Group Organizes Against Epa Study

EPA go home.

That’s the strong message from a newly formed group that wants the Environmental Protection Agency to finish mopping up mining pollution in the Kellogg area but leave Lake Coeur d’Alene alone.

“This lake is safe for swimming. The water is safe to drink. The fish are safe to eat,” said Jack Riggs, a Coeur d’Alene physician on hand to help announce the creation of Community Leaders for EPA Accountability Now.

The group acknowledges there is 70 million tons of lead and other heavy metals in sediments at the bottom of Lake Coeur d’Alene.

“It’s in a stable form,” said Riggs, a Republican state senator. “It’s not going anywhere.”

The occasions where it washes downstream, into the Spokane River, are rare, Riggs argued.

Community Leaders announce its formation Monday at a press conference on Lake Coeur d’Alene. The group is being supported by private donors, and exists to “get out the true facts about the quality of Lake Coeur d’Alene,” said Mic Armon, a stockbroker who represents the Chamber of Commerce.

If necessary, Community Leaders said they will use litigation to stop the federal agency.

The EPA announced this spring it was going to start looking for lead, zinc and other heavy metals both upstream and downstream from the Bunker Hill Superfund site. This is not an expansion of the Superfund area, as opponents argue, but a natural progression in the cleanup process, the agency says.

Mining contamination may not be serious around Lake Coeur d’Alene. “But we don’t know,” said Mark MacIntyre, and EPA spokesman, and so the study was initiated.

EPA has said dredging the lake is one of the options, but isn’t necessarily the solution that will be selected. Doing nothing isn’t an option.

“It’s great for people to talk about accepting the risk now, but we’ve not been able to find anybody who can speak for five generations from now,” he said.

Downstream folks, who say they are the unwilling recipient of the heavy metals that wash through the lake and into the Spokane River, also argue for keeping the EPA involved.

“If there’s no problem, Hallelujah,” said Michele Nanni, of The Lands Council’s “Get the Lead Out” campaign. “So what is the big fear with the EPA doing a more extensive study throughout the basin?”

“I think all of their hysteria about Superfund is a self-fulfilling prophesy.”

The state of Washington has found more heavy metals in the Spokane River than any other river in the state and can tie them to the Bunker Hill site, said Jani Gilbert of the Washington Department of Ecology.

“If the EPA folds up it’s tent and goes home, we still have a big problem down here,” Gilbert said.