2006 Book Reading Project
Pocatello - The 2006-07 Idaho State University Reading Project focuses on the book "The Cyanide Canary," which was written about an industrial accident that occurred in Soda Springs.
The Reading Project consists of a series of events beginning on Oct. 12 that encourage the reading of a common book to stimulate discussions among members of the ISU and southeast Idaho general communities. Events will culminate when the book's authors, Robert Dugoni and Joseph Hilldorfer, will present the discussion "Idaho Justice: The Cyanide Canary" at 7 p.m. Oct. 25 as keynote speakers at the Idaho Conference on Health Care.
"The Cyanide Canary" (Simon & Schuster 2004) was honored as a Washington Post 2004 Best Book of the Year, and Idaho Book of the Year. The book details an incident that occurred on Aug. 26, 1996, at a fertilizer plant in Soda Springs, Idaho, when a 20-year-old worker cleaned a storage tank containing cyanide, which he and other workers believed contained only dirt and water. The worker, according to the authors, was told he needed no safety equipment for the job.
Hilldorfer, a Special Agent for the EPA and member of the National Counter-Terrorism Evidence Response Team, has been involved in high-profile environmental investigations in the Pacific Northwest since 1992. Prior to joining the EPA, Hilldorfer was a distinguished Special Agent with the FBI in Seattle and New York City, working high-profile cases such as the Green River Killer and going undercover for the Counter-Espionage Squad.
The book combines Hilldorfer's own experiences with interviews, sworn trial testimony, court transcripts, and newspaper articles to tell a fully rounded, gripping story of how an environmental crime was prosecuted in the real world.
Dugoni is a best-selling author and Idaho native. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Stanford University with a degree in journalism and clerked as a reporter for the Los Angeles School of Law. He has practiced as a civil litigator for 19 years in San Francisco and Seattle.
"We're excited that we have a book of national interest that discusses an incident that took place in Southeast Idaho," said Bonnie Frantz, associate director of the ISU Student Unions and chair of the ISU Reading Project. "It is a compelling story that brings up a variety of pertinent issues."