Mr.
Chairman: My name is Kathy J. Zanetti. I am a 49-year-old grandmother of four
and a proud member of a fifth generation family from the Historic
Silver Valley of North Idaho.
I
would like to thank you and Senator Crapo for the opportunity to speak before
this committee today on a topic that has dominated the attention
of my community for the last two years.
I
am honored to represent the Citizens of Silver Valley and testify in support of
Senate Bill 606. As
Senator Crapo stated, I am the chairman of Shoshone Natural Resources
Coalition, a non-profit group of volunteer citizens, who work and live in the
Coeur d’ Alene basin and are concerned about Human Health, Environmental and
Economic Issues.
We
are a grassroots organization made up of a very diverse group of
individuals. SNRC
represents business owners, district school officials, community leaders, local
elected officials and generations of Silver Valley Families. Many of our members have been involved in
EPA issues in the Upper CDA Basin for 20 plus years.
And
although our approach and opinions about cleanup in the Silver Valley may be
different, we are united in the common need for a truly independent
Ombudsman.
We
are a community filled with an intense pride, for our heritage,
our families and most of all our way of life. A way of life now held
precariously in peril by the decisions of various federal agencies.
The
Environmental Protection Agency came to the Silver Valley in the early 1980’s
shortly after CERCLA [Superfund] became law, to address specific cleanup at the
Bunker Hill Smelter and they have been there ever since.
Although,
there may have been a human health risk that warranted their presence at the
time, there is no medical or undisputed scientific evidence that
one exits today.
In
the last 20 some years, the EPA has spent over $400million dollars in the
Silver Valley and has not even completed the original scope of cleanup. EPA Region 10 deceived the public by first
promising that the superfund site in Kellogg would not extend beyond its
initial 21-square mile box.
Yet,
they have unilaterally expanded the range of remediation by 1500 square miles,
crossing state lines, adding to the cost another $360millon dollars (possibly
as much as $1.3billion) and creating the Nation’s Largest Superfund Site. With little or no regard to the citizens or
communities who must endure these ever changing boundaries.
Whereupon
today, after all the money and billion-dollar expansion plans, EPA’s own
Central Impoundment Area at the Bunker Hill Superfund Site, remains the largest
point source contributor of metals into our watershed.
It
is our sincere wish to take care of any necessary cleanup
that remains to be done in the Upper Basin, to get out from under the Stigma
of “Superfund”, and to rebuilding our lives, as well as,
the economic stability of our community.
Superfund
actions around the nation have taken on a life of their own, which hold
communities such as mine in a never-ending state of limbo.
It appears that Region 10 EPA in their dealings with the Coeur d’ Alene River
Basin of North Idaho has become a Bureaucratic machine, driven by personal
agendas.
After
years of attending meetings, drafting comments and writing hundreds of letters,
we realize that our voices have fallen on deaf ears. When in reality, we were
merely being counted as part of the agencies numbers game. They hold hearings
and workshops but do not seem to listen to the concerns of
the communities involved.
We
have truly had nowhere else to turn, until the Ombudsman stepped
forward.
EPA’s
OFFICE OF HAZARDOUS WASTE AND THE OFFICE OF INSPECTOR GENERAL:
The
Office of the Ombudsman has answered our call to the Silver Valley.
First, under the Office of Solid Waste and Emergency
Response, where it’s authority was maintained by the very entity it was
investigating, budgets and personnel were used to control ombudsman activities
and who’s mail was often intercepted by EPA Congressional Affairs. All of which
resulted in a total lack of independence. Where the United States Department of
Justice even attempted to kill the investigation to protect its Natural
Resource Damage lawsuit.
Second, at present, under the Office of Inspector General,
the Ombudsman is to assume duties other than those designated under Superfund,
take on an increased workload and basically ceases to exist as an office
because, it is now a part of yet, another bureaucracy within a larger
bureaucracy.
While
we welcome the attempt to work with the IG’s office and will welcome them with
open but cautious arms to the Silver Valley, we feel that in the long term this
situation cannot work. There must
be a dedicated, independent Ombudsman.
The
National Ombudsman serves as the only intermediary between EPA and citizens
when things have gone terribly awry.
This office is the last resort and sometimes the only resort for the
common citizen and common sense. The
Office of the Ombudsman, above all else, requires independence, so that it may
work effectively with both sides to find reasonable and successful solutions
that are environmentally sound and meeting the needs of communities everywhere.
The ombudsman position is the people’s court
of last resort. Communities like the
Silver Valley need an Ombudsman who not only can, but also who must, intervene
on environmental health and safety issues on our behalf. Without having
their hands tied, actions influenced and censored by the controls of other
agencies.
Only the Ombudsman can answer our call to do the
right thing!
SENATE BILL 606, THE OMBUDSMAN REATHORIZATION ACT:
To be effective and of true service to the public, an
Ombudsman must be independent, accountable and unbiased. I believe Senate Bill 606 achieves these
objectives. Without S606 communities
like mine have nowhere to turn when they have exhausted all hope of working
constructively with the EPA. And I for
one; refuse to continue to allow the Environmental Protection
Agency to use my own tax dollars unchecked against either me, or
my family.
Finally,
in this Great Nation, our structure of government is set up with many forms of checks
and balances, so that citizens have a channel to express concerns
against abuse or cupreous acts of public officials.
The National Ombudsman Office is that channel, and
therefore, should be able to work unimpeded to help achieve fair, as well as
reasonable, checks and balances of the EPA.
In conclusion, I would like to also submit this written
testimony.
Thank you for the opportunity to testify before this
committee today and I urge you to please support Senate Bill 606.