpine species, the whitebark pine (Pinus albicaulis) populations are victims of global warming. - EcoRover
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Group wants pines listed

By Cory Hatch, Jackson Hole, Wyo.
Date: December 9, 2008

Threats including climate change, blister rust and the mountain pine beetle mean whitebark pine trees should receive protection under the Endangered Species Act, according to conservation groups.

The Natural Resources Defense Council plans to announce a petition to list the tree species today. NRDC officials said they will file the petition with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne.

“There are huge die-offs going on, and those resources [available under Endangered Species Act protection] are necessary if we want to prevent this tree species from disappearing from the region altogether,” said Josh Mogerman, spokesman for the Natural Resources Defense Council. “That’s why we need to step in and help.”

While scientists aren’t sure exactly how much whitebark pine has disappeared in the last decade, some regions have seen significant declines. Whitebark pine benefits a number of animal species, including grizzly bears, and acts as a pioneer species providing soil stability and shelter from the wind for trees and other vegetation so they can survive near treeline.

Mogerman said whitebark pine trees are particularly vulnerable because infectious species like pine beetles and blister rust have benefitted from warmer temperatures in recent years.

“As global warming begins to take hold and affect the western part of this continent, those species like the pine beetle and blister rust are able to move higher and higher in elevation,” he said. “This is the first warning of a much larger problem that we’re going to have to be dealing with throughout the higher mountains in North America.”

While the future seems bleak for whitebark pine, Mogerman said researchers have already begun to implement solutions. One method to keep whitebark on the landscape is to plant trees resistant to blister rust in suitable habitat.

“There are solutions to this problem, but the solutions require resources,” he said.

Louise Lasley, public lands director for the Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance, said whitebark pine trees in the Jackson Hole area have declined as they have in the rest of the northern Rocky Mountains.

“On some slopes, around Grouse Mountain in particular, every single whitebark pine tree is dead,” she said. “My first response to this is that I think it is a good thing to have whitebark pine on the endangered species list.”

Diana Tomback, a professor of biology at the University of Colorado Denver and director of the Whitebark Pine Ecosystem Foundation, said some researchers are hesitant to put the whitebark pine on the endangered species list. “Whitebark is in trouble,” she said. “There is no question. If being on the endangered species list brings more money for management and restoration of whitebark pine ecosystems and more attention to what is going on, I am completely in favor of it being listed.”

“However, if being on the list hampers our ability to execute restoration and management, then that is a problem,” Tomback said. “It really comes down to: Will this bring more attention to whitebark pine or will it languish on the list like so many other species?”

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Whitebark pine from Flicker:

Everyone Needs More Tongue in Their Life: Elk Tongue Recipe

There is a reason the old plainsmen sometimes killed buffalo cows and calves just for the tongue. It truly is a delicacy, as I discovered several years ago when I helped daughter Emily Munday's Montana History teacher kill buffalo for a class "living history" project. Students field dressed the critters with stone tools, then processed the meat, hide, and skull the next day on the school lawn. Only in Butte, Montana, I guess.

Anyway, determined to be "authentic," we also removed & cooked the tongues and found them to be good. I've been removing elk tongues ever since instead of leaving them in the field with the skull for the wolves and other scavengers. To remove a tongue, cut upward through the lower jaw, pull the tongue through, and cut at the base. Here is this year's elk tongue, laid out on the snow to cool (on the right, next to the heart):

Once home, boil in saltwater with spices (bay leaf, peppercorns, etc.). I find it takes about as long to cook a tongue as a heart (which I slice & pickle)--about three hours. You'll know the tongue has boiled long enough when it can be easily pierced with a fork:

Allow to cool and remove skin. Much of the skin will peel easily, but some usually needs to be trimmed away. Here's the boiled, peeled tongue:

I then like to coat with a chokecherry glaze (thank you, Brent and Karina Patch!), but use any glaze you like:

After coating, bake about one hour at 300 to 325 deg F. Baste occasionally with the glaze, and be careful not to burn it:

Slice about one-quarter inch thick at right angles to the axis (long way) and enjoy! Sorry I didn't get a "sliced & enjoy" pic--our dinner guests showed up (elk liver was the main entree) and pitched into it before I could clean my hands & take a photo. It is that good!

Winter on the Prairie: Twin Bridges, Montana

The town of Twin Bridges was named for the two historic bridges (1865) that crossed two tributaries -- the Beaverhead and Big Hole Rivers -- near the confluence where they formed the Jefferson River. Twin is home to our favorite restaraunt, The Old Hotel (built c. 1879), as well as to Jan Munday's employer, A New Arrival (an adoption agency). Jan was there for work but wanted to stay for the town's Christmas stroll, so I tagged along and went off for a hike. It's a pleasant 50-mile drive from Butte (when the roads are good), as seen by the scenery of these eroded hills above the Jefferson River valley:

West of Twin Bridges lies mostly prairie land broken by a few hills and ringed by the ridges of the Tobacco Root Mountains and (on the Melrose/Big Hole side) Mount McCartney. Dave Carter and I have camped and explored some of the area, particularly the Rochester Basin (a historic mining district), so I elected to explore another spot on the map around Nez Perce creek. Though not much of a creek flows out of these high desert hills, it probably received the name because it was a good shortcut to the Big Hole River route to the Nez Perce homelands in Idaho.

It's deceptively broken country--featureless at first glance, but a fence-line becomes an interesting feature to show off the subtle topography:

This is horse country, and here I am on foot. Yet I think of my friends with horses, that ride them occasionally on some road or not at all. Oh well, a small butte becomes a good reason to hike a mile or so:

Watch out for the abandoned mine shafts, though:

Here we are, ready to climb the little butte:

Interesting that moose travel miles across the prairie from the river bottoms to hang out here. I guess they like a reason for a hike too:

Or maybe it's to browse on the succulent curl-leaf mountain-mahogany (Cercocarpus ledifolius):

The leaves are coarse and foul to us, but mule deer and other hoofed browsers love 'em:

The butte was also dotted with skunkbrush (Rhus trilobata) shrubs:

Aptly, named in Latin for the three lobed leaves. It was only at home, looking at this photo on my computer screen, that I realized how beautiful was the lichen-encrusted quartz rock that I'd laid the leaf upon. As William Blake said, "To see a world in a grain of sand, And a heaven in a wild flower" or, in this case, a leaf and a rock:

RTD (aka Roly The Dog) is more into landscapes (or good smells). Here she is, looking out over the prairie (and giving those paws full of prickly pear cactus spines a rest):

Afer lunch and a quick nap, it was time to head back to the car, and thence to the town.

I'll close with more excerpts from Blake's "Auguries of Innocence" (you Jarmusch Dead Man film buffs will also remember some of these lines):

Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,
And eternity in an hour....

Every wolf's and lion's howl
Raises from hell a human soul.

The wild deer, wand'ring here and there,
Keeps the human soul from care....

Every night and every morn
Some to misery are born,
Every morn and every night
Some are born to sweet delight.

Some are born to sweet delight,
Some are born to endless night...