State Will Administer Blood-Testing Program Bunker Hill Trust Fund Supplies Cash For Program

Federal funding is ending for screening lead levels in the blood of Silver Valley children, but a state-administered fund will keep the program going.

Legislative budget writers on Friday approved a request to spend $10,000 from the fund to supplement the last $55,000 in federal funds for the 1996 screening. The screening is conducted each year by the Panhandle Health District.

The money will come from the Bunker Hill Trust Fund, which contains more than $2 million from various companies that made payments to settle their responsibilities in the Bunker Hill mining waste cleanup. The companies include Union Pacific Railroad, mining companies and Stauffer Chemical Co.

The Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee, on a unanimous vote, also agreed to spend $30,000 from the fund on a program aimed at keeping contamination from spreading or being uncovered in non-populated areas. That program is also run by the Panhandle Health District.

“It’s a really key program for helping the community continue with life after this cleanup is done,” said Rob Hanson, mine waste program manager for the state Division of Environmental Quality.

For example, the program is allowing Panhandle Health to help the developer of a subdivision near Pinehurst cope with waste questions in the development.

Similar programs within populated areas of the Bunker Hill Superfund site are being paid for by mining companies under the federal government’s supervision.

, DataTimes