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doing some research this year to gather
more information about why students drop
out, hoping to find out how much of an
impact tuition increases are having on their
students, said college spokeswoman Patri-
cia Paquette.
They may want to talk to student Patricia
Barnes, 55, who has gone back to school
thanks to financial aid, but sees how much
some of her fellow students are struggling
to afford college. She worries about the stu-
dent loans they are racking up and the cost
of textbooks.
Barnes didn’t get a chance to go to
college as a young person after
becoming a teen mom and went
straight to work instead.
``I believe education should be
affordable especially in times like
this,’’ she said.
Tuition has gone up so much dur-
ing the recession because the Legis-
lature has been cutting the state
higher education budget and told col-
leges they could charge more to bal-
ance their budgets.
Lawmakers have cut more than
$1.4 billion from higher education since
2009, according to the Washington State
Budget and Policy Center.
Saunders and Brown said they felt the
state had hit the point where tuition rates
have become a factor for students consider-
ing enrolling in college. She expressed opti-
mism, however, that both candidates for
governor would reprioritize higher educa-
tion in the state budget.
While the state constitution protects K-12
education, cuts to higher education have
become one of the main ways the Legisla-
ture balances the budget.
``I suspect we’re at the end of that,’’ Saun-
ders said. ``I think community colleges are
going to say to the Legislature: Don’t raise
tuition again. Don’t balance the budget on
the backs of our students.’’
The next big ruling is expected in Decem-
ber, when U.S. District Judge Lonny Suko
is to decide whether the federal court has
jurisdiction over Teck, and whether the
company’s actions made it liable to pay for
cleanup.
In its legal brief saying it should be
exempt from Superfund, Teck noted it is a
of the lake.
``The extent to which slag and effluent
settled in Washington state is not known
even today,’’ Teck contended.
The slag itself is an inert, granular sub-
stance similar to the natural sand sediments,
and would have caused little environmental
damage, Teck contended.
Since 2006 Teck has been engaged in a
major study, under the direction of EPA, of
mining pollution in the river. The company
has spent more than $55 million on this
study. The company contends the study
must run its course before any decisions
about the pollution can be made.
Godlewski said preliminary findings are
encouraging.
``The fish is safe to eat,’’ he said. ``The
water is safe to play in.’’
Attempting to hold Teck responsible for
the pollution interferes with the sovereign
authority of Canada and British Columbia,
Teck contends. Canada has repeatedly
expressed disapproval over the case, includ-
ing sending a diplomatic note of protest to
the State Department.
The Colville tribes grew concerned about
the pollution because their reservation is
bordered on the west and south by Lake
Roosevelt.
``Teck’s actions injured our tribes’ lands,
waters and other natural resources,’’ Sirois
said. ``The Columbia River and Lake Roo-
sevelt is a center of our tribal culture.’’
The tribes and state contend in court doc-
uments that as Grand Coulee Dam trans-
forms the free-flowing river into slack Lake
Roosevelt, the slag and effluent from Trail
sink into the sediments of the lake, rather
than flow over the dam.
At least 8.7 million of the estimated 9.97
million tons of slag discharged from the
Trail smelter over the decades flowed into
Washington, and an unknown portion of its
remains in the lake, the state and tribes con-
tend.
``Teck Metals has already acknowledged
that it released millions of tons of toxic pol-
lution into Washington state, and we feel
confident the federal court will find that
U.S. cleanup laws apply to Teck,’’ said Jim
Pendowski of the state Department of Ecol-
ogy.
More than 30,000 students
were eligible for a state
grant this fall but didn’t get
one because there’s not
enough money to go
around
The college’s own fundraising efforts
made it possible to distribute $460,000 in
scholarships on top of state and federal
grants and loans. A textbook rental program
is allowing students to borrow a book for
$30 instead of usual $100 or more. Students
can check out a computer from the school
library for use all semester. School officials
have made a commitment to not raise stu-
dent fees.
Seattle Central Community College is
PHOTO BY SUSAN FRIED
state need grant program, more than 30,000
students were eligible for a state grant this
fall but didn’t get one because there’s not
enough money to go around, Brown said.
About 74,000 students did get a state need
grant.
There’s no question that some students are
beginning to find it difficult to afford col-
lege, said Laura Saunders, interim president
of Bellevue College.
So the state’s largest community college
is doing whatever it can to keep them in
school.
Volunteers phone bank from Obama headquarters on Rainier Avenue, 11
days before the election. A steady stream of people have been showing
up to doorbell and phone bank as the 2012 campaign winds down.
Water
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said. ``That’s where the jurisdiction would
end up.’’
But Teck spokesman David Godlewski
said placing the company, formerly known
as Teck Cominco, under the Superfund law
is not the right way to proceed. They would
prefer a collaborative approach in which
U.S. and Canada officials work together
toward cleanup, which is estimated to cost
up to $1 billion.
Much of the pollution is in the form of a
fine black sand that is known as slag. It has
washed downstream onto beaches where
people camp and swim along the shores of
the 150-mile-long lake formed by Grand
Coulee Dam. Teck contends the pollution
does no harm to humans or wildlife, but a
major study of the wastes is ongoing.
Last month, Teck Metals admitted in court
for the first time that some of the slag
dumped into the Columbia River between
1896 and 1995 flowed into the United
States, and some hazardous substances from
the slag were released into the U.S. envi-
ronment.
That admission eliminated the need for a
costly trial on the source of the pollution,
and allowed the parties to move directly to
the issue of who must pay for cleanup.
Teck is one of Canada’s largest mining
companies, and its smelter 10 miles north of
the U.S. border discharged mining waste
directly into the river for a century. That
waste was carried by swift currents into
Washington.
A decade ago, the Colville tribes peti-
tioned the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency to assess contamination in the
reservoir. In 2003, the EPA decided Teck
was subject to the U.S. Superfund law, and
demanded the company pay for studies to
determine the extent of the contamination,
and then clean it up. Teck objected, and the
tribes filed suit in 2004 to force Teck to
comply. The state of Washington joined the
case.
Teck is one of Canada’s largest mining
companies, and its smelter 10 miles north of the
U.S. border discharged mining waste directly
into the river for a century
Canadian corporation registered in British
Columbia that does not do business in
Washington. Those are key facts that estab-
lish there is no jurisdiction to bring the law-
suit, the company says.
The company also did not ``expressly
Even now, the state and National Park
Service advertise Lake Roosevelt as an idyl-
lic setting for boating, fishing, swimming,
camping and other water-related activities,
Teck said.
Teck also contends it is not the sole source
The next big ruling is expected in December
aim’’ its conduct at the state, and did not
know its actions were likely to cause harm,
key elements in proving liability, Teck said.
The company contends that evidence it
even knew significant amounts of slag set-
tled into Lake Roosevelt is thin. Instead, its
experts concluded that any slag carried into
the United States eventually would have
passed over the Grand Coulee Dam and out
of any pollution, as almost 1,000 metals
mines and mills have operated in the
Columbia River watershed above Grand
Coulee since the late 1800s, contributing
millions of tons of mineral-rich pollution to
the river.
``These metals, as well as metals from
landslides and erosion, dwarf Teck’s dis-
charges,’’ the company contended.
October 31, 2012 The Seattle Skanner Page 3