OCR Text |
Show ; : BARNES 'FUI25Sf BILL They Declare . That If ilcastirc ls Passed, Smelting cf Lo 17-Grale Ores Mil Be Prohibited. , The smeltermen of Utah are putting up the strongest kind of a fight against the passage of Senator Barnes' bill (No. 38), providing a penalty for permitting per-mitting noxious fumes to escape from smelters. ' " Representatives of the American, United States, Bingham Consolidated and Highland Boy smelters attended the session of the Senate Committee on lllnes and Mining, which had the measure under consideration, yesterday afternoon. The smeltermen were unanimous In declaring that If the bill passes the smelting of low-grade ores In the State will be virtually prohibited, owing to the increased expense . necessary to eliminate the fumes. A. F. Holden, managing director of the United States company, said: "Not a State In the Union has such a law as is proposed in Senator Barnes' bill. No process has been perfected by means of which all the sulphur can be taken out of the fumes. Part of It can be eliminated at a cost of about $3 a ton to the ore man. That would kill - . - ,t the low-grade ore mining Industry la ,Utah." "No harm -of, any kind is done to vegetation beyond a radius of a few hundred feet, and the farmer whose crop is damaged has a remedy at law," declared Superintendent W. 1L Nutting Nut-ting of the fclngham smelter. "It Is not practical to do away .with the fumes. Any stack that is over 200 feet high disposes of the fumes to the best advantage, because the air neutralizes them at that height The stack of our smelters ts 220 Teet high." W. 8. McCornick spoke as the representative repre-sentative of several of the local smelting smelt-ing companies. He said that If any additional ad-ditional expense were heaped upon the smelters It would kill the smelting of low-grade ores In Utah. He said that It had been bis experience that Juries were always ready to award damages In lawsuits where there was any chanoe at all. He knew of no such proposition In any other State, and said it would not do for the people of Utah to kill the goose that laid the golden egg. Senator Barnes, the introducer of the bill, was unable too attend all of the session, and further consideration of the measure was postponed until Thursday afternoon at 8:30 o'clock. |