Are you Iinterested in the Superfund cleanup in the Coeur d’Alene Basin? If you want to learn more about the cleanup process and provide input, there's a few upcoming events near the impacted areas that I hope you can attend. This is part of the EPA's Technical Assistance Services For Communities. All are welcome and the same material will be presented at each location.

WALLACE Tuesday, April 17, 6 p.m. Wallace Inn, Gold Room 100 Front Street

POST FALLS Wednesday, April 18, 10 a.m. City Hall, Council Chambers 408 N Spokane Street

KELLOGG Thursday, April 19, 2 p.m. and 6 p.m. Silver Mountain Resort, Shoshone Room 610 Bunker Avenue

For information, contact Alison Frost, Technical Assistance Specialist (719) 256-6708, afrost@skeo.com.

1993 Photo of the Bunker HIll Superfund Site in the Coeur d'Alene Basin. Courtesy of Fish and Wildlife.

Last year, the largest and oldest owner of Idaho's silver mine, Hecla Mining Co., reached a $263.4 million settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice, the Coeur d’Alene Tribe and the state to clean up historic mine waste in the Coeur d’Alene Basin. This settlement ranks among the top ten settlements in Superfund history.

The money will be used to cleanup lead, arsenic and other heavy metals from their mining operations that have polluted 160 miles of the Coeur d’Alene River, its shoreline and downstream water bodies including Lake Coeur d’Alene and the Spokane River. The Spokesman reported about 150 tundra swans died last spring after ingesting toxic doses of lead in marshes along the Coeur d’Alene River and many of the river’s tributaries are too polluted to support fish.

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