The deformed trout were discovered in a creek polluted with selenium runoff from J.R. Simplot Co.'s Smoky Canyon Mine in Caribou-Targhee National Forest in eastern Idaho. The photos of the deformed fish were included in an appendix to a 694-page study commissioned by Simplot and prepared by Formation Environmental, of Boulder, Colo., and HabiTech, of Laramie, Wyoming. Bizarre as it may seem, Simplot has attempted to use the report to pushregulators to allow higher levels of selenium in local streams.
Simplot's research of the mine's impact on the environment was harshly criticized by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which concluded in its own report that the company's science was "highly questionable" and riddled with "confounded data." |