Mining Area Cleanup Gets Thumbs Up Third $2.3 Million Investment At Bunker Hill Site Approved

Idaho’s relatively small investment in cleanup of mining pollution in the Silver Valley is paying off big, an official told the Legislature’s budget committee Wednesday.

Lawmakers, hearing the good news, didn’t question the third $2.3 million appropriation for the Bunker Hill Superfund site cleanup. That money, the third year of a three-year series of appropriations, accompanies $126 million in federal funds.

“That’s a big bang for the buck,” said Charles Moss, director of the Bunker Hill State Project Team.

The state invests in cleanup in the Silver Valley in three ways:

Through the Bunker Hill Trust, which receives the $2.3 million and contributes to the Superfund cleanup. The coming year’s appropriation of money from the Water Pollution Control Account is the last, Moss said. In fiscal year 1999, the trust should give the fund back about $1.8 million.

The cleanup has included removing old, polluted buildings and stacks, replacing contaminated dirt and more.

Through the Silver Valley Natural Resource Trust, which was formed several years ago with $5.2 million paid in by mining companies through a court settlement. That trust works to improve water quality in the South Fork of the Coeur d’Alene River. Its work has focused on moving heavy metal tailings away from the river’s tributaries and putting the tailings into lined repositories.

So far, the Silver Valley trust has spent about $3 million, Moss said. “We’re beginning to see marked improvement in water quality because of that work.”

“We really believe that we are making the major water quality improvement in the Coeur d’Alene basin with this little dab of money.”

By funding Moss’ position part time, through the governor’s office, to coordinate the projects.

Rep. Don Pischner, R-Coeur d’Alene, said he’s pleased with the work.

“It’s nice that we’re not spending this time studying it - something’s being done,” Pischner said. “We had 18 years of studying it.”

Moss said the Silver Valley work has been closely coordinated with the state Division of Environmental Quality, which is under a court order to assess and improve the water quality of hundreds of possibly polluted streams statewide.

The work should fit right into the DEQ’s efforts, Moss said.

, DataTimes