London Sunday Times
July 2 2000
UNITED STATES
Mining on Gore's land threatens a river that is home to crayfish
and woodpeckers 'Green' Gore falls foul of a polluted river
Matthew Campbell, Washington IN AN unwelcome development for a
presidential candidate who bills himself as a champion of the
environment, Al Gore, the Democrat contender, is being accused of
profiting from the pollution of a river in his native Tennessee.
The state's environmental authorities have warned a zinc mining
company operating on Vice-President Gore's farm that waste is
endangering wildlife. Over the years, Gore has collected
$500,000 in royalties from the mining. After allegations that he
is also benefiting from the plunder of virgin South American
rainforest, the latest complaint has promoted charges of
hypocrisy.
In 1992, his book Earth in the Balance, an impassioned plea for
action against pollution threats imperiling the planet, cautioned
that "the lakes and rivers sustain us; they flow through the
veins of the earth and into our own. But we must take care to
let them flow back out as pure as they came, not poison and waste
them without thought for the future."
Gore appears to have fallen short of this noble ideal in his own
back yard. On May 16, the Tennessee Department of Environment
and Conservation issued a "notice of violation" to Pasminco Zinc,
a company that has been paying Gore $20,000 a year for the
privilege of extracting metal from beneath his farm in the
picturesque Cumberland river valley. The department warned of
high zinc levels in the Caney Fork river and said Pasminco "may
be subject to enforcement action".
Although Gore grew up mainly in Washington, where his father
worked as a senator, he has often waxed lyrical about the summers
he spent as a youth on the farm in Tennessee. Writing about his
father, Gore said: "We loved to swim together in the Caney Fork
river off a big flat rock on the back side of his farm."
That may seem less appealing today. Another complaint said
effluent had put toxic metals in the river. "The combined effect
of these pollutants may be detrimental to fish and aquatic life,"
said authorities in 1996, warning that a species of water flea
was at risk of being poisoned.
The river is home to a species of crayfish and to birds such as
the red-headed woodpecker. It is not only his dealings with
Pasminco Zinc, however, that are casting doubt over the extent of
Gore's commitment to the environmentalist gospel.Activists accuse
him of turning a blind eye to the rape of rainforests in Latin
America through long-standing ties to Occidental Petroleum, the
original owner of the land being mined on his farm.
Armand Hammer, Occidental's founder, supported Senator Gore,
bought and sold the mineral rights to him and later contributed
to his son's political campaigns. A multi-billion-dollar oil-
drilling scheme by Occidental in Colombia has provoked violent
protest and threats of mass suicide from the U'wa Indians
protecting their ancestral land.
Supporters of the Indians link Gore's failure to intervene in the
dispute with the fact that his family stands to gain financially
from any increase in the worth of Occidental's shares. A Gore
family trust holds $500,000 worth of stock. Gore has long been
plagued by charges of hypocrisy. In 1996 he famously invoked his
sister's death from lung cancer as a way of attacking the tobacco
industry. Then it was revealed that the family farm had
prospered from growing tobacco in the past.
Similarly, he has repeatedly tried to attach his name to campaign
finance reform efforts while under investigation for alleged
fundraising offences - which he denies - in the 1996 presidential
campaign. As this year's campaign intensifies, however, the
alleged contradictions between his public rhetoric and private
arrangements are proving more damaging than stories of the
misspent youth of George W Bush, the Republican rival leading him
by 12 points in the polls.
Gore was ridiculed recently when asked what had happened to
e-mails that had gone missing from his White House office just as
investigators were seeking evidence of illegal fundraising.
"I'm not an expert on computers," he said. It seemed a
surprising admission for a politician who once claimed to have
played a vital role in inventing the internet and whose
enthusiasm for technology - he travels with a Palm Pilot on his
belt - has led to suggestions of "nerdism".
At the same time, Gore's commitment to building energy-efficient,
environmentally friendly homes - last week he proposed $2,000 tax
credits for Americans who implement his blueprint - seems at odds
with grim conditions for the family renting a house he owns 150
yards from his Tennessee farm. Tracy Mayberry says she
complained more than 30 times to Gore's property managers about
overflowing lavatories, peeling plaster and cracked floors.
She, her disabled husband and their eight children were
eventually served with an eviction order.
When a television station went to the house, Gore pleaded
ignorance, reversed the order and promised repairs. Last week,
however, the family remained at odds with their "slumlord", as
some critics christened Gore. "I don't think I trust Al Gore any
more," said Mayberry. Judging by the vice-president's dwindling
support in the polls, she is not alone.
Copyright 2000 Times Newspapers Ltd.
This service is provided on Times Newspapers' standard terms and
conditions. To inquire about a licence to reproduce material
from The Sunday Times, visit the Syndication website.
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