Cleanup Picks Up In River Basin 1995 Could Be Pivotal Year For Environmental Progress In The Area

FOR THE RECORD CORRECTION: Tundra swans die in significant numbers every year in the Coeur d’Alene River Basin. The type of swan was reported incorrectly in a story in Sunday’s newspaper. The correction was published on Monday, April 3, 1995.

First of two parts

Until now, signs of environmental progress in the metals-tainted Coeur d’Alene River Basin have been small.

Flea-sized, even.

Billie Irwin considered it noteworthy that her dog started scratching after 1981, when the Bunker Hill mining complex shut down and smokestack emissions stopped.

“A smelter’s not very good for fleas,” says Irwin, a Kellogg city council member.

Lawns revived, too. Trees took hold on the barren hills above Interstate 90. But nothing much happened at the bleak Bunker Hill complex, “ground zero” of the 21-square-mile Superfund site targeted for cleanup in 1983.

That’s changing.

In fact, 1995 is shaping up as a pivotal year for environmental restoration in the river basin.

Projects to clean up a 100-year-old legacy of mining pollution are under way both on and off the Superfund site. There also are efforts to stop erosion caused by logging and farming, and to protect Lake Coeur d’Alene from a variety of environmental problems.

People involved in restoration efforts are pleased by the progress, but aren’t ready to do cartwheels.

“There’s a huge job ahead,” said Ed Javorka, an employee of the Coeur d’Alene Tribe.

Getting the job done depends heavily on getting money.

The tribe is suing mining companies to get money for restoration outside the Superfund site; the federal government will be doing the same if a settlement isn’t reached.

Meanwhile, U.S. Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, plans to introduce legislation that would pump taxpayer money into cleanup and possibly resolve the lawsuits. The money likely would be spent by a beefed-up version of the Coeur d’Alene Basin Restoration Project. The 4-yearold, loose-knit interagency organization already coordinates various cleanup efforts.

Because the river system has been overdosed with metals that can harm people and wildlife, mining pollution is the project’s top priority.

Citizens working with the Coeur d’Alene restoration project don’t want the expensive cleanup chore to go on forever. What they do want is this: Waterways that are safe for swimming and are filled with a lot of safe-to-eat fish.

Here’s a rundown of 1995 activities:

Superfund.

The Bunker Hill Superfund site is a rectangle that straddles I-90. Known as “the box,” it contains 21 square miles and 7,000 people in five Shoshone County towns.

It’s one of the largest and most complex hazardous waste sites in the United States. It was polluted by smokestack emissions, runoff from mine tailings and the tailings themselves.

Until this year, cleanup largely has been limited to stabilizing slopes, planting trees and removing toxic dirt from yards. Much of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s effort has focused on studies and negotiations with the state and mining companies over who will pay for what. The bankruptcy of former Bunker Hill owner Gulf Resources further complicated matters.

This winter, building demolition finally began at the Bunker Hill smelter complex. As many as 70 buildings will come down by summer. The first of five smokestacks could come down then, too.

Lead smelter demolition will resume in the fall.

This isn’t routine wrecking-ball destruction. Workers must not spread, or come in contact with, poisonous metals - primarily lead, zinc, arsenic and cadmium. Those can cause cancer, lung and kidney damage, nerve disorders or stunted growth.

The $150 million Superfund project offers hope to Silver Valley residents. They want the smelter site cleaned up so new industry can move in.

“It’s going to be a viable part of the taxpaying base down the road,” said Irwin. “We’re looking at seven to 10 years.”

Canyon Creek, Nine Mile Creek:

If lead and zinc keep polluting the headwaters, removing the metals downstream would be fruitless. So, like a janitor cleaning walls, restoration planners figured it makes sense to start at the top of the basin and work down.

A huge source of metals pollution is tailings piled along Nine Mile Creek and Canyon Creeks, both of which flow into the South Fork of the Coeur d’Alene River from north of I-90. Nine Mile restoration began in 1994 and will continue this year.

Canyon Creek, the bigger problem, will be tackled in July. Initially, the $2.7 million project will focus on the reddish, stump-ridden flats at the lower end.

