The Politics of International Pollution Control: The Trail Smelter Case
| DOI | 10.1177/002070207202700204 |
| Published date | 01 June 1972 |
| Date | 01 June 1972 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
D.H.
DINWOODIE
The
politics
of
international
pollution
control:
the
Trail
smelter
case
The
major
obstacles
facing
current
efforts
to
control
air
and
water
pollution
along
the
Canadian-United
States
border
were
demon-
strated
thirty-five
years
ago
in
the
Trail
smelter
case.
The
resolution
of
the
case
through
treaty
and
consequent
arbitration
-
the
first
international
pollution
incident
settled
in
this
manner
-
provided
legal
precedent
as
well
as
ultimate
satisfaction
to
the
injured.
A
nation's
responsibility
to
prevent
fumes
originating
within
its
juris-
diction
from
causing
serious
injury
in
the
territory
of
another
was
affirmed,
damage payments were
assessed,
and
controls
prescribed
for
industrial
emissions
crossing
an
international
boundary.
Politi-
cal
and
economic
influences
in
both
countries
heightened
the
bitter-
ness
of
this
air pollution
controversy,
prolonged
it
for
a
decade,
and
eventually
determined
the
diplomatic agreement
providing
for
settlement.
The
offender
in
the
conflict
was
the huge
smelting
complex
at
Trail,
British
Columbia,
a
few
miles
north
of
the
border
with the
State
of
Washington.
Operated
by
the
Consolidated
Mining
and
Smelting Company
Ltd
(Cominco),
which
was
controlled
by
the
Canadian
Pacific
Railway,
the
smelter
processed
lead
and
zinc
ores
from
the
surrounding mining
district.
It
exercised
a
predominant
role
in
the
area's
economy
through
the
large
work
force
employed
at
the
plant
and
in
the
mines.
Annual
revenue
benefits
to
the
Cana-
dian
government
through
the
company's
tax
payments
normally
amounted
to
one
million
dollars.
The
effects
of such a
major
industry
were
not
wholly
beneficial.
The
smoke
from
the
refining
process
contained
sulphur
dioxide
gas,
Associate
Professor
of
History,
University
of Alberta.
220
INTERNATIONAL
JOURNAL
sulphuric
acid
mist,
and
the
dust
of
metallic
compounds.
The
sulphur
dioxide
gas
was
the
most
patently
harmful product
because
of
its
broad dissemination
and
its
destructive
effect,
under
certain
conditions,
on
plant
tissue.
Vegetation
subjected
to
a
prolonged
concentration
of
the
gas
in
a
sunny,
moist atmosphere
suffered
a
bleaching
effect
on
leaves
and
eventual
loss
of yield. American
in-
vestigators
had
found
"that the
safe
limit
of average
concentration
where
a
smelter
smoke
stream
comes
in
contact
with
vegetation
must
not
be
more
than
three-tenths
of
a
part
of
sulphur
dioxide
in
one
million
parts
of
air."
1
Concentrations
immediately adjacent
to
Trail
often
exceeded
this
level
and
contributed
to
crop
injury
and
the
generally
barren
appearance
of
the
environs.
In
responding
to
the complaints
of
nearby
Canadian
farmers,
several
alternatives
were
open
to
Cominco.
It
could
pay
damage
claims,
purchase
smoke easements
on the
affected
properties,
dilute
the
smoke
through raising the
stacks
to
a
great
height,
or
remove
the
sulphur
dioxide
gas
from the
fumes
by
converting
it
to
sul-
phuric
acid.
The
last
option
was
economically
unattractive
to
the
company
because
of
the
limited
market
and
transportation
expense
for
either the
reclaimed
acid
or
its
phosphate
fertilizer
byproduct
manufactured
by
some
American
smelters.
The
company
instead
met
agricultural
damage claims
it
considered reasonable,
secured
easements,
and
in
1925,
with
production
rising,
increased
the
height
of
its
stacks
to over
400
feet.
Greatly
dependent
on
the industry,
British
Columbia residents
accepted
these
arrangements
and
the
accompanying
defoliation.
Their
American
neighbours
in northern
Stevens
County,
Washing-
ton,
reacted
with vigour,
however, to increasingly
heavy
smoke
fumigations
resulting
from
the
heightened
stacks
and the
funnel
effect
of
the
Columbia River
gorge
curving from
Trail
across
the
international
boundary.
The
village
of
Northport,
Washington,
about
io
miles
from
the
border,
and
the
small
farms
on
the
gravel
i
United
States,
National
Archives, Records of
the
Department
of
State,
Record
Group
59,
decimal
file
711.4215
Air
Pollution/
97,
Report
of
the Director,
Bureau
of
Mines,
to
the
Department
of
State
on
Smelter
Smoke
Abatement,
9 October
1928.
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