Enviromental chemist mixes science with politics
By John Trent, Outpost contributor
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Jet ski gas sullies waters Miller helps revise mining act UNR buys mansion |
His story is instructive, because it was probably one of the few times in his life that Miller didn't play by the rules. Of course, notes Miller as he easily steers the Windstar through one of the many hairpin turns on the highway, "We weren't playing then by today's rules. Affirmative action probably would've killed us."
Miller just happened to make a phone call to Reno from his adviser's office at the University of California at Davis, where he received his doctorate in environmental chemistry the year before. He was told there was a part-time position available. Miller had been up to his neck in lab work, first in an Environmental Protection Agency Lab in Duluth, Minn., followed by a stint in an environmental analytical lab in Pasadena, Calif., as a pesticide chemist. He needed a change. And he was hoping the temporary, 18-month appointment at Nevada might lead him down a more exciting and stimulating path.
Within a couple of weeks, without going through the rigorous interview process typical of most university hirings, Miller got the position. On Feb. 1, 1998, Miller will celebrate his 20th year at Nevada.
"I've never looked back ... what a fortuitous thing it's been for me," says Miller, grinning. "I mean, where else can you participate in public process without the threat of retribution against your academic freedom? The university has been very good to me ... although they've probably gotten one or two calls over the years."
Miller would be the first person to tell you he is an activist. But what separates his activism from most is his ability to always follow the proper channels - as well as his ability to somehow, some way not alienate the people his environmental studies often attack.
Miller has played a role in a variety of key environmental issues over the years. It was his work, for example, that led to the major reworking of the state's mining law in 1989. The act literally brought the Mining Act of 1872 into the 20th century because the act had hardly been touched since it was enacted only a few years after the Civil War. The act, passed with the help of Reno Assemblywoman Vivian Freeman as well as State Senator Ernie Adler of Carson City, made the mining industry responsible for reclamation of lands spoiled by mining.
"It's one of the finest pieces of legislation I've ever been ever been associated with," Freeman says. "And so much of it has to do with Glenn's expertise and willingness to roll up his sleeves and show the rest of us how the Mining Act needed to be revised."
Miller is also an advocate for UNR's acquisition of the Whittell Mansion near Sand Harbor on Lake Tahoe's north shore. The 140-acre mansion parcel, acquired and built in 1938 by eccentric multimillionaire San Francisco real estate mogul George Whittell, would become home to scientific research by university professors, as well as serve as an educational and cultural resource for students and the general public.
"It's a truly spectacular site," Miller says. "We could do so much in the way of watershed studies, the geological sciences. It would be known as one of the best conference sites in the nation. The university would be utilizing a structure that will attract international renown. Plus, it's a truly reflective, a truly pastoral place to visit for the public to enjoy."
Recently, Miller's most controversial issue has been the subject of Jet Skis on Lake Tahoe. Even he is a little amazed at how much debate has been stirred up by his studies last summer of Jet Ski gas emission impacts on Lake Tahoe. Like any good scientist, Miller is still reserving judgment on how the study will ultimately play out.
But, he allows, as the Windstar whizzes by seemingly pristine Tahoe Meadows - an area where Miller's studies show emission impacts from as far as away as Ski Run Boulevard on the lake's south shore - "there is clearly movement (of gas emissions).
"We've gotten a lot of encouragement that yes, this is an important study, that yes, there is something to what we're looking at. What it is, we're not quite sure yet. But since Lake Tahoe is such a special standard, it's a very appropriate thing to look at."
The thing that strikes you most about Glenn Miller is that while he is discussing all of these different subjects during the drive to the Whittell Mansion, the smile never leaves his face. Even when he describes how a group of miners from rural Nevada, upset with some of Miller's comments about the mining industry, came to the UNR campus about four years ago and held a protest against him, he still smiles. ("I wasn't comfortable with it, of course, but I visited with them and listened to what they had to say").
Glenn Miller,
attached to his phone as usual.
He is 47, with blonde hair and an unlined face. It is as if
the cold winds of the Great Plains of northeast Montana
where he grew up have frozen an eternally youthful and
optimistic look to him. His ancestors were sodbusters from
Denmark, people who looked at deep snow and shrill winds and
saw a land that could rise or fall or stretch out with
possibility, depending on how far a person looked. His
father, Niels, was a high school chemistry teacher who went
back to graduate school at age 38. "That always impressed
me," Miller says. "What an incredibly difficult thing to
do."
Photo by Teresa Crawford
There has never been any doubt that Miller would be involved in chemistry, or that he would make conservation and the environment his life's work. Yet he doesn't view the mining industry in thoroughly black-and-white terms.
"Yes, there are some bad actors," he says, when asked if he would compare the mining industry and some of the ecological damage it has done with the tobacco industry and some of the human damage it has done. "But I think unlike the tobacco industry, where some of the acts have downright criminal, the mining industry has been and can be a productive part of what we do in this state. Despite the sometimes harsh criticism I've received from the mining industry, the mining industry has responded ... albeit sometimes grudgingly ... whenever there has been environmental concerns."
The talk turns to Miller's family. The Windstar, with 50,694 miles on it and a "Keep Tahoe Blue" sticker displayed prominently on the back window, makes its descent into Incline Village.
The minivan has been used many times over the past few years, traveling back and forth to basketball games involving two of Miller's daughters, Laura, 17, a senior, and Kate, 16, a sophomore, at McQueen High School. Sara, 13, an eighth grader at Clayton Middle School, is also an athlete - and a budding scientist, who won the science fair at Peavine Elementary School six years in a row. Wife Mary is a research chemist at Desert Research Institute. "We travel to San Diego, to Las Vegas, to Sacramento, to any of the girls' tournaments or activities," Miller says.
Less than three weeks later, by the end of November, the Windstar's mileage will have climbed to 54,062 miles. He chuckles, "We usually find one reason or another to go with them. Probably one of my greatest sins is being there and thinking of other things, being too preoccupied with my work. My wife is pretty good at giving me not-so-gentle reminders in those situations that I need to prioritize things a little better - and she's right."
"I've known Glenn a long time," Freeman says. "And I think he does a wonderful job of understanding what is important. His family is important - and the world they will be living in 20 years from now is important. He's the perfect example of the old Jeffersonian ideal of participatory democracy. He truly believes in the give and take of ideas, the free flow of those ideas, listening to others and finally presenting scientific data to come to a sound conclusion based on scientific evidence."
Adds Chris Exline, chairman of the Geography Department at UNR who has known Miller for nearly 20 years: "Like any scientist, Glenn knows the power of scientific fact. It's easy to fault a lot of things in this world, but that isn't one of them. I think that's why, by and large, he's come out on the right side of so many of the issues he's involved himself with. He gives such great, deep thought to these issues."
That is why the Windstar's mileage keeps growing, and the road Glenn Miller travels runs forever. You will never find him assailing an opponent with emotional, ultimately meaningless words. Instead, you will find him conducting tests, attending hearings and meetings, and generally following the democratic course expected of citizens who hope to effect change.
"I've always felt the environment always benefits when the most information is revealed," Miller says. "You do get angry sometimes that there has been a slide down the regulatory ladder. You think to yourself, 'We need to go to the mat for this.' But even then, the best way to act is to have reasonable people looking at all the alternatives with the public good in mind.
"Historically, radical environmentalism or black helicopters haven't made the important changes in our society. It's cool, calm pressure that is created in political and public debate. That's what makes a difference."
Posted Jan. 29, 1998
Copyright 1998 Nevada Oupost
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