Silicon Smelter Project In Newport, Washington

If you are interested in sharing a public notice / notification type of letter regarding the silicon smelter proposed for Newport, WA - here is something you may freely copy and use. Share with family, friends, newspapers, reporters, television stations - anyone who will listen.

Silicon Smelter Project In Newport, Washington

Please be informed that Newport, Washington is expecting to have the largest silicon smelter in the United States built here on the State line, bordering Newport, WA and Old Town, ID, producing  60,000 tons of metallurgical silicon, requiring millions of tons of silica sand to be transported through Idaho from Canada by heavy truck.

This will impact the Port of Entry, Bonners Ferry, Sandpoint, Laclede, Priest River and Old Town. Every town in Pend Oreille and Bonner County will be affected by the environmental footprint and air dispersion patterns.

In addition to silica sand, enormous amounts of coal will be brought in (allegedly from Kentucky) and wood chips, all burned in a sub-arc furnace process consuming enormous quantities of electricity to turn silica sand into metallurgical grade silicon.

Emissions from the plant will include carbon, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, fugitive gasses and silica dust, posing a daily hazard to every resident and child within a 350 mile radius due to wind patterns, acid rain and inversions. Noise, light, water and air pollution will be essentially non-stop. The plant is expected to last 50 years.

The tremendous impact upon hydroelectric power production and the need for huge power lines and transformer stations may even affect water levels in Pend Oreille lake, increasing river discharge and causing more then normal fluctuations.

Washington State, Pend Oreille County officials, and the Public Utility District (PUD) have supported this project against the wishes of the vast majority of informed local residents, with a great many other residents who still remain totally uniformed regarding the project, its impacts, environmental issues and the long term effects upon human health, wildlife and the local environment.

It is imperative that the residents throughout Pend Oreille, Bonner and Boundary counties be immediately informed of the intentions of the smelter owner, HiTest, Inc. of Edmonton, Canada and the selected location on the Newport / Old Town State line. The 192 acre property is immediately adjacent to the State line in Old Town, ID and only 3/4 of a mile by air from Newport (behind County dump on Highway 41). The land has already been purchased in a highly questionable deal from PUD.

Concerned residents are encouraged to lodge their protests in the strongest possible terms to their State and County representatives immediately. Governer Butch Otter (ID) was only just recently informed at last week's meeting in Sandpoint and had expressed complete surprise at the news, he had not been informed. It appears that nobody in Bonner County actually was.

We strongly oppose the industrialization of our community in the strongest possible terms, having found HiTest Inc., Pend Oreille County and Washington State officials seriously lacking in transparency, environmental stewardship and their intentions to place this hazardous activity less then 1 mile from Newport, affecting local schools, residents, businesses and tourism throughout the entire region. Nobody wants to live near a smelter, tourism will suffer and many homeowners are already promising to leave the area.

Silica is a known human carcinogen and causes silicosis, lung cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), kidney disease and scleroderma. There will also be environmental issues arising from acid rain, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and other greenhouse gasses being released into the atmosphere.

We do not have any reason to "trust the process" or the claims of HiTest, they have virtually no experience with smelter operations and have already demonstrated a clear pattern of abusing the public trust, their shareholders and engaging in secretive negotiations with State and County officials who still refuse to fully cooperate with the public inquiry into this project.

The residents of Golden, B.C., rejected the smelter location because of environmental hazards, as did the Usk, WA Kalispel Tribe of Indians, and residents of Addy, WA.  It is now up to us in Pend Oreille and Bonner County to resist this toxic plant and all of its operations anywhere it may be proposed within the United States.

Please inform your readership as soon as possible of this existential threat - more information can be found at pendoreillehealth.blogspot.com and on Facebook - Citizens Against Newport Silica Smelter (CANSS). Local resistance committees to the project have been formed in Newport, but we need your help, so please get involved. This will affect everyone.