Idaho Cleanup Crusader Is Ostracized, Harassed

Barbara Miller wants the federal government to clean up toxic mining waste in Idaho’s Silver Valley, where she lives.

For that, she’s been vilified by business interests and reviled in the media as “Barbarian Millstone.” Her dog has been targeted, and she could even face the loss of her daughter.

Northern Idaho’s version of Erin Brockovich says many people in the region are in denial that lead-contaminated mine tailings are poisoning residents, particularly children.

“This could be called the Valley of Death,” she said. “Every single leader in this county is united to say there’s no problem here.”

Miller’s position has pitted her against business interests and people who remain loyal to the industry.

“No one can figure out why these people are fighting so hard to deny the science,” Miller said in an interview in the cluttered wood-paneled headquarters of the Silver Valley People’s Action Coalition, which she leads.

As a child, Miller moved to the area from North Dakota in 1956. Her father took a job in the mines and, later, became a union organizer.

After leaving to attend college, Miller returned and saw the valley in a new light. With about 20 others, she founded the coalition in 1986 to educate people about the pollution and push for cleanup. She became its leader in 1994.

Although her work was always controversial, Miller could count on support in the community for many years. She said members of the coalition were able to knock on doors and get information from people about their health.

Things became tougher when the EPA started discussing plans to dramatically expand the cleanup along 1,500 square miles, from the Montana border into Washington state, creating the nation’s biggest Superfund site.

Suddenly Miller was being shouted down at public meetings. People muttered comments about getting her, which she reported to police. She was charged with fraud last year for voting in the wrong precinct in a school levy election. Her dog was impounded twice while in her yard.

Paid membership in the coalition plunged from 300 to about 100.

A recent edition of a Wallace weekly newspaper included a mock interview with “Barbarian Millstone,” who declared: “I’m an expert in how dumb lead makes people.”

The mock interview implied that Millstone is greedy for grant money and is supported primarily by out-of-town environmentalists.

Miller is involved in a bitter custody dispute with her ex-husband over their 12-year-old daughter, an action she believes was pushed by her opponents.

“There has been a tremendous effort to paint me as a bad person in the court system here,” Miller said.

She contends her ex-husband has received preferential treatment in court.

“I can’t leave the area because I am restricted by his visitation rights,” Miller said. “I can’t quit my job because I would lose custody.”

All for a job that pays about $6 an hour. But her work is appreciated outside the Silver Valley. Last month, the prestigious Ford Foundation awarded her a $130,000 leadership grant.

“Through the leadership of Miller and the coalition, the EPA intervention has brought hundreds of jobs and millions of dollars in wages and indirect spending to the depressed Silver Valley economy,” the foundation said.

Miller said the grant will be used for community education.

Tina Paddock, a former Wallace resident who lives in McMinnville, Ore., is outraged by the attacks against Miller.

The mining, business, journalism and legal leaders of Shoshone County, which has fewer than 14,000 residents, are an intertwined group, Paddock said, and have ganged up on Miller.

“This dear woman has stood by the people of the Silver Valley waiting for justice,” Paddock said. “She now must fight for a right we parents hope to never face, losing a child. . . .”

Miller would like to establish a place where lead-poisoned children, former workers and other residents can easily get diagnosis and treatment.

She would also like some peace.

“Being deliberately harassed for wanting to help a community and improve a way of life is absurd,” she said. “I don’t think things [will stop] unless the public becomes aware of what is happening here.”