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Camille Genta

English 2010-043

Prof. H. Bown

October 14, 2013

Stan Carter

Sitting in the living room in the early evening with light coming through the window,

Stanley W. Carter (photo 1) rests comfortably in

his favorite chair to answer questions from a

curious student. Stan was born in June of 1931

and has lived in the Salt Lake Valley his entire

life. He started working for Kennecott Copper on

December 24th, 1953 and retired from there after

40 years of

employment on

January 1st, 1994. Stan worked in the refinery the entire time he

worked for Kennecott (photo 2). He saw the purchasing and revamp

on the smelter, the building of the 1, 200-foot smoke stack, and the

construction of the waste water treatment plants.

1 Stan Carter and wife Beverly Carter

2 Stan helping pour a 1500 ton copper cake.

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This photo from inside shows how some of the 900 tons of reinforcing steel was employed in the form that received 10,000 cubic yards of concrete in one of the largest continuous pours on record as base for smelter stack

The Smoke Stack

The Kennecott smoke stack was completed approximately three months after the start

date on August 26th, 1974, it was a continuous two day pour and it stands 1,215 feet tall, it is

Utah’s highest man-made structure. The smoke stack was created to help control air pollution

and reports to be one of the cleanest in the world with capturing 99.9 percent of sulfur emissions.

(Arave)

After the stack was finished the EPA was still concerned about the air quality and

continued to press Kennecott with meetings. There were many concerned Kennecott employees

that felt their jobs were being threatened and in response, Stan wrote a letter to the EPA, and

received 2400+ signatures from concerned employees. (See Figure 1, pg. 5) Stan was later to

present this letter to the EPA at meeting. “My boss called me and said that the plant manager

wanted to see me,” Stan told me looking, probably as wide-eyed as he did when his foreman

gave him the news, “so I went to his office and he says to me, “Stan, did you write this letter?”

And I said that I could make any professional changes he needed, “I don’t want to change

anything, but I want you to come to a meeting on Thursday and present this to the EPA.” Stan

told him he couldn’t go since he had to work so if he did go it would be after he got off shift,

since he didn’t feel right about being paid not to do his job. His wife Beverly Carter went to the

meeting and held his place and when Stan’s shift ended at 4:00pm, he was at the meeting by 4:05

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and presented his letter. “When I got up there in front of all of those people and read that letter,

the room was quite. After I was finished, the meeting was over, we didn’t hear anything else

about our jobs being threatened because of the air quality,” Stan giggled.

Water Treatment

Construction began on the water waste treatment

plant in June, 1973 and the plant went into operation in the

summer of 1974. (Kennecott Copper 16) The plant was

designed to help with water pollutants from mining.

Regardless of the attempts made by Kennecott at

that time, in 1986 the State of Utah filed a Natural

Resource Damage Claim for the loss of natural resources.

Ten years later a settlement was reached that required the

company pay $37 million into a trust, as well as installing interception wells, and providing a

plan on how to replace the drinking water for the surrounding communities. (Gestring 2)

The Economy

When asked how Kennecott benefitted the Utah economy, Stan talked about the number

of people they employed at that time. “There was about 750 people at the refinery where I

worked.” And, “Kennecott was in the top two employed fields, either it was Kennecott that was

number one or employment of educators that was number one, I can’t remember which.” In an

article by the President and CEO of Rio Tinto’s Kennecott Utah Copper, “hereby continuing to

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employ 2,400 Utahns and an additional 14,800 external jobs that rely on Kennecott's operation

while contributing nearly $1 billion into Utah's economy, annually.” (Sanders par. 1).

Along with opportunities for employment, Kennecott also offers scholarships, sponsors

Hale Center Theater, and has partnerships to improve biodiversity, one of which is the Tracy

Aviary.

Stan has always been a big supporter of keeping life within the valley. An avid

fisherman, he rarely keeps what he catches. He keeps track of the local Jordan River bird

population by counting how many birds hatch each season and how many return to their nesting

sites. At one point, Stan would gather the eggs from abandoned nests and incubate the eggs, thus

having a yard full of ducks and geese until he would take them back to the river and release

them. (See Figure 2)

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Figure 1 Letter to the EPA

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Figure 2 Article in the Salt Lake Tribune about Stan Carter

Works CitedArave, Lynn. Deseret News. 16 November 2009. 14 October 2013.

<http://www.deseretnews.com/article/705344771/Holy-smokes-Kennecott-smelter-Utahs-tallest-man-made-structure-to-turn-35.html?pg=all>.

Carter, Stan. Stan "The Man" Carter Camille Genta. 08 October 2013. Personal.

Gestring, Bonnie. "Problems with Bingham Canyon Mine." 05 January 2011. Earthworks.org. 10 October 2013. <http://www.earthworksaction.org/files/publications/FS_Problems_BinghamCanyon_2011_low.pdf>.

Kennecott. "Continuous pour forms base for 1,200-foot smelter stack." Keenescope. Salt Lake City: Kennecott Copper Corporation, July-August 1974.

Kennecott Copper. "Plant Clearwater." Kennescope. Salt Lake City: Kennecott Copper Corporation, September-October 1974.

Sanders, Kelly. "Kennecott's "Cornerstone Project"." 10 January 2011. Deseret News. 12 October 2013. <http://www.kennecott.com/library/media/KUC%20-%20Kennecott%27s%20Cornerstone%20project%20-%20Des%20News%20-%201.10.2011.pdf>.

Wharton, Tom. "Old Man River has Faithful Pal." Salt Lake Tribune (2002): 1. Newspaper.