Salt Lake Mining Review | 1905-09-15 | Page 1 | The Smelter Fume Problem

0 f t THE SMELTER FUME PROBLEM emms nm ms www in smelting smelling sm elting circles in utah the center of interest is environed in salt lake valley where are located the smelting smelling sm elting plants of the american smelting smelling Sm elting refining company the bingham consolidated the utah consolidated and the united states we say the center of interest not referring to the fact that the bulk of the ores of this great intermountain country are treated in away with this trouble as far as possible or at least to reduce it to the minimum the nature of these experiments and results obtained have not as yet been made public the best talent obtainable is engaged in this effort to eliminate smoke and fume trouble and at all four of the plants plant s mentioned above a corps of technical men eminent in their special lines of work are 4 ski bingham consolidated flue system and foundations for this locality but to the complaints made hy by the farmers that fumes and smoke from these splendid plants are destructive to growing crops and inimical to animal life aich which complaints although they are undoubtedly greatly exaggerated have induced the smelling smelting sm elting companies to go exhaustively hau stive ly into the subject of dani damages ages and have spurred them on to io the making ot of various experiments calculated to do 77 utah consolidated tumbler employed L experimentally in scrubbing fumes given constant employment and if a cure is not speedily effected it will not be because the companies have not spent many thousands of dollars in the e effort tort to bring about the desired results with conditions existing as above outlined and in view of the fact that the amel threaten to retaliate by causing the arrest of complaining farmers on the charge of perjury perjur y in preferring their claims for 19 damages damage 3 the following article from mining magazine of new york written by A W warwick will be of general interest mr warwick says more than thirty five years ago a policy was enunciated that has within the last six years been carried into complete effect by the organization odthe of the most powerful of all corporations odthe far west the american ff s esst Ss ST smelting smelling Sm elting and refining company usually alluded to as the A S and R co in 1868 J ross browne in the first government report on the western mining industry wrote the following remarkably clear sighted pr prediction e I 1 smelting smelling Sm elting will be the final and indispensable pen sable expedient bent for separating separated the precious metals from their matrix if smelt ing on a large scale could be established in all the mining territories there would doubtless ensue a subdivision of labor in the business of mining gold and silver as is now the case in iron mining the miner would limit his efforts to raising ore from the mine and the smelting smelling sm elting furnace would afford a market where the ore might command its price which would be better for all parties than the method hitherto pursued of raising and reducing ores under one administration the final consolidation of the guggenheim smelters shelters sm elters and the old american smelting smelling Sm elting and refining company has brought this prophecy to complete fulfilment fulfillment the consolidation of the smelting smelling sm elting plants under one management has caused radical changes not only in smelting smelling sm elting but in mining as well miners no longer have to wait tor for local treatment plants to be erected before they can sell their ores claims containing comparatively low grade ores can now be developed in many cases by the funds ob bained from shipments of ore to the amel provided the mines be close to a railroad distance from the smelter cuts no particular figure in order to scientifically mix the ores so as to make them self flux ing as far as possible ores are transported incredible distances today ores are brought to pueblo colorado from idaho british columbia mexico south america south dakota and in fact from the most unexpected quarters if one smelter has an excess of a certain kind of ore and a deficiency fici ency of another the shipments are diverted so as to take care of this condition once loaded on the cars a few hundred miles more or less of haul appear to make little difference in the old days of cutthroat cut throat competition by numerous smelting smelling sm elting companies such scientific mixing of ores was impossible at that time a smelter would get loaded up with say siliceous ores the ore rustlers of that concern would be ordered to get ferruginous ores at almost any price and a lively smelter rate cutting would be instantly inaugurated this of course is a thing of the past and we have almost forgotten the sensation of meeting men of quip and anecdote who apparently had little business in a mining camp other than to be hail fellow well met with all mine mind managers especially those with desirable ores to market so completely have we forgotten this state of affairs that the very term ore rustler will be new to many of the younger engineers an ore buyer is now pretty much of a curiosity in the mining districts of the west the solution of one problem as is always the case however