Idaho Rangelands Laced With Waste

Idaho’s federal rangelands - more than 12 million acres of rolling sagebrush and grassland - are laced with hazardous waste.

The Bureau of Land Management has identified more than 100 hazardous waste sites on its property, mostly illegal dumps within miles of cities or abandoned mines scattered throughout the state.

Agency officials estimate that two or three times as many have not yet been found.

“It’s a tremendous problem,” said Mark Masarik, chief of hazardous waste for the Idaho office of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Most of the sites are in areas rarely visited by people. But for hunters, hikers, ranchers and others - danger lurks.

A rancher in Butte County reported the mysterious death of 35 cattle. Investigation linked the deaths to high levels of lead contained in releases from the closed North Creek mine.

An Owyhee County man was hunting rabbits with his dog when the animal began licking a stained spot on the ground. The dog died. Investigators found an abandoned container of Dinoseb, a toxic insecticide.

The toxic problem is hard to solve because the bureau does not have the money it needs to clean up existing sites. New hazards are constantly appearing as people use ravines and gullies to illegally dump toxic waste.

The agency was provided $85,000 this year to clean up hazardous waste, enough money to clean only six sites.

One site the agency wanted to take care of, the abandoned Princess Blue Ribbon Mine in Camas County, had a cleanup cost of $90,000 to $120,000.

The BLM was only able to spend $30,000 on the project, enough to remove chemicals in a building.