Good Science, Sense Needed For Lake Cda

Tom Pedersen spends much of his life digging in mud.

He is neither a lawyer nor a politician. Rather, he is a distinguished professor of oceanography at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver.

His mud-slinging usually involves shoveling muck from oceans, rivers and lakes where he conducts research with college students.

Recently, however, Doctor Pedersen has felt the sting of mud being tossed at his reputation. He has been called a hack, a hired gun, a stooge for the mining industry.

What has happened to him illustrates the confusing, costly results of blurring the line between science, politics, and special interests.

Earlier this year Pedersen agreed to review the work of another scientist, Doctor Art Horowitz of the United States Geological Survey.

Horowitz, himself a respected scientist, had looked at samples of mud from Lake Coeur d’Alene where tons of lead, zinc and other heavy metals that have dissolved over the last 100 years as tailings washed downstream from the Silver Valley mining district.

In laboratory tests in Atlanta, Horowitz concluded that under the right circumstances metals in the mud could be released into the lake’s water. This could happen if oxygen levels at the bottom of the lake were to become depleted.

This release wouldn’t happen anytime soon.

It wouldn’t happen at all if the lake remained healthy and the oxygen stayed in the water.

But the mere idea of heavy metals leaking into the water of the biggest resort lake in Idaho would not only put a dent in the tourist industry but also pose a threat to those who drank or swam in the water.

Horowitz’s scientific report quickly was seized by energetic environmental attorneys and special interest groups to draft lawsuits and build support for nonprofit environmental fundraising.

In March, the U.S. Justice Department filed suit against four of the remaining Idaho mining companies, putting them on notice that the government wants the companies to pay more for cleaning up the residue of 100 years of mining.

A few days ago, the Inland Empire Public Lands Council released a video suggesting lead contamination of the Coeur d’Alene River basin poses a serious threat to human life.

For their part, the Idaho mining companies are fighting the federal lawsuit and making videos of their own.

As part of their efforts, the mining companies decided to review the scientific research related to the release of dissolved metals in lake water. That led them to Pedersen.

For a fee, he agreed to look at the research of Horowitz. “I made it very clear to the mining companies that whatever came out of my analysis would simply be the scientific truth and that’s all,” Pedersen said.

When he examined the work of USGS scientist Horowitz, Pedersen found what he considered to be flaws in the scientific method.

Pedersen knew there is a recipe for doing this kind of work. Horowitz didn’t follow that recipe.

For example, mud taken from a lake bottom must not be exposed to the air if the studies are to be valid. Pedersen found Horowitz had exposed his mud to the air.

The accepted test for finding out how much dissolved metal might be released into water involves a five-step procedure. Horowitz only followed two of the steps.

“For these reasons, you can’t draw a scientific conclusion from what Horowitz did because he didn’t do the science right,” Pedersen said.

Immediately, the mining industry trumpeted Pedersen’s research as refuting the danger of lead leaking into the lake.

Just as quickly, environmental groups jumped on Pedersen. “This is more like politics and less like science,” said Mark Solomon, executive director of the Inland Empire Public Lands Council. Back in his office in Vancouver, this hurt Pedersen.

“I had external review of my work,” he said. “I even asked Horowitz to review it before publication. For whatever reason he declined. But there is no way that this report is anything less than the truth that I found as a scientist. I don’t get bought by anybody.”

Pedersen doesn’t profess to know what might happen to the heavy metals at the bottom of Lake Coeur d’Alene.

He suggests the mining companies, environmental groups and the federal government fund a study of water data to determine the most likely future of the heavy metals at the bottom of the lake.

He notes that the increasing amounts of phosphorous in Lake Coeur d’Alene from human waste, fertilizers and rotting bark pose a much greater short-term threat to Lake Coeur d’Alene than the heavy metals.

His words likely will be drowned out.

The future of the region’s premier waterway seems destined to be decided by lawyers, mining companies and environmental activists duking it out in a war of public opinion and the courts.

In truth, the protection of Lake Coeur d’Alene needs good science and good sense, devoid of bad politics and heavy legal fees.

On this, I suspect even Dr. Petersen, and Dr. Horowitz would agree.

, DataTimes MEMO: Chris Peck is the Editor of the Spokesman-Review.