Letters To The Editor

WASHINGTON STATE

Silver served ‘with style’

State Rep. Jean Silver of Spokane recently announced she will not seek re-election to the Washington state Legislature. What a loss for Spokane and Olympia.

As Rep. Silver’s legislative assistant the past seven years, I’m aware of the impact she’s had in Olympia. Our office was active, exciting and involved. She was and is admired and respected by her constituents, lobbyists, state agency directors and other legislators. Of the latter group, many consulted regularly with her on legislative issues and budget matters. She always had the ability to cut quickly through the rhetoric to the oft-dreaded bottom line.

During sessions, she regularly worked long hours studying the issues and preparing herself for the following day’s committee meetings. Yet she was always full of energy and enthusiasm. Not much got past her. She would not allow herself to be manipulated by outside influences, and she continually fought for issues that would affect in a positive way Spokane, eastern Washington and the entire state.

She was a hard worker who took her legislative responsibilities seriously. Her constituents loved her for it, which is why she was continually re-elected. Silver accomplished a great deal while serving. She authored and co-authored many valuable pieces of legislation and had a tremendous, positive impact on the budget process.

She treated everyone equally, with dignity and respect, regardless of their position in life. She always took time to meet with those who requested some time with her. She continually displayed her most prominent characteristic: integrity.

Silver has been an outstanding legislator. She did the job she was sent to do. In short, she served with style. Janet Haag Olympia

SPOKANE MATTERS

Road repair: Will the south rise again?

I recently returned from a 5,600-mile vacation journey through 13 Western states. The best streets and highways, and the most considerate drivers, were in Texas. The worst streets and roads, and the most inconsiderate drivers, were found in and around Spokane.

Now the city is considering another bond issue of $15 million to $45 million to fix our roads and streets. I can’t help wondering if anybody remembers the big, black signs with white lettering promising to resurface North Maple and North Ash with the last big bond issue we approved for street repairs.The signs vanished shortly after the bonds were approved and less than three years later the money was gone. North Maple and North Ash - almost anywhere north of the river - are still North Side drivers’ favorite potholes.

Do we get any assurances that North Side streets and roads will fare any better with this bond issue than they did with the last? Somebody at City Hall should check a local map. Spokane actually extends north of the river. Dave Perkins Spokane

Bluegrass grown for soil building

(Cartoonist) Milt Priggee and Cherie Rodgers (“What’s it to be, profit or health?” Letters, June 18) just can’t get it straight.

Farmers don’t grow bluegrass purely for profit. Profit is simply a means to an end. Farmers grow bluegrass because environmental benefits of crop rotation fit the ecosystem and the microclimate of Eastern Washington, particularly Spokane County. Growing bluegrass prevents as much as 10 tons of soil erosion per acre per year.

Spokane’s air quality radicals would trade away this soil building benefit for a meager reduction - less than oneseventh of a ton - in air quality particulate matter (based on Rodgers’ figures of 844 tons divided by 6,405 acres). The fact that environmental trade-offs simply don’t add up and are being ignored by the Department of Ecology is the real scandal story here.

WSU research referred to by Rodgers is based on only two years of data, acknowledged as incomplete by researchers. Statistically significant results require at least 10 years of data. Rodgers conveniently neglected to reveal this fact.

What’s it to be? Priggee needs to get out of the office and review his perceptions of Eastern Washington’s most environmentally beneficial crop rotation alternative. Profits generate tax revenue. Future generations cannot afford to lose the soil building benefits of bluegrass.

Grass growers are true environmentalists, but they cannot afford to grow bluegrass without earning a profit. Chris Lyle, co-chairman Washington Association of Wheat Growers, Ritzville

G&B Presents a credit to Spokane

As a frequenter of the many events that have passed through Spokane’s Opera House, and while attending last weekend’s performance of “Les Miserables,” it occurred to me just how important Goodale & Barbieri’s G&B Presents is to Spokane.

G&B brings quality, name-recognized musicals and plays to Spokane, enriching this very community. I personally applaud G&B for its continued goodwill and genuine dedication by sponsoring such quality civic events.

Happy 10th anniversary, G&B Presents. Spokane is proud and fortunate to have you here. Jonathan Ferraiuolo Spokane

It’s Spokane Ambulance, however…

Never having had to use the Spokane Ambulance previously I was surprised to find that service has its principle office in Los Angeles, or possibly Santa Clara, Calif.

Is the city of Spokane unable to provide its own ambulance service? Why are we depending on a service in California?

