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POCATELLO — Shoshone-Bannock tribal officials say they oppose a land swap that would give J.R. Simplot Co. a large parcel of federal land near its Don Plant in exchange for key mule deer winter range near Blackrock Canyon.

In the early 1990s, Simplot acquired 680 acres of habitat contiguous to federal land in the Blackrock area to offer as a trade for 719 acres of Bureau of Land Management property in the Trail Creek area near the agribusiness giant’s large local phosphate operation.

Much of the land Simplot stands to receive was charred by this week’s Howard Fire.Simplot spokesman Rick Phillips said the land would enable Simplot to expand its towering gypsum stack — a pile of gray dirt remaining after phosphate is removed from slurry. “The long-term viability of the Don Plant depends on our ability to handle that gypsum product,” Phillips said.

Roger Turner, air quality manager with the tribes, said the tribal council has come out against the swap based on concerns that expanding the gypsum pile could impair Portneuf River water quality and local air quality, and too few alternatives have been considered. “(The BLM) didn’t go into very much detail in their scoping of the controversial nature and impacts of phosphogypsum on the environment,” Turner said.

The BLM announced the proposed exchange in the Journal last summer and hosted a scoping meeting in early fall. Local BLM officials proposed allowing the transfer, a suggestion that must still be considered by the agency’s federal office and could be returned with additional recommendations.

By this fall, the BLM hopes to have the revisions made and release a document to the public. Turner would like the BLM to reopen the exchange proposal for additional public comment. David Pacioretty, the BLM’s Pocatello field office manager, argued the land exchange and environmental concerns about the gypsum stack are separate issues. Regarding the land trade issue, Pacioretty said the BLM’s charge is to make sure the land the agency stands to receive is of equal or greater value to the public than the parcel up for trade. He said the tribes will have the opportunity to voice their concerns when the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Environmental Quality consider Simplot’s application to build a new stack.

“There is a potential for these selected lands once in private ownership to be utilized in phosphate management practices,” Pacioretty said. “Any future development by Simplot would be subject to regulatory oversight.”

When the Superfund site that includes Simplot and the former FMC site was created, Simplot’s gypsum stack was identified as a potential source of water contamination. Phillips said when a new stack is built, Simplot will have to take certain steps to prevent contaminants from leaching into the watershed — building a clay or vinyl liner for example. “It would be a matter of studying the geography and geology of the area and coming up with something that would meet the standards of the DEQ,” Phillips said. “If we were to build a new stack, it would probably be built differently than that 60-year-old stack up there now.”

But Phillips assures the public his company worked diligently to find a prime piece of land to offer in trade. Given the rapid pace of development occurring in mule deer winter range, Phillips believes the Blackrock property will only grow in value. “We bought property that was critical to wildlife and to what the BLM was all about,” Phillips said. “We thought we were serving a larger public good by doing that.”