Beautiful Payette Lake, Idaho is high in Mercury. Careful eating those fish!
A cement plant in a sparsely inhabited part of Oregon produces massive amounts of neurotoxic mercury. Idaho’s Simpson wants to give them a free pass to pollute Idaho-
Mercury is not an unavoidable contaminant of cement. However, the deposit near Durkee, Oregon contains a very high level. Durkee, Oregon itself is a bit of nothing about 25 miles west of the Idaho border.
Isn’t it great, Idaho Representative Mike Simpson reaches out to Oregon, at least to their polluters? Representing Idaho’s fishing and beautiful environment would be cool thing to do too, but that doesn’t seem to be his way.
Payette Lake Fish High in Mercury. Sisyphus’s blog in 43rd State Blues.

Ash Grove Cement at Durkee, Oregon. August 2010. It doesn't look like much, but it is an amazingly concentrated source of mercury pollution -- the second largest open air source of mercury pollution in the entire country! Copyright Ralph Maughan

Ralph Maughan
Dr. Ralph Maughan is professor emeritus of political science at Idaho State University with specialties in natural resource politics, public opinion, interest groups, political parties, voting and elections. Aside from academic publications, he is author or co-author of three hiking/backpacking guides, and he is past President of the Western Watersheds Project.
Subscribe to Blog via Email
Recent Posts
- Bozeman Watershed Project Based on Flawed Assumptions April 7, 2021
- Livestock Influence On Soil Carbon Storage April 6, 2021
- Mexican wolf depredation investigations …. again April 5, 2021
- Antidote For Rural Sprawl–Land Use Zoning April 1, 2021
- The 99-Year Old Grandmother Argument–The Bias of Forestry Advocates March 30, 2021
Recent Comments
- Hiker on Reader generated wildlife news.
- Ed Loosli on Reader generated wildlife news.
- Nancy on Reader generated wildlife news.
- STG on Bozeman Watershed Project Based on Flawed Assumptions
- Rich on Mexican wolf depredation investigations …. again
- Tamara Bedic on Mexican wolf depredation investigations …. again
- Ed Loosli on Reader generated wildlife news.
- Ida Lupine on Reader generated wildlife news.
- Ida Lupine on Reader generated wildlife news.
- Ida Lupine on Reader generated wildlife news.
- Nancy on Reader generated wildlife news.
- Beeline on Livestock Influence On Soil Carbon Storage
- David Hoefer on Domestic Sheep Threaten Wild Bighorns
- Charles Jennings on Domestic Sheep Threaten Wild Bighorns
- Opsec on Northern Rockies Ecosystem Protection Act Introduced