This is not a complaint about the service. I am wondering how the Spokane Ambulance service operates elsewhere than Spokane. There must be an easy answer. John P. Moulton Sr. Spokane

LAW AND JUSTICE

Sex purveyors can, should be regulated

In his defense of adult bookstores and nude entertainment establishments (“Adult venues comparatively orderly,” Letters, June 17), Lee Bryon propagates a misconception that any regulation of the entertainment industry such as sex businesses automatically violates our constitutional rights.

The fact is that if well-written laws are on the books regulating these businesses and are upheld by the courts, no rights have been taken away. They weren’t there in the first place.

Most people are unaware of such degrading conditions as the “glory holes” in the walls of some sex businesses that have provided for illicit and lewd sexual activity, the unsanitary conditions of many of the viewing booths and the intense physical contact between lap dancers and patrons that blur the distinction between so-called entertainment establishments and outright houses of prostitution.

What are the rights Bryon feels are going to be “chipped away”? A right to totally unrestricted access to our communities by industries of greed and vice that profit from seducing our young women and encouraging men in the notion that promiscuous sex in all forms is somehow an entitlement? A right to liberate men and sex businesses to exploit women?

We as a society need to stop worshiping at the altar of the god of rights and start considering responsibilities.

The city of Spokane should take immediate action in adopting a nude entertainment ordinance for the safety and protection of our community. Wayne Lawson Spokane

Deputy prosecutor should lose job

“Delay of trial forces dismissal of rape charges” read the June 12 headline. Another judge dismissed another rape case that Spokane County Deputy Prosecutor Carol Davis was attempting to handle.

If newspaper accounts are correct, it was Davis’ second major failure this year - failures that have apparently left two women victims doubly victimized and two suspects unprosecuted. It sure makes me feel confident about the criminal justice system.

Why was Davis allowed to continue to work significant cases after her first major failure? Because it wasn’t her fault? She depended on someone else? Everyone is entitled to one mistake? Rubbish! These were rape cases. Very likely, the victims were hurt by the alleged perpetrators - badly - in their head, where they’ll carry it around for the rest of their lives.

After the first mistake, Davis was not entitled to potentially inflict additional injury on a second victim. In this day, when justice and fairness and reason take a backseat to getting the ‘I’s dotted and the ‘T’s crossed perfectly, the prosecutor is responsible for getting the details right or risking case dismissal or overturn on appeal. Davis failed in that responsibility, no matter what the excuses were. Lest another victim be hurt, she should be moved to a position where her abilities are better used and not be permitted to prosecute any more cases. Perhaps lawyer Davis could turn failure into success by working to reform the legal system so that we citizens have confidence in it again. Tom Hargreaves Spokane

THE ENVIRONMENT

Company-bought science a sham

The mining industry “science” your June 21 headline states “rebuts metals threat” is just that - mining industry science.

This so-called science was “paid for by Hecla and others in the mining industry.” It was printed in the Forum section of Northwest Science, which states in its policy, ” … Forum is not peer-reviewed.” The author reinforces this in his acknowledgments, “The author is grateful to Dr. Dominic di Toro and an anonymous reviewer for their critical reviews …”

Not peer-reviewed. Anonymous reviewers.

The U.S. Geological Survey reports that in one day of the February floods, more than one million pounds of lead were washed into Lake Coeur d’Alene from the legacy of mining wastes that pollute the Spokane-Coeur d’Alene watershed. It also reports that, compared to 1993, the lake received 16 percent of it’s total annual phosphorus load in that same single day.

Scientific “debate” surrounds just this issue: How much nutrient loading a lake polluted with 165 billion pounds of heavy-metal contaminated sediments can handle. Even the industry scientist says, “In my view, the main threat to the future health of the waters and biota of the lake is … eutrophication. Perhaps more-stringent constraints on inputs of phosphorus will be needed.”

If the mining companies want to buy “science” for their lawyers to use in court, that’s their choice. Our choice is to focus on the pollution and how to protect our region’s quality of life.

Finding solutions means working on the problem, not creating “science” to deny a problem exists. Mark Solomon, executive director Inland Empire Public Lands Council, Spokane

No new leaf for mining companies

The sideshow over Professor Tom Pedersen’s findings obscures the clearest facts: Mining has generated both profits and pollution, and the companies that reap the former should pay for removing the latter.

There is room for more scientific research into whether the tons of mining residue on Lake Coeur d’Alene’s floor are harmful or not - good, unbiased research, not influenced by mining dollars or environmentalists’ pleas.