caused another to arise the smelting smelling sm elting industry has been concentrated cent rated by the closing down ot of a number of large plants in spite of this the tonnage smelted smelter today is vastly in excess of that treated ony on ly a few years ago thus we have large smelting smelling sm elting plants treating tremendous tonnages ton tofi nages at a few centers and throw ing out at those places great volumes of sulphurous and sulphuric acid gases into the atmosphere this effect has been accentuated by the rapid exhaustion of oxidized ores and the coming in of vast masses of complex ores with depth the smelting smelling sm elting industry was never as prosperous as now before the con consolidation solida many of the smelters shelters sm elters were in a bad financial condition the profits made were comparatively small and were so divided that public attention was not attracted now however the dividends paid regularly by the A S and R co are so large and are zo so widely noted by the press that the imagination of even western farmers is stimulated under such circumstances we can readily understand how farmers anywhere within a radius of twenty miles of a smelter can persuade themselves that a crop shortage is not due to lack of water for irrigation to bad climatic conditions or I 1 vo 0 united states built for treatment of flue dust poor farming but to the pernicious influence of smelter fumes this feeling has been greatly intensified by the success of the governments suit against the mountain copper company in california and by the agitation started among the farmers in the salt lake valley all over the country farmers are harassing not only the smelter companies but the milling companies also to show the widespread agitation against the smelters shelters sm elters it is only necessary to mention a few of the more important cases although hardly a week goes by without a new suit for damages being filed in one of the western states of course we have first the suits against the mountain copper company which finally resulted in the plant being moved to martinez from keswick california the selby company on san francisco bay has suffered more or less I 1 e ss from trilling trifling damage suits culminating in the formation of farmers associations to fight the smelter in the salt lake valley about farmers have joined in an application for an injunction to restrain the A S and R the utah consolidated the th I 1 united states smelting smelling Sm elting and bingham co con 11 soli dated companies from operating th the smelters shelters sm elters in utah the farmers made the th 0 following sweeping allegations i 1 all A farm products and livestock are injured 2 the smelters shelters sm elters are a menace to health 3 the damage caused by the shelters smelters sm elters exceeds each year the full value of the plants the globe smelter denver recently fought a damage suit for a large sum resulting however in a disagreement of the jury more extraordinary yet was the agitation against the smelter at clovis clovi s fresno county california here the smelter was not yet completed when the farmers met and requested the company to move its plant further back in the hills it is not the intent of this article to assume that damage is not caused by some smelters shelters sm elters to farms in their immediate vicinity or that isolated cases do not occur where individual farmers or have not received proper consideration it is a fact here strongly asserted however that much of the agitation and litigation is vexatious and a certain portion is deliberate blackmail to take the case of the salt lake farmers one would suppose from their claims that farming operations are impossible anywhere from ten to fifteen miles from a smelter in farming communities it should be remembered a smelter company rarely gets a fair hearing few reasonable men connected with the mining industry will deny that there is a community of interest between it and agriculture the full development of the one in IN the west at all events is dependent on the growth of the other these sentiments were voiced by ross browne thirty seven years ago in the report already quoted and were again pronounced a few weeks ago by lionel phillips at a banquet to mining engineers and metallurgists in johannesburg han we must recognize that without farming in the neighborhood neighborhood the miner and the would lack a cheap supply of desirable food products on the other hand the farmer without mining and its attendant manufacturing interests would have no market for his crops IR in colorado alone some men are directly dependent on the mining industry which in turn is dependent almost completely on the custom mills and smelters shelters sm elters cut off this market and the farmers would lose their occupation cu since large crops without a market are of small value under such circumstances the state would revert to a cattle and sheep grazing country so strongly are these facts apparent that one need not hesitate to say that public opinion will not allow such a catastrophe to happen the vexatious litigation can only be a passing phase of the smelter situation those hose T connected with mining and smelt ing operations in the west are recognizing that a radical change is taking place in conditions the rapid growth of la