$1.5 Million Ok’d For Silver Valley Trust Fund

State budget writers Thursday authorized the state to spend $1.5 million for the Silver Valley Trust Fund, which assists in cleanup efforts at the Bunker Hill Superfund site.

The money will be used to continue projects along the South Fork of the Coeur d’Alene River and to continue administering the trust fund. Those projects help remove some of the residual mineralization from the banks and streambeds of the South Fork.

Legislative budget writers have yet to examine Gov. Phil Batt’s recommendation that the state pay $2.26 million in operations costs for the entire Bunker Hill cleanup. The money is the first of about $10 million the state would need to pay over 10 years to satisfy its obligation under the Superfund law for the $200 million cleanup.

That law requires that state taxpayers pick up 10 percent of the total cleanup. But the state has negotiated credits with the federal government for the South Fork projects.