Most money for this upstream work comes from a damage settlement the state made with mining companies.

Another company, Hecla, contributes separately. Some state and U.S. Bureau of Land Management money is being spent.

Restoration methods include: removing or covering tailings (what’s left of the mined rock after most of the metal has been extracted); planting trees and grass; stabilizing streambanks to slow erosion; putting meanders back into straightened streams; creating wetlands to filter out pollutants; and plugging mine openings.

Cataldo boat launch:

It would be impossible to remove or cover up all contaminated sediments that have washed down to the lower Coeur d’Alene River.

So the emphasis is on cleaning up areas that get heavy human use, especially designated recreation sites.

One such spot is the county boat launch near Old Mission State Park. The riverbank there largely is sediment washed downstream. Windblown dust is common.

Work begins this spring. One contaminated area will be topped with clean soil and grass.

Elsewhere, thorny bushes will be planted to keep people away. One small wetland will be filled in, to keep it from becoming an “attractive nuisance” for kids.

About $25,000 from a patchwork of sources will be spent on the project.

If a waterways grant comes through, picnic tables and a better toilet will be added. Drinking water will be provided if the state parks board agrees to maintain the water system.

Cougar Gulch, Steamboat Creek:

In the North Fork drainage, erosion linked to logging is a larger problem than mining pollution in the North Fork drainage.

The U.S. Forest Service has started restoration, although at the current rate of funding the project could go on for decades. This year, the agency will continue work at Cougar Gulch, about five miles above the confluence of the North and South Forks. Some 75 miles of old logging roads already have been destroyed; now, dead trees will be placed in the streams to improve fish habitat, and larger culverts installed to handle runoff.

Similar work continues in the west fork of Steamboat Creek.

Near Prichard, there will be fish habitat improvements in Shoshone Creek.

Even closer to the headwaters, workers will actually be returning 1,000 feet of Little Teepee Creek to its historic channel. That stretch changed course in a 1974 flood, straightening out to follow an old logging road that continues to slough dirt into the water.

Lake Creek, Plummer Creek:

The streams that feed the southern end of Lake Coeur d’Alene don’t carry heavy metals. But they carry lots of silt. Bays are quickly filling in with dirt, promoting weed growth and limiting boat use. Trout populations in the creeks are down.

The Natural Resource Conservation Service has two $1 million projects aimed at slowing the erosion into Lake Creek and Plummer Creek. Federal scientists will inventory farmers’ fields and suggest how sediment basins, gully plugs, terraces and the like could be used to catch and slow runoff.

Farmers will get money to pay for the work, in exchange for signing 10-year contracts to limit erosion. Project officials hope to get contracts accounting for 75 percent of the watershed, or some 16,000 acres.

Lake CdA Management Plan:

The big lake looks great. But toxic metals from mining operations cover its bottom and, in its water, exceed federal standards for wildlife.

One way to keep more metals from entering the water is to limit the amount of nutrients, such as phosphorus, from entering the lake along with sediment. For that reason, and to limit ugly weed and algae growth, there’s a plan on the table to reduce erosion from many sources, including building construction, logging, farming, even boat wakes.

The Clean Lakes Coordinating Council, a group appointed by the governor, will hold hearings on the plan. Then it will go to Kootenai County commissioners for final approval later this year. Besides guiding local ordinances, the plan could influence decisions made by state and federal land managers.

Damage assessment:

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is guiding this big federal effort to figure out how mining pollution is harming fish and wildlife. The most well-known damage is to trumpeter swans, which die every year of lead poisoning.

The studies of fish, birds, amphibians and sediment will be mostly finished this year.

The results will be used to set priorities and pricetags for cleanup outside the Superfund site. Both the federal and tribal governments need that information as they try to collect damages from mining companies.

Coming Monday: More than dead swans - a look at the Natural Resource Damage Assessment.

ILLUSTRATION: One Map: 1995 cleanup projects in the Coeur d’Alene Rover Basin Three drawings to represent the three different causes of pollution: Mining; Logging; Agriculture

MEMO: Cut in The Region