large rge cit vicinity of the smelters shelters sm elters and at lea in the convenient points near the mining districts must cause a change in the methods of dish of the waste products what could posing osing i p few years ago cannot be done be done one a c now w much attention is therefore being given yen to this problem by those in charge of operations in the con mining ing or smelting smelling sm elting of a matter of grave public moment such as the disposal of the huge masses of tailings from the mills or getting rid of f the immense volumes of smelter gases an attitude of candor should be pre 7 served the first question that arises is whether i i any damage is done by smelter gases leav ing the consideration of mill tailings for the time bei being beinek neg if so how much damage is done what crops or live stock are injured t most and how is the damage caused this investigation investigation should naturally precede any attempt to solve the problem if one exists immediately we run into a mass of conflict ing evidence first let us take the ques tion of whether or not damage is done the 1 federal government was able to convince a judge and jury that the keswick smelter fumes did injure the trees in a forest re serve the ease case however was a peculiar tone in that heap roasting was practiced there here the fumes were low lying and being in a hilly country they channeled and did not diffuse rapidly damage was admitted for a considerable distance around the smelter this case is therefore not a typical one and the facts deduced cannot be applied to other places in a recent complaint the farmers of the salt lake valley practically asserted that they were being ruined by smelter fumes J A widtsoe soe of the utah experiment sta i tion however found that fruit trees were not seriously injured and that damage to cereal crops was slight under the worst i conditions the yield of alfalfa was 70 per cent of the average and even in this case cab the shortage of crops was attributable in a large degree to shortage of water and not solely to smelter fumes he found the damage to be greatly exaggerated the writer first saw the salt lake valley some ten years ago and his impression is that t the he region looks better now than it did then the vegetation is apparently as thrifty and the valley is certainly better cultivated take another case denver is justly proud of its beautiful city park this park was as establish est blushed ablis bli shed and the trees planted long istir er the smelters shelters sm elters were started yet in tre pite of the fact that three ee large smelters shelters sm elters treating billy thousands of tons of ore a day are thriven a mile ortho distant the trees have e and the lawns are as perfect as in adv ea other r city one would uld also naturally expect 1 if sn aelter fumes caused the wide denver beiver dannage mage all allayed alla gelt aged that farming S near and possible Do sible golden would have been im there since smelters shelters sm elters have ve been running for f cr thirty years yet we find some of the prettiest farms inthe west around golden denver and boulder another case might be cited it is commonly stated that smelter fumes are particularly ticul arly harmful to pine and fir trees yet the writer had under observation for three years a cluster of pine and fir trees upon which beat occasionally the full volume of sulphurous and arsenious gases from a roaster chimney and which to his eye at least were uninjured this case was in montana lastly one might cite the farms and orchards in the arkansas valley colorado many of these farms are close to the amel at pueblo and canon city yet no damage seems to be done it seems curious that considerable injury should be done to crops by smelters shelters sm elters on san francisco bay and a little damage on the edge of salt lake but none in colo ION 1 1 low utah consolidated coke tower built for the absorption of gases rado and montana this is possibly explained by the difference in humidity of the atmosphere a moist climate would unquestionably tion ably intensify the danger to crops in the neighborhood of the smelters shelters sm elters A steady prevailing wind in one or two directions would possibly cause more damage by confining the gases in narrow channels for long distances than where the wind is more irregular damage to live stock may be dismissed in very few words it suffices to say that valuable animals seem to be more susceptible to attack than the ordinary scrub range stock the writers experience is that a cow worth 25 is never killed it is always the best worth at least 75 the fumes it is all alleged egid induce a disease among horses which the veterinary however cannot distinguish from anthrax I lay ilay fields are never poisoned by smelter fumes or at all events a clear case has not been established nor can it be believed when men can work in smelters shelters sm elters for a lifetime subject continually to fumes far more powerful than can ever exist a mile from the smelter that an ordinary cow or horse would sicken and die from the effect of very dilute smelter gases when damage is alleged from this cause it may be put down as a case of the farmer trying to get some one else to shoulder a natural agricultural loss so it may safely be concluded that general damage to crops from