Environment
Pollution Solution: Bottle And Sell It
June 26, 2007 
The guys at the Federal Environmental Protection Agency need to take a positive view of the 1,200 pounds of phosphorus (an element in most fertilizers) being dumped into the Portneuf River at Pocatello each day.
Instead of viewing it as “pollution” they need to start bottling the stuff and selling it as MIRICAL-GROW liquid fertilizer. They could probably fund the cost of enforcement actions with the profits.
A recent report from the EPA claims the J.R. Simplot company is responsible for 82% of the phosphorus in the river which flows into American Falls Reservoir The environmental dudes just don’t know a good deal when they see it.
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Comments & Discussion
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© 2007 Boise Guardian. 
Jun 27, 2007, 9:36 am
“dumped into the Portneuf River” is inaccurate. The phosphorous load comes from contaminated groundwater that discharges into the river. The groundwater contamination comes from Simplot operations. However, Simplot is not “dumping” anything into the River.
EDITOR NOTE–Eric, your explanation makes it all clear. Perhaps we can say it is “dribbled, leaked, spilled, discharged, leached but not dumped.”
They don’t dump into the river, they pollute the groundwater that flows into the river–much better practice.
Jun 27, 2007, 10:29 am
laughing…
No, it doesn’t make any difference to the river at all. The pollution is largely coming from groundwater that was contaminated by historical practices.. not current ones. The problem is how to clean up the groundwater–and that’s not an easy thing to do. Just trying to point out that we don’t allow direct discharge to rivers without strict controls any more. Nor would we allow companies to pollute the groundwater today. The problem is how to remediate the sins of the past.
EDITOR NOTE–glad we got that straightened out. 🙂