Epa, Sunshine Reach Settlement

Sunshine Mining and Refining Co. and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency have reached a settlement over a complaint against the company.

Last spring, the EPA asked the company to pay a $125,000 fine for alleged illegal discharges from the Sunshine tailings pond into the South Fork of the Coeur d’Alene River and from a diversion dam into Big Creek.

The EPA accused the company of 49 separate water-quality violations between 1992 and 1996.

Most of the violations involved concentrations of heavy metals such as iron, manganese, gold, nickel, silver and zinc. The amount of metal allowed in wastewater is determined by a discharge permit under the federal Clean Water Act.

The EPA said Sunshine violated water discharge levels even after the agency temporarily had reduced its standards, allowing the mine to operate under less stringent requirements.

According to the settlement announced Tuesday, Sunshine agreed to pay $90,000 in civil penalties. But the EPA will accept a payment of $22,500 as long as Sunshine spends at least $67,500 on improvements to reduce the flow of wastewater to the South Fork of the Coeur d’Alene River and to Big Creek.

“Sunshine’s willingness to recycle wastewater at Kellogg and to use less in the first place will mean a lot more for the environment than the federal government collecting a big fine,” said Chuck Clarke, EPA’s Northwest regional administrator.

Sunshine neither admitted nor denied the allegations in the complaint.

, DataTimes