Cuts Could Threaten Bunker Cleanup Slashing The Superfund Budget Likely Wouldn’t Slow Smelter Demolition, But It May Jeopardize Cleanup

Although Congress is intent on slashing the Superfund budget, that probably wouldn’t slow demolition of the Bunker Hill smelter complex, a federal official said Wednesday.

But the proposed one-third funding cut easily could jeopardize later steps in the long-awaited cleanup project.

“It’s just a new day” in toxic cleanups, said Michael Gearheard of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

The new day officially will begin when Congress passes - and President Clinton signs - a federal budget this fall.

The House of Representatives has passed a bill calling for a 36 percent cut in the Superfund toxic-cleanup budget. The Senate is expected to do the same next week.

About three-fourths of Superfund cleanups are paid for by the businesses responsible for the messes.

Bunker Hill is among the minority of sites that largely are funded by the federal government. The competition for that money will increase sharply if the Superfund budget is cut, Gearheard said.

That means a potential slowdown in cleanup of the heavy metals that pollute the 21-square-mile Superfund site in the Silver Valley. There might be a slower, or less thorough, cleanup of the hillsides above the defunct smelter, of the black pile of waste south of Interstate 90 known as the Central Impoundment Area and of the Smelterville Flats along the South Fork of the Coeur d’Alene River.

But Gearheard says he expects the first big step in the Superfund project - demolition of the smelter complex - to continue as planned. That’s because “Bunky” is a very high priority project in the Northwest, he said.

“What makes this site unique in our world is there are entire communities here … and it’s such a big site,” he said. “It has a very high health risk.”

The demolition costs about $1 million each month. It started early this year and should be mostly complete by the end of 1996, Gearheard said.

The project’s immediate future also is brightened by the $8 million the EPA received in the recent bankruptcy settlement by Gulf Resources, former owner of the smelter.

Bunker Hill was added to the EPA’s National Priorities List, commonly called Superfund, in 1983.

Kellogg area residents waited 12 years before significant cleanup got under way. They’re counting on a thorough cleanup not only to protect their health but also to remove the economic specter of Superfund designation. They hope to lure businesses in order to replace lost mining-industry jobs.

Budget cuts that slow down the Superfund project would be bad news, according to Duane Little, Shoshone County assessor and chairman of the local Bunker Hill task force.

“We would not be very happy,” Little said. “It’s been long enough.”

, DataTimes