Epa Spreads Word On Superfund Study Agency Distributes Pamphlets To Explain Decision Expanding Search For Mine Wastes, List Meeting Dates

The Environmental Protection Agency blanketed the Coeur d’Alene River Basin with pamphlets Friday, explaining its controversial study of heavy metals contamination.

The pamphlets, inserted into local newspapers, were meant to encourage people to sign up for the EPA’s mailing list, attend public meetings and become more informed about testing the EPA is doing, said Nancy Wilson, EPA community relations coordinator.

“The more community people we get involved, the better decision we’ll make,” she said.

The eight-page pamphlet included information such as a schedule for public meetings the EPA wants to conduct, a map showing where the agency tested for contamination in May and answers to frequently asked questions.

Coeur d’Alene Mayor Steve Judy said he agrees with the agency’s goal of getting more people out to the meetings, but maintained his opposition to the EPA testing.

“The community needs to be fully aware of what’s going on, needs to be aware of what the EPA is saying and needs to know that we have the right to disagree,” he said. “I still have a tremendous amount of concern about what they’re saying, especially about the 1983 Superfund site.”

Judy, along with other local elected officials like Post Falls Mayor Gus Johnson and the Kootenai County Commissioners have said the EPA has no right to expand a Superfund site near Kellogg. The site, which was established in 1983, was caused by decades of mining operations.

Heavy metals wound up in the area’s soils and washed into the south fork of the Coeur d’Alene River.

The EPA says it’s not expanding the site.

The original site always meant any mining contamination that came from there - even contamination that washed downstream, the agency has stated. Local officials and the mining companies being held responsible for the cleanup say the Superfund site is only the area around Bunker Hill - not the Coeur d’Alene River Basin.

The EPA agreed to work with the Coeur d’Alene River Basin Commission, an advisory group to Gov. Phil Batt, in setting the format for the upcoming public meetings.

In the meetings, the river basin commission wants to give the EPA 30 minutes, Idaho representatives 20 minutes and then open up the meeting for an hour of questions from the audience.

The EPA would like more time for other groups - the Department of Agriculture, the State of Washington, the Coeur d’Alene Tribe, the mining companies, the Department of the Interior and possibly environmental groups - to make presentations if they wish, Wilson said.

The commission voted Thursday that if the EPA did not agree to its format, then it would have its own public meetings and not participate in the EPA’s, members of the commission said.

“The problem we have with this commission ultimatum is it doesn’t appear to provide equitable treatment for the various parties that have their own important work going on,” said EPA’s Mike Gearheard. That includes the tribes, other federal agencies and the State of Washington.

The EPA plans to talk to state officials about the apparent disagreement on Monday.

“We desire it to be balanced,” Gearheard said. “Our hope is we can reach an appropriate understanding with the state and have full state involvement.”

PUBLIC MEETINGS The Environmental Protection Agency has scheduled public meetings to discuss the testing it’s doing around the Coeur d’Alene River Basin for heavy metals contamination. The meetings will start with open house sessions from 6 to 7 p.m. and then will have more formal meetings from 7 to 9 p.m. The schedule for the meetings is: June 29, Wallace, Wallace Inn Gold Room, 100 Front St. June 30, Harrison, Emergency Medical Technicians Building, 201 Frederick Ave. across from City Hall. July 1, Worley, Tribal Community Center at First Street near the Lakeside Elementary School bus barn. July 6, Coeur d’Alene, Senior Center, 1916 Lakewood Drive. July 8, Spokane, Public Health Center, 1101 West College Ave.

Staff writer Ken Olsen contributed to this report.