Monsanto, an international corporation that mines and processes phosphate in Soda Springs, has joined the Idaho Conservation League in petitioning the DEQ board to regulate large mercury emitters like itself. Company officials said the move was not a change of heart, only a natural response to the advice of its environmental expert witness -- the same man whose testimony convinced the DEQ to kill the proposed rules this winter.
"We left the February board meeting feeling mercury regulation was not dead and we have work to do," said Mick McCullough, an engineer with Monsanto in Soda Springs. Now Monsanto is trying to persuade the rest of Idaho's industry leaders -- none of whom would be affected unless they opened a new facility that emitted hundreds of pounds of mercury. The Idaho Association of Industry and Commerce, among the state's most powerful business lobbies, is neutral so far but will hold a meeting Thursday to decide its position before the DEQ board's July 29 meeting.
Excerpted from IdahoStatesman.com.
