Milo Creek Will Get Temporary Fix For Now
(From For the Record, July 17, 1997:) Incorrect name: Jamie Sharp is Kellogg’s superintendent of public works. A story about Milo Creek in Wednesday’s newspaper gave an incorrect last name.
Plans to rein in Milo Creek are settled, but any permanent fix still depends on one unknown - financing.
At a town hall meeting this week, residents voted to permanently route the creek under Wardner’s Main Street and down Kellogg’s Division Street to the South Fork of the Coeur d’Alene River.
Until then, the plan is for the creek to follow its current route in new underground pipes.
Since May 15, when flood debris blocked its culverts, the creek has been running down city streets in a serpentine path that roughly follows its former underground route.
The floodwaters have subsided, but the summer flow still meanders above ground, where city workers keep it hemmed in with sandbags and concrete barriers.
The community’s preferred solution is too complex to accomplish by fall, when freezing temperatures will worsen the problem. So the Federal Emergency Management Agency plans to pipe Milo Creek under the zig-zagging streets it now runs over, and then top the streets with a gravel surface.
“The water that is currently flowing down the streets must be contained prior to the onset of winter,” said Pete Wuerpel of FEMA. “That is a safety, health and welfare issue, so we are pursuing that under emergency authorities.”
FEMA sent Wuerpel to Kellogg last month to coordinate the repair and reconstruction of the culvert system after a presidential disaster declaration was issued for North Idaho. FEMA also hired an engineer to help solve the problem.
“It sounds like they’ve burned the midnight oil trying to come up with a solution so the temporary fix could also be permanent,” said Shoshone County Commissioner Sherry Krulitz. “But it just won’t work because of the time frame.”
Under the current emergency, FEMA will pick up the cost of temporarily putting Milo Creek underground, but the long-term financing is still questionable. Wuerpel has assured local leaders that the temporary work will not rob any money from the final project.
FEMA has $2.2 million available for the permanent fix, 25 percent of which will be picked up by the state. The new route down Division Street is expected to cost an estimated $6.5 to $7 million.
The state Bureau of Disaster Services has scheduled a meeting Friday for local, state and federal officials to discuss where to come up with the additional $4.5 million.
“Until funding is allocated, nothing (permanent) is going to be done,” Krulitz said.
Also worrying local citizens is what will be done about an old Bunker Hill mine dump upstream from Wardner. During the high water, Milo Creek ran across the dump and carried contaminated soil down into Kellogg.
Health officials tested the creek water in Kellogg and found high levels of toxic metals, according to Kellogg Public Works Director Jamie Schmidt.
Last week, Schmidt’s crew hauled off 206 tons of tainted material to the Superfund site’s containment area, he said. “We’re kind of cleaning house,” he said.
The owner of the New Bunker Hill Mining Co., who owns the dump, has rerouted the creek through an old culvert under the dump, but Schmidt called that a temporary fix.
The recent disaster in Kellogg acted as a catalyst for the Environmental Protection Agency, which is overseeing the Bunker Hill Superfund site cleanup, said EPA spokeswoman Nancy Wilson. The mine dump is within the Superfund site.
“We definitely have plans to deal with the upper portion of the creek,” she said. “We’ll be moving on that pretty quickly.”
, DataTimes