Does the existence of two-headed trout mean things are just fine in Southern Idaho's waterways?
According to The New York Times, that's more or less the conclusion drawn by the J. R. Simplot mining company, which commissioned a study including photos of two-headed trout spawned from fish caught in Southern Idaho creeks.
What's more, the report concludes that levels of the metal selenium should be allowed to reach higher levels than what laws currently permit.
Things got even stranger when, in an initial review, the Environmental Protection Agency seemed to agree with the report's findings, according to the Times.
But, in its own review, the Fish and Wildlife Service had some extremely unkind words for Simplot's report and now the company and EPA are on the defensive.
Less than a week before the controversial findings were released, Simplot's spokesman David Cuoio said his company didn’t know about the pictures of two-headed trout, the Jackson Hole News reports.
Even after the report was released, Cuoio didn't retract his statement, telling the Jackson Hole News the company was taking an "open, transparent and scientifically based approach to protect the environment.”
Call me a crazy Euro-tree-hugging-hippie-commie if you have to, but I hope this whole thing ends into a movie in which Sally Field and Julia Roberts are a team of amateur lawyers who sink the J. R. Simplot Company.