But there is no debate on the continuing pollution of Idaho’s lakes, streams and rivers by fresh tailings and other residue from mining. According to the Idaho Conservation League, 136,000 pounds of lead entered Lake Coeur d’Alene during one day of flooding last year.

It is the simplest notion imaginable, one cast in more than 3,000 years of law and tradition: If you make a mess while making money, you have to pay for the cleanup yourself.

Surely, a prudent path to follow would be that of stopping today’s and tomorrow’s pollution while we research and debate how best to handle yesterday’s. But, sad to say, the mining industry that created the problem in the first place is spending the most money and exerting the most influence in stopping such a cleanup. Fred Glienna Coeur d’Alene

Pollution not just from mining

I agree with Opinion Editor John Webster’s June 3 editorial (“Environmentalists create lead scare”) and am outraged that we taxpayers paid for the environmental groups to promulgate this. This is just another example of the improper use of taxpayers’ money.

The Inland Empire Public Lands Council is really after Sen. Larry Craig, whose legislation can be a solution.

People agree that something has to be done with helping the environment. However, mining companies are voluntarily taking steps to clean up the Silver Valley. How can we expect something that has taken place for over a century to be cleaned up overnight? The mining companies have all spent millions of dollars to make an effort to clean up the Superfund sites.

If people are so concerned about lead then why haven’t they moved out of the area? If they are all so worried about the lead, why do they continue to boat or take the risk of swimming in the lake?

You can’t tell me that mining is the cause of all the contaminants put into the lake. People are fertilizing their yards close to the shore and when it rains the water runoff goes into the lake.

I would like to see, as a taxpayer, who is paying for these so-called studies, the data that support poisoning of the lake. Cynthia S. Miller Coeur d’Alene

Yes, let’s finally heed sound science

Spokesman-Review Editor Chris Peck embraces sound science for restoring Lake Coeur d’Alene. Scientists warned for over 60 years against mining companies dumping pollution; 30 years against timber companies clearcutting forest canopies. In 1904 farmers first sued mining companies to stop dumping.

From 1929-1930 the Coeur d’Alene Press published “Valley of Death,” a series riveting attention to mining companies’ pollution threatening Lake Coeur d’Alene. “Valley of Death” prompted scientific studies by Interior Department’s Dr. M.M. Ellis.

Scientific studies revealed mostly lifeless waters from the mining district to Lake Coeur d’Alene, high concentrations of suspended lead in the lake and pollution flowing into Washington.

Ellis recommended that mining companies must stop dumping. Thirty-five years later, in 1968, mining companies stopped dumping.

Today 160 billion pounds of heavy-metal-polluted mine wastes are moving downstream.

In the 1960s Forest Service watershed specialists warned clearcutting forests would worsen flooding. Massive clearcutting and road building proceeded anyway, destabilizing watersheds upstream from Spokane. Watershed specialists were booted. Today overcutting continues - the “forest health” hoax.

In 1996 floods swept a million pounds of lead into Lake Coeur d’Alene in a single day. Stakes are high for the half million people who live and work in this river ecosystem.

Peck and I share the view that restoration should be based on sound science. However, as underscored by conservationists for over a decade, that’s not an excuse to further delay restoration and merely study the Lake Coeur d’Alene-Spokane River watershed to death. John Osborn, M.D. Inland Empire Public Lands Council, Spokane

Can’t see forest for the bad data

Re: the front page story June 19 proclaiming “Fierier forest fires on horizon”: Steve Mealey is full of hot smoke.

The statement that, historically, forests were open, park-like stands is simply not true. One cannot generalize that way. In cooler, wetter habitats, open, park-like stands never existed.

Are forest fires escalating in severity? Here is an example of bad science, the type Mealey is using: The Boise National Forest did a study because, it says, wildfires have increased in severity since 1986. The agency provided no data to support this claim.

As forests take hundreds and sometimes thousands of years to go through the succession cycle, one cannot assess if wildfire is different than normal in only a 10-year period. They examine historical data only as recent as the mid-1950s. We don’t know enough about forest history to conclude that wildfire is becoming a problem.

So, why the fuss? Wildfire threatens forests economically. Logging to save the forests from fire is a sweet little excuse to get the cut out. But, in the long run, if we continue to log in the name of “forest health,” we will have nothing but sickly forests.

The Forest Service lacks the evidence that fires burn hotter in open, park-like stands. Data it uses to determine forest health is sketchy at best. Don’t be fooled by the hype. Natalie Shapiro Moscow