Town Residents Say Cleanup Isn’t Necessary

The federal Environmental Protection Agency proposed cleaning up an old tailings pond and slag pile near Clayton, figuring they pose health threats to the community’s 26 residents.

But local residents offered blood, hair and urine for tests that showed no particular health problems from Kinnikinic Creek.

“The tests were plumb normal,” said Marilyn Brower, owner of Clayton Mercantile. “That was the point we wanted to make, is that no one was in danger of being poisoned by the creek.”

EPA focused on the town when a former resident alerted the agency to possible pollution from past mining. The mine is just up the creek from Clayton. Use of the smelter was discontinued in the early 1900s, Brower said.

When residents learned about the intended cleanup, they scoffed at the idea. Roland Rovetto, caretaker of the mine, has worked there for 30 years and lived just below it all his life. He and his wife, Joyce, raised their children on Kinnikinic Creek, and his mother, now 87, also raised her children on the creek.

John Sainsbury of EPA said the test results would probably move the Clayton cleanup down the priority list, but he still believes his agency will push for a cleanup of the tailings pond that is eroding into Kinnikinic Creek. The creek runs into the Salmon River.

“There appears to be little danger to people but we don’t have a way of measuring the impact on the fishery,” he said. “We know the river is already stressed.”

Brower said the idea of cleaning up the creek just doesn’t make sense.