Cleanup Standards Proposed For Cda Basin Panel Struggled With The Concept ‘How Clean Is Clean?’ For Soil

When asked how clean their rivers and lakes should be, Coeur d’Alene River basin residents searching for solutions to mine pollution had a ready answer.

They want the water to be safe to swim in, the fish safe to eat.

It was a lot harder for them to decide just how free the soil should be of potentially toxic metals.

“We struggled a lot with the concept of ‘How clean is clean?,”’ Brian Miller said Wednesday. Miller is a staff member for the Coeur d’Alene Basin Restoration Project.

He presented citizens’ soil cleanup recommendations to the scientists and managers who make up the Coeur d’Alene Basin Interagency Group.

The citizens’ recommendations will influence how much mining companies and taxpayers spend on cleanup.

Suggestions are based on how individual pieces of property in the contaminated river corridor are used by people and wildlife, and for livestock and crops.

The recommendations break down this way:

Human uses

Places where people live or spend long periods of time should be thoroughly cleaned, to federal standards used at the Bunker Hill Superfund site.

There would be decreasing standards for the following kinds of areas: developed recreation areas such as boat ramps, campgrounds and picnic areas; dispersed recreation areas such as beaches and remote camping areas; and places that attract few people, such as hunting areas, brushy stream sides, and steep slopes.

Wildlife

Soil should be clean enough so that animals don’t die at a faster rate than they do in uncontaminated areas.

That can be hard to determine, especially because some animals spend only part of their lives in the polluted area.

Those include tundra swans, some of which die every year from lead poisoning.

Agriculture

No food grown on the Coeur d’Alene River floodplain should create a human health hazard from metals contamination.

Now, a group of scientists will decide how much of the metals can remain in the soil, and still meet those recommendations.

“We may have to discourage the use of some land if we feel it can’t logically be cleaned up,” said George Brabb, a member of the citizens’ committee.

“At least we have to put up signs that tell people it’s dangerous - in some places, that may be all we can do.”

Many people involved in the basin restoration project are counting on Congress to help pay for it.

Idaho Sen. Larry Craig has proposed legislation to combine federal and mining company dollars to do the work.

A draft cleanup bill does not yet contain any standards for water and soils.

, DataTimes