Chamber Takes Heat Over Mine Cda Group’s Support Of Asarco Doesn’t Sit Well In Sandpoint

The Coeur d’Alene Chamber of Commerce is under attack - by its own members and Sandpoint residents - for supporting Asarco’s massive Rock Creek Mine.

Chamber volunteer Lori Barnes spoke at a public hearing on the chamber’s behalf this week. She asked federal regulators to approve Asarco’s controversial mine which many here fear will pollute Lake Pend Oreille.

What Barnes didn’t mention is she is on Asarco’s payroll. She’s worked for the company the past couple of months as an independent contractor. Barnes also neglected to say Coeur d’Alene chamber members never voted or were polled on their support for Asarco.

“This was deceptive and highly fraudulent. The fact this woman is on our chamber legislative committee should be reviewed,” said Nancy Lynne, a chamber member and president of Art Inc., a software company in Coeur d’Alene.

She’s already contacted an attorney and said she plans to revoke her chamber membership and support.

“To come out and claim support without polling members is outrageous. It’s unconscionable,” Lynne said. “If the chamber is pandering so heavily to the mining industry…I will immediately refuse to be associated with such an organization.”

Sandpoint’s chamber has not taken a stance on the mine. The issue is too controversial and members are split.

Lynne was at the public hearing to oppose the mine along with some of her employees. It stunned her when Barnes read the statement of support from the Coeur d’Alene chamber. Many Sandpoint audience members booed Barnes and told her to go back to Coeur d’Alene.

“I didn’t know who this woman was. I was never contacted by the chamber. No vote was taken,” Lynne said. She doubted whether businesses in the Silver Valley, near Bunker Hill (which is an Asarco Superfund site), would be in favor of another Asarco project.

Barnes did not return repeated calls to comment on her work for Asarco. But chamber officials defended her and the chamber stance.

The chamber statement was in support of retaining “natural resource” jobs, said chamber president Pat McGaughey. He claims he did not know Barnes was doing work for Asarco. “She’s a consultant for a wide variety of people,” he said.

Ben Wolfinger, chairman of the chamber’s legislative committee, did know Barnes worked with the mining company. Still, he asked her to deliver the statement because he couldn’t make it to the meeting.

“I don’t see it as a conflict,” Wolfinger said. “She could have asked someone else, I suppose, but she’s a member of the committee and has been for years.”

The statement of support for Asarco was signed by Wolfinger and the chairman of the board. It was not voted on by members, Wolfinger said. The mine falls under the chamber’s previously written policy on natural resources, so members didn’t need to be polled, he said.

Lynne said the same policy Wolfinger is using talks about protecting fish and wildlife. Mine opponents and state agencies have raised concerns about the mine disturbing grizzly bear habitat and bull trout spawning grounds. Bull trout are close to being listed as an endangered species.

“If they are so hip on supporting wildlife, how can they support this mine?” Lynne asked.

The mine would be sunk in the Cabinet Mountains near Noxon, Mont., just across the Idaho border. It would employ about 350 people and generate huge tax dollars. Waste from the mine also could pollute nearby rivers and Lake Pend Oreille.

Environmentalists note Asarco already has 21 Superfund sites across the country. They don’t want Sandpoint’s big lake added to the list in years to come.

“Coeur d’Alene has enough of its own mining waste to deal with. Why don’t they focus on their own problems instead of trying to create the same problems for us up here?” said Diane Williams, a spokeswoman for the Rock Creek Alliance, which has battled the mine for years.

She called Barnes’ testimony for the chamber a blatant conflict of interest and slap in the face to Bonner County residents.

“What does the Coeur d’Alene chamber have to do with Lake Pend Oreille anyway?”

Jobs at the mine will mean employees with paychecks shopping in Coeur d’Alene. That’s why the Coeur d’Alene chamber publicly supported Asarco, Wolfinger said.

The mine can provide jobs and protect water quality at the same time. The chamber is not “selling” one for the other, McGaughey said, adding the mine meets government standards. “Our position isn’t based on fanaticism but on the best scientific evidence,” he said.

Lynne has tried to contact chamber officials for the past two days. They haven’t returned her calls, only faxed her a copy of the chamber’s policy on natural resources. She said her reputation has been “slimed” by being associated with the chamber and the support for Asarco should be retracted.

“The chamber is not going to sweep this under the rug,” she said.

, DataTimes