If you live in the Rocky Mountain States and have been feeling a little irritable or losing hair lately just blame the selenium in your water. In a recent report it was found that over 80% of the areas studied in the American West are suffering from highly toxic levels of selenium caused, primarily, by the mining industry. So ubiquitous is the problem that it is causing the citizens, lawmakers, and environmentalists, to question whether the Clean Water Act, and the infrastructure which enforces it, is adequate in protecting and ensuring our vital water resources.

Selenium, right by arsenic in the periodic table, is a poison in anything other than the smallest quantities. Over-exposure in humans has been found to result in hair and nail loss, loss of mental alertness, irritability, and liver disease. Higher levels of ingested selenium has also been linked to increased cancer rates.

And selenium accumulation is also devastating to ecosystems. In the 1980s, scientists of the USGS found that the high selenium content of the Kesterton river was responsible for the deaths and deformities of thousands of fish and waterfowl. Eventually the fish and flowers died, the survivors were mosquitoes and algae, and the site was declared a toxic waste dump.

This September two separate incidents relating to selenium water pollution have hit the news. Earlier in the month Johnson Matthey Inc., a mining corporation in Utah, pleaded guilty to charges of conspiring to cover up illegally high levels of toxic selenium in its wastewater run-off, and later in the month four conservation groups filed a lawsuit challenging the expansion of the Smoky Canyon phosphate mine into areas of the Caribou-Targhee National Forest in southeast Idaho.

These two separate incidents highlight the problem of trying to restrict water pollution by the mining industry.

Although, Johnson Matthey Inc., due to be charged in December, faces a $3 million fine in violation of the Clean Water Act, it posts revenues of more than $4.7 billion annually.

"I doubt if it will have a far-reaching or lasting impact on the mining industry. It will likely be business as usual," said Dr. Dennis Lemly, a research biologist for the USDA-Forest Service who has done extensive work on selenium pollution.

The Smokey Canyon phosphate mine, operated by JR Simplot Co., has already been listed Superfund site, a site containing uncontrolled hazardous waste, due to its severe pollution of surrounding waterways and lands with selenium.

Now expansion is being planned into an area of more than 1,100 acres of pristine roadless forest. The expansion was approved by the Forest Service and the BLM on the assurances of the mine’s operator, J.R. Simplot Company, that additional selenium contamination will be effectively contained.

However, independent experts and even the agencies own scientists have questioned the proposed practices for preventing further selenium contamination. The general consensus is that the new mine will certainly cause additional selenium contamination to the state’s streams and ground water, as the mining industry has not yet found an effective solution to stop the spread of polluting selenium. J.R. Simplot Co. is currently seeking to intervene in a federal lawsuit filed by environmentalists. It argues that it should be allowed to join the legal fight because the future of its mine and therefore the economic livelihood of hundreds of workers depend on the expansion.

In response to the intervention John Hart, a spokesperson for the conservation groups, said, "The mine expansion will increase pollution and harm hunting, fishing, ranching, and recreation. Many people in the area of the mine rely on clean water for their livelihood and way of life. We know these are good people who work at the mine. But mining jobs should not trump the work of others or the economic value of clean water."

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