Columbia Falls' Loren Kreck, longtime advocate for the Montana outdoors, dies
By MICHAEL JAMISON of the Missoulian
......................The Krecks moved to Columbia Falls in 1951 to escape the Los Angeles smog. Once in the Flathead, however, he found more poisonous smog - fluoride gas emissions from the Anaconda-owned Columbia Falls Aluminum Co.
Trees were dying, and deer and other wildlife were showing malformed bones and teeth. Even nearby Glacier National Park was affected.
"Suddenly you realize there's no running away," Kreck told the New York Times in 1971. "Sometimes you have to stand up and fight."
The fight against the powerful company cost Kreck many of his dental patients, Downey said, and the lawyers Kreck hired were forced to board up their windows against bricks.
Ironically, Kreck's battles might have actually saved the plant.
CFAC finally reduced its fluoride emissions from 10,000 pounds a day to 861, spending millions on new environmental controls. That investment later kept the plant viable, when owners sold during marginal economic times.
"It's very conceivable that the CFAC plant wouldn't have been worth the risk if the fluoride problem wasn't fixed," former state legislator and company spokesman Bob Brown said in 1999. "Although it was pretty controversial at the time, cleaning up the emissions might be the reason" that CFAC remained open for several decades more.
......................The Krecks moved to Columbia Falls in 1951 to escape the Los Angeles smog. Once in the Flathead, however, he found more poisonous smog - fluoride gas emissions from the Anaconda-owned Columbia Falls Aluminum Co.
Trees were dying, and deer and other wildlife were showing malformed bones and teeth. Even nearby Glacier National Park was affected.
"Suddenly you realize there's no running away," Kreck told the New York Times in 1971. "Sometimes you have to stand up and fight."
The fight against the powerful company cost Kreck many of his dental patients, Downey said, and the lawyers Kreck hired were forced to board up their windows against bricks.
Ironically, Kreck's battles might have actually saved the plant.
CFAC finally reduced its fluoride emissions from 10,000 pounds a day to 861, spending millions on new environmental controls. That investment later kept the plant viable, when owners sold during marginal economic times.
"It's very conceivable that the CFAC plant wouldn't have been worth the risk if the fluoride problem wasn't fixed," former state legislator and company spokesman Bob Brown said in 1999. "Although it was pretty controversial at the time, cleaning up the emissions might be the reason" that CFAC remained open for several decades more.
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