User:Jonh1016/Trail Smelter Arbitration

In 1906, a small lead and zinc smelting company based in Trail, British Columbia, Canada, ¬was purchased by the Consolidated Mining and Smelting Company of Canada, Ltd.. The new company expanded the size of its facilities, and thus the smelting capacities of those facilities. This expansion included the construction of two 400-foot smokestacks in 1925 and 1927. The location of the smelter plant was approximately 10 miles north of the United States border along the state of Washington. Between 1924 and 1927, the amount of sulfur released from the smelting plant increased from approximately 4,700 tons per month to approximately 9,000 tons per month. The increase in the amount of sulfur released by the plant had adverse effects in nearby Washington, most of which came in the form of acid rain. Between 1928 and 1935, the United States Federal Government filed complaints with the government of Canada in response to crop damage from an increase in sulfur dioxide pollution. On August 7, 1928, the problem was referred to the International Joint Commission by the United States and Canada (IJC –CU) for a settlement. On February 28, 1931, the IJC –CU ruled that the United States was entitled to compensation in the amount of $350,000, and that the Canadian smelting plant should limit its pollution in the future. However, conditions at the smelting plant did not improve, and in 1933 the United States re-filed complaints with the Canadian government. In 1935, an international Tribunal was created between the two countries to resolve the pollution problem and prevent its recurrence in the future. After three years of deliberation, the Tribunal determined that the government of Canada should pay the government of the United States $78,000 for damage done by the smelting company at Trail between 1932 and 1937. It also requested that the plant place restrictions on its sulfur dioxide emissions for two years (1938-1940), so that the effects of the pollution could be studied in a controlled manner. After 1940, the Tribunal ruled that the Trail smelter should prevent any further damages to the state of Washington. It set a mandate requiring the company to regularly monitor atmospheric conditions (such as wind velocity, direction, turbulence, etc.) and emission concentrations at Trail so that they fell within the acceptable levels determined by the Tribunal.