Section One Historical Context
The Trail Smelter is located in Trail, British Columbia in the south-eastern corner of the Kootenays, which is known as a mineral-rich area. The smelter was initially built by American F. Augustus Heinze in 1895 to treat lead and zinc ore materials from the nearby Rossland mines.[1] The smelter was bought by the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) in 1898 when tracks were being laid into the town and when a competing smelter was built in nearby Northport, Washington State. The Trail Smelter became a factor in the Canadian government's efforts to establish a smelting industry in Canada, which had sent ores to American smelters for processing in the past.[2]The Trail Smelter operation grew, adding other local mines to the portfolio, and were incorporated as the Consolidated Mining and Smelting Company of Canada (COMINCO) in 1905, and continued to be supported by the CPR.[3] By 1916 the Trail Smelter was producing monthly outputs of 4,700 tons of sulphur, but with post World War I expansion and technological improvements to the smelting process, the company doubled the smelter's output throughout the 1920s and was producing 10,000 tons monthly by 1930.[4]
Most of Trail's male residents worked for the smelter and local businesses and farmers relied on the income from smelter employee salaries. Smoke from the smelter was seen by many residents as a sign of prosperity and continued employment, who argued that the "thicker the smoke ascending from Smelter Hill the greater Trail's prosperity."[5] Local farmers, however, complained about the effects of the toxic smoke on their crops, and eventually went to arbitration with COMINCO between 1917 and 1924, leading to the assessment of fines of $600,000 being levied against the defendant. The fines were to serve as compensation for smoke damage to crops and COMINCO buying four complete farms (out of sixty farms involved)[6] closest to the stacks.[7] No government regulations of the smelter's output were imposed on COMINCO as a result of this initial arbitration.[8]
In 1926 COMINCO began to look for ways to reduce the smelter's smoke output while increasing production.[9] The Trail Smelter owners increased the height of the smoke stacks to 409 feet, in an effort to disperse the smoke further from the smelter by pushing it higher into the atmosphere.[10]
Looks good Sliver! The only thing I can think of changing is Farmers in Washington claimed the smoke from the smelter was causing harm to their crops and {also attributed to} forest loss.
The changes are in {} Mhills91 (talk) 18:10, 13 March 2012 (UTC)
Sliver9754 (talk) 19:26, 10 March 2012 (UTC)
References
edit- ^ Elsie G.Turnbull, Trail Between Two Wars: The Story of a Smelter City. (Victoria: Morriss Printing, 1980), 7.
- ^ Turnbull, 13.
- ^ John D. Wirth, Smelter Smoke in North America: The Politics of Transborder Pollution. (Lawrence: University of Kansas Press, 2000), 12.
- ^ Turnbull, 57.
- ^ James R Allum,quoting Turnbull, in ""An Outcrop of Hell": History, Environment, and the Politics of the Trail Smelter Dispute,"'Transboundary Harm in International Law: Lessons from the Trail SmelterArbitration,' Bratspies, Rebecca M. and Russell A. Miller eds. (Cambridge:Cambridge University Press, 2006),14.
- ^ Allum, 15.
- ^ Turnbull, 57.
- ^ Allum, 15.
- ^ Wirth, 4.
- ^ Allum, 15.
Section One Historical context for dispute
This section will provide background information about the smelter’s history, the importance of the smelter to the town of Trail in terms of number of families employed, businesses reliant on the smelter and years of operation at capacity.
Section Two Dispute details
This section will briefly describe the parties involved and the efforts made to resolve the dispute prior to going to arbitration. It will also describe the damage as alleged by the complainants in terms of smoke and water pollutants.
Section Three Arbitration
This section will outline the complexities of the arbitration that resulted when the dispute continued long term, and include the involvement of the federal governments, local officials and international adjudicators. There were some interesting anecdotes around these proceedings.
Section four Reparations Required and Transboundary issues
This section will describe the outcome of the arbitration and what decisions were made. Cominco had to pay the farmers and also had to reduce the emissions from the smelter, which they did with higher stacks and limiting operations during planting periods. There could be room here for how the farmers felt about the reparations, perhaps whether farming continued in the area?
Section Five Smelter's Continued polluting and long term legacies
This section could reflect that although changes were made to reduce pollution output, the smelter continued to operate and compensated the nearby landowners. The long term effects of the Cominco operations continue to the present, as seen with current claims against the company.