Smelter concern bubbles up at Oldtown council

OLDTOWN — Last week’s City Council meeting featured an earnest discussion by residents and officials on the prospects of harm or prosperity thanks to HiTest’s proposed silicon smelter plant.

The Canadian company has bought land near Newport and is in the permitting process to construct a silicon smelter that some area residents fear will destroy the rural community’s way of life, and wield devastating environmental and health problems.

Mayor Lonnie Orr offered a public comment period at the beginning of the meeting to give concerned residents a chance to speak their minds. Rose Farris told the mayor and council members that HiTest had never built a smelter before, that the company would also produce aluminum at the Newport facility, that residents would breathe in toxins, and that local residents would end up suffering from silicosis, asthma, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, better known as COPD.

Orr admitted that there were “a lot of unanswered questions” regarding the smelter, and that was one reason why the city was taking in letters from residents that would be sent to Boise for the state’s consideration. “It’s probably a good deal, but not where they want to put it,” said Orr, who pointed to the schools, hospitals, elderly population, and those with breathing difficulties living very close to the proposed facility. He also said the trucks hauling materials for the smelting process may overburden Idaho’s roads. The states of Washington and Idaho had long promoted the Pend Oreille County and Bonner County areas for their clean environment, recreational opportunities, and quality of life, Orr said. “They’re taking a heck of a chance” putting a smelter one mile from Newport, he said.

As for the argument that the smelter would bring jobs to the area, Orr said he felt that those who wanted to work were already working, and that those who didn’t want to work wouldn’t get off of welfare to work at the smelter.

Sean Maesner, who owns The Club Rio here as well as Maze Investments Corporation, and is in the process of starting a local jetsurf academy business to bring sporting tourists to town, said he would leave the area and take his jobs with him if the smelter is built. His kids can’t stay in an area with toxins in the air, he said.

Maesner said he was dead serious that he would sell his properties and take the money he’s invested in the area to another location. He would also help employees relocate with him, he said. The smelter would kill the area and any chance he’d have of capitalizing on the river’s potential as an international jetsurfing destination. The stigma of pollution would keep tourists away, he said.

Maesner agreed with Orr that “everyone who wants to work is working.”

He said he was sad to see Oldtown, which is undergoing a revitalization thanks to new businesses such as a planned Burger King, revert to stagnation with the smelter.

Orr agreed, saying “to take a chance on screwing that up doesn’t make much sense.” The mayor added that there was not much that the city could do at this stage, given that the project is taking place in a different state. He explained that the state of Idaho couldn’t get much involved until there was more progress in the permitting process.

The HiTest corporation plans to give a public presentation on its project at Sadie Halstead Middle School in Newport on Wednesday, Nov. 29 at 6 p.m.