SANDPOINT — The Sierra Club is calling for a comprehensive public health and environmental studies of the proposed PacWest Silicon Smelter south of Newport.

Doctor John Osborn, chair of the national environmental group’s Upper Columbia River Group, said the stakes demand a stringent review of PacWest’s smelter proposal.

“For the impacted human community, Washington state officials need complete information to make informed decisions. This is important for the impacted human community. This is also important for those with no voice in this decision-making process: children, future generations, fish and wildlife,” Osborn said in an Oct. 26 letter to Grant Pfeifer director of the Eastern Regional Office Washington state Department of Ecology.

Osborn notes that one does not have to look far to see “the long dark history” of smelter pollution in the Inland Northwest in places such as Kellogg and Trail, British Columbia. The Sierra Club also strongly recommends that Native American tribes, who have often borne the brunt of mining and pollution impacts be consulted.

“The Coeur d’Alene Tribe, the Spokane Tribe of Indians, and the Colville Confederated Tribes are struggling with legacy mining and smelting pollution. Too often Washington state has been a weak partner or missing altogether in protecting and advocating for the common good,” Osborn observed in the five-page letter to DOE.

The Sierra Club also questions whether the state does indeed want to perpetuate its dark history of allowing polluters in the “politically vulnerable Upper Columbia region.

“Planning documents should disclose the role of Washington state officials in encouraging the location of this smelter in Newport, and any internal communication in that decision,” said Osborn.

Keith Kinnaird can be reached by email at kkinnaird@bonnercountydailybee.com and follow him on Twitter @KeithDailyBee.