“East Mission Flats: Contamination Likely”
July is here and as per the EPA newsletter, dumping should have started at the Eastern Mission Flats repository near the Cataldo Mission, well, yesterday.
Despite the EPA Inspector General’s report that the site itself is a hazard for contaminant release because of its location in a floodplain, residents are perplexed as to why they are disregarding their own agency? The Silver Valley Community Resource Center is still seeking a moratorium for the repository, calling upon the Environmental Justice Office of Region 10 EPA to halt construction, citing concerns for further pollution, human health exposure, and cleanup costs.
We’ve posted about this story extensively, first HERE on the report and then HERE on the public outreach effort. But today we would like to hear from the residents, who live downstream from the site.
In the Coeur d’Alene press, Susan Mitchell, a Cataldo resident sent a letter to the editor that is worth sharing. It’s titled “Mission Flats: Contamination likely.”
I live in Cataldo, just east of the new East Mission Flats Repository. I've attended IDEQ/EPA community meetings on the repository over the past two years and always felt EPA and IDEQ were doing thorough research on the proposed repository. But on June 8, the EPA Inspector General's office made available their own ($418,000) evaluation of EPA Region 10 and IDEQ's work citing several disturbing problems.
The report (available at www.epa.gov/oig) raises serious concerns about potential groundwater contamination. It found that EPA's analysis of the site's soil makeup and floodwater penetration issues was inaccurate and incomplete, and that groundwater contamination is likely.
The current design contains no liner to prevent infiltration, and the cap does not extend down the sides of the repository. EPA Region 10 also failed to address the underlying water's low oxygen content, which increases its ability to dissolve heavy metals, thus freeing these metals to flow downstream.
The groundwater beneath the site is currently clean, despite two to four feet of contaminated sediments on the surface. However, according to the inspector general's report, at a nearby site where the contaminated soil layer is much deeper due to historic dredging and dumping, the groundwater has more than double the accepted level of zinc. My wellhead lies within a quarter mile of the Mission Flats Repository, so contaminated groundwater is a critical issue for me personally. But my own problems pale in relationship to the potential for broad groundwater contamination and further pollution of the Coeur d'Alene River and all the water bodies it feeds.
EPA/IDEQ plans to begin dumping contaminated waste in July, only days from now, as well as beginning construction on a bridge from the I-90 exit onto the repository site. Once these activities begin, I imagine there is no turning back.
I'm asking local citizens to contact Congressman Walt Minnick's office requesting a full moratorium. You can speak to the Congressman's environmental staff person, Devin Nagy, at (202) 225-6611 or e-mail him at Devin.Nagy@mail.house.gov. You can also e-mail EPA Director Lisa Jackson at Jackson.Lisa@epamail.epa.gov. Siting a 34-foot pyramid of contaminated soil in a floodplain directly adjacent to I-90 is incredibly convenient but not the least bit wise.
My thanks to the EPA Inspector General's office for the breadth of their research and the Silver Valley Community Resource Center for pressing the IG to review EPA Region 10.
SUSAN MITCHELL
