[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 36 (Thursday, March 26, 1998)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E493-E494]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              HONORING THE LIFE OF CHARLES HATCH STODDARD

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. BRUCE F. VENTO

                              of minnesota

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, March 26, 1998

  Mr. VENTO. Mr. Speaker, I rise to offer my condolences to the family 
of Charles Hatch Stoddard, a former and courageous Interior Department 
official who made a significant contribution to the quality of life of 
his fellow Minnesotans and all Americans.
  In the late 1960's Mr. Stoddard, then a top regional official at the 
U.S. Department of the Interior, coordinated a study of taconite wastes 
that a company was dumping into Lake Superior. He found that these 
asbestos fibers were harmful to human health, but was savagely attacked 
by opponents who claimed his report was biased and unsubstantiated. 
Stoddard's health findings, however, were ultimately upheld by federal 
courts and applauded by the Secretary of the Interior and all the 
public.
  Mr. Stoddard served the United States in several other respects. He 
was a Naval Reserve officer in World War II, worked as an

[[Page E494]]

employee of the U.S. Forest Service, and held such important posts as 
Assistant Secretary and director of the Bureau of Land Management.
  He was also a highly acclaimed conservationist, one of our nation's 
most effective environmentalists, spending a year as President of the 
Wilderness Society.
  I have attached Mr. Stoddard's obituary from the Minneapolis Star 
Tribune for my colleagues' review. It highlights his courage in 
bringing to the public's attention a matter that was crucial to their 
health and the health of their children in Minnesota and was repeated 
many times. The values and integrity that guided his decision and work 
reflect well upon the purpose of public service and the impact a good 
man can make.
  I applaud Mr. Stoddard and present his model of courage yesterday as 
a benchmark for the environmentalists and policy making for citizens 
today and tomorrow.

                 [From the Star Tribune, Dec. 30, 1997]

    Charles Stoddard Dies; He Played Key Role in Reserve Mining Case


A controversial 1968 Interior Department study he headed said taconite 
                 tailings were polluting Lake Superior

                          (By Dean Rebuffoni)

       Charles Hatch Stoddard was a besieged man 29 years ago.
       As a top regional official of the U.S. Interior Department, 
     Stoddard, who died Thursday at 85, had coordinated a major 
     federal study on the taconite wastes that Reserve Mining Co. 
     of Silver Bay, Minn., was dumping into Lake Superior.
       Although the study had just been completed, it hadn't been 
     released to the public.
       However, Stoddard had provided copies to Reserve, which 
     quickly went over his head to Interior Secretary Stewart 
     Udall.
       The company urged Udall not to release the study, arguing 
     that it was riddled with errors. Some critics suggested that 
     Stoddard, a Democratic political appointee and longtime 
     conservationalist, was biased against Reserve.
       Reporters were constantly calling Stoddard's office in 
     Duluth, seeking information about the study.
       Also, Stoddard knew that he'd have to resign soon from his 
     federal post: Richard Nixon, a Republican with strong 
     political ties to Reserve, was about to be inaugurated as 
     president.
       So Stoddard decided to release the study without Udall's 
     approval.
       On Jan. 16, 1969, the biggest headline on the front page of 
     the Minneapolis Tribune read: ``U.S Study Finds Taconite 
     Tailings Pollute Superior.''
       The study, which quickly became known as ``the Stoddard 
     Report,'' made him a hero among conservationists.
       Udall, however, told Congress that the study was ``a 
     preliminary staff report,'' a statement that Reserve 
     repeatedly cited in its effort to discredit it.
       The study also was attacked by U.S. Rep. John Blatnik, a 
     Duluth Democrat who called it a preliminary report with no 
     official status.
       Ultimately, Stoddard was vindicated by the federal courts, 
     which ruled that Reserve was polluting Lake Superior with 
     potentially injurious asbestos-type fibers.
       Reserve was fined more than $1 million and shifted its 
     taconite wastes to an onland disposal site.
       Udall eventually retracted his statement, telling the New 
     York Times that the study was an official Interior Department 
     report.
       He said his original discrediting of it was prompted by 
     concerns raised by Blatnik, who in 1969 was a powerful 
     politician whose support on many issues was needed by the 
     Interior Department. Blatnik died in 1991.
       Udall's recanting also was vindication for Stoddard, who 
     died Thursday at a nursing home in Spooner, Wis. He had 
     suffered from Parkinson's disease for several years.
       ``Chuck Stoddard was a fearless public servant,'' said 
     Grant Merritt, a Minnesota conservationist who played a key 
     role in the campaign to end Reserve's discharge into Lake 
     Superior.
       ``Chuck did his job regardless of the heat he had to 
     take,'' Merrit said. ``The Stoddard Report gave us the 
     scientific basis we needed to seek on-land disposal of 
     Reserve's tailings.''
       Stoddard was born in Milwaukee in 1912 and earned 
     bachelor's and master's degrees in forestry from the 
     University of Michigan in the 1930s. He later did graduate 
     studies at the University of Wisconsin and at Princeton.
       He was a Naval Reserve officer during World War II, and 
     while serving in the South Pacific, he discovered a species 
     of tropical tree that later was named after him: 
     Mastixiodendron stoddardii.
       He had several stints as a federal employee specializing in 
     conservation issues, including work as a U.S. Forest Service 
     economist in the 1930s.
       During the late 1940s and early 1950s, he was a private 
     forestry consultant in Minnesota and Wisconsin and was active 
     in several conservation groups.
       From 1955 to 1961, he worked for Resources for the Future, 
     a nonprofit conservation research organization based in 
     Washington, D.C.
       Stoddard also was involved in Democratic Party politics, 
     and during the 1960 presidential campaign, he worked first 
     for candidate Hubert Humphrey, then as an adviser to John F. 
     Kennedy on conservation issues.
       After Kennedy was elected, Stoddard was named an assistant 
     secretary of the Interior Department and, later, was 
     appointed director of the Bureau of Land Management.
       After retiring from federal employment, he served for a 
     year as president of the Wilderness Society.
       He wrote numerous reports on environmental issues, often 
     focusing on land-use matters, and was the author or coauthor 
     of three books on forestry and conservation practices.
       Shortly after the lawsuit, United States v. Reserve Mining 
     Co., went to trial in 1973, Stoddard encountered the trial 
     judge, Miles Lord, in a hall of the federal courthouse in 
     Minneapolis.
       ``Do you know me, Judge Lord?'' he asked. When Lord said he 
     didn't, Stoddard explained: ``I'm the guy who got you into 
     this.''
       Stoddard is survived by his former wife, Patricia Coulter 
     Stoddard of Duluth; a daughter, Abby Marrier of Milaca, 
     Minn.; four sons: Charles Jr. and Paul, both of St. Paul, and 
     Glenn and Jeffrey, who live in Wisconsin, and five 
     grandchildren.
       A private memorial service will be held at Wolf Springs 
     Forest, the Stoddard family's nature preserve near Minong, 
     Wis. The family suggests that memorials go to the Sigurd 
     Olson Institute for Environmental Studies at Northland 
     College in Ashland, Wis.

     

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