Mines Face Trial For River Dumping May Be Charged For Cleanup Of Waste

The stakes in a billion-dollar lawsuit against Silver Valley mining companies just got higher.

A federal judge has ruled that seven mines must face trial for pollution dumped into the Coeur d’Alene River since the 1880s, even though much of the contamination predates Superfund, the law that holds polluters responsible for environmental damages.

U.S. District Judge Edward Lodge on Sept. 30 rejected a motion for partial summary judgement on the lawsuit from the mines. The companies argued it was illegal for the court to charge them for cleanup of mining waste released into the Coeur d’Alene River before Superfund was enacted in 1980.

But Lodge found that the companies can be held liable for cleanup costs after 1980 regardless of when the pollution occurred.

Mines can’t release pollution without facing legal consequences, he wrote.

“It would be unreasonable for a mining company to believe it can profit from its mining and have no responsibility for any damage to the environment from such mining activities,” the judge’s order states. “The mining companies are not innocent bystanders to the present day natural resource injury.”

Lodge also said, however, that reaching decades into the past to hold companies responsible for costly cleanup may “raise substantial questions of fairness.”

This case may even pit Superfund legislation against the Constitution by holding companies responsible for total damages because they are linked to small pollution releases after 1980, he said.

This is the first decision to come out of Lodge’s courtroom on a $970 million lawsuit against the mines by the Coeur d’Alene Indian Tribe and the U.S. Department of Justice.

The lawsuit, filed by the tribe in 1991 and joined by the feds in 1996, seeks damages to clean up heavy metals pollution from a century’s hard rock mining in the Coeur d’Alene River basin.

Defendants are ASARCO Inc., Government Gulch Mining Co., Hecla Mining Co., Sunshine Mining Co., Sunshine Precious Metals Inc., Coeur d’Alene Mines Corp. and Callahan Mining Corp.

Tailings ponds installed in the late 1960s stemmed the flow of metals into the river, the companies say. Many of the companies that caused the pollution, such as Bunker Hill operators Gulf Resources and Chemical Corp. and Bunker Limited Partnership, no longer exist.

For example, ASARCO could be held responsible for $718 million “in damages it did not cause,” the defendants argued, according to the court order.

Making the remaining companies pay for cleanup is unconstitutional, representing either a “taking” or a violation of due process, the companies argued.

Attorneys for the companies were unavailable for comment Friday, said Holly Houston, mining industry spokeswoman.

Houston said she couldn’t comment on the merits of the judge’s ruling.

But she said the lawsuit is far from over.

“The case is ongoing. We’ll go to trial November 2000.”

Coeur d’Alene tribal staffers said the decision could speed a settlement of the lawsuit because the mines know how much they stand to lose. Settlement negotiations that started in 1994 were bolstered somewhat this summer by a state of Idaho pollution cleanup plan that relies on a settlement for funding.

“It helps move settlement along,” said Phillip Cernera, the tribe’s head scientist on the lawsuit. “The more decisions are rendered, the better we all understand our risks and our advantages.”

IDAHO HEADLINE: Mines must face trial for CdA River dumping