Mine Firms Don’t Trust River Class Fear Bias In What Kids Study

Spokane-area schoolchildren next year may be getting lessons on lead in the Spokane River.

But Idaho mining interests are worried that those lessons could wind up resembling propaganda.

The Inland Empire Public Lands Council, a Spokane-based environmental group, has received a $33,500 grant from the Washington Department of Ecology to develop a science curriculum on watershed health.

“We believe the problems facing this watershed, particularly the metals, are ones that are going to take generations to address and solve,” said Mark Solomon, director of the council. “If you’re talking about a generation of time, you’d better start working with kids early.”

Last spring, the public lands council produced a video called “Get the Lead Out” with a similar state grant. The video was part of an outreach effort to raise awareness about mining pollution in the Spokane River.

Mining companies complained about the video, calling it a “scare tactic,” and Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, demanded that the state of Washington get its money back from the council.

The state Department of Ecology defended the video, but did ask the council to return $560 that was used to print brochures critical of Craig’s Coeur d’Alene Basin cleanup bill.

The grant money is available under Washington’s Model Toxics Control Act. Under the act, a tax on hazardous substances pays for toxic cleanup and grants for public outreach and education.

Mining industry spokeswoman Holly Houston said she was surprised that the Department of Ecology would award another education grant to the group after last year’s controversy.

“The Inland Empire Public Lands Council makes it quite clear where they come from,” she said.

Solomon said the curriculum will be factual and will deal with more watershed issues than just the heavy metal contamination. The video will likely be part of the materials in the teaching package, he said.

“This is not advocacy on an issue,” he said. “This is the development of a balanced curriculum that gives students and teachers ways to view science in the context of the watershed in which they live.”

Solomon invited the Northwest Mining Association to nominate someone to sit on the advisory team that will guide development of the curriculum.

At first the association’s director, Laura Skaer, was skeptical. A letter to Solomon from the agency advised that mining and agricultural interests should be on the team, because “input from these ‘adverse’ interests could serve to dilute claims that the curriculum promotes inaccurate findings or conclusions.”

But Skaer said that a supervisor with DOE assured her that the mining industry’s input would be more than token, and that the agency would be keeping a close eye on the development of the program.

“The advisory group was intended to play a major role,” Skaer said. “They then have to take it to the school districts and convince the school districts that it’s of educational value, and if it’s one-sided or targeted, that’s going to be a tough sell.”

The lands council is hiring the producer of the video, Timothy Cunninghamm, to create the watershed curriculum. Cunninghamm also worked for Washington Water Power on a curriculum called “The Nature of Water Power” that’s used in about 130 Washington and Idaho classrooms.

, DataTimes