Idaho Officials Announce Plans For Mining Cleanup

Tue., Aug. 1, 2000

From Staff

State officials on Monday released their preference in strategies to clean up the pollution from a century of mining in the Coeur d’Alene River Basin.

The $478 million proposal lays out a 30-year plan for managing health risks in the region, complying with water-quality standards, dealing with sediment in the Spokane River, reducing metal deposits in the basin, improving water quality around the old smelter site, stabilizing river banks, protecting waterfowl and monitoring progress along the way.

Over the next several months, officials from the Department of Environmental Quality said, technicians will develop the detailed methods of achieving those goals, incorporating public comment.

They said the plan will not recommend federal Superfund money be used for any work in communities on Lake Coeur d’Alene.

Officials in Coeur d’Alene and the Silver Valley are fighting the possibility of additional Superfund listings in the Coeur d’Alene Basin.

They insist the economic stigma of such a move would be devastating to the local economy.

Spokane County and city officials also are opposed to a Superfund listing in the basin that extends to the Spokane River. However, environmentalists and others insist that Superfund may be the only way to pay for such far-reaching cleanup.

Idaho officials have reaffirmed the commitment of the Kempthorne administration to develop a comprehensive cleanup plan that has the support of all interests in the region and that improves the local economy.

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