Cleaning Up History Mining Has Contaminated The Region’S Soil And Water; Now It’S Time To Focus On Fixing The Problems

Sat., Aug. 5, 2000

By Zaz Hollander zazh@spokesman.com

Heavy metal pollution from mining and smelting accumulated in the Silver Valley over a century. Cleaning it up will take decades.

News about cleanup, however, is coming out practically every day.

A draft study of human health risks posed by mine waste released in mid-July adds some urgency to clean up outside the Kellogg Superfund site.

The study, the first step toward cleaning up the entire Coeur d’Alene River Basin, showed that basin residents face higher risks than outsiders do, as do folks who eat homegrown produce, fish from the lower river or traditional Coeur d’Alene tribal foods such as water potatoes.

The study also found that more than a quarter of the 2-year-olds tested in the basin have elevated lead levels. So do 16 percent of the kids between 9 months and 6 years.

The Environmental Protection Agency will plug the information into a cleanup plan for the 1,500-square-mile basin, due out next year.

Along with health risks, policy makers also will weigh environmental risks - and politics.

The state and EPA have different ideas about cleanup. Gov. Dirk Kempthorne also wants federal and tribal officials to accept an offer from mining companies to settle a longstanding billion-dollar lawsuit.

The state favors limited application of Superfund.

EPA favors cleanup anywhere lead or other metals are concentrated high enough to pose a potential health or environmental risk, based on local sampling and on scientific models.

Until recently, mining companies and Idaho politicians argued that Superfund cleanup should be limited to the 21-square-mile Bunker Hill Superfund site, created in 1983.

But a June court ruling gave EPA the authority to pursue cleanup as far as toxic pollutants extend - above and below Bunker Hill.

That decision from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals vacated a ruling by an Idaho federal judge who said cleanup was restricted to the Kellogg Superfund site.

Now it’s up to EPA to decide how much latitude to take.

And to that end, the EPA’s own ombudsman - who investigates citizen complaints - is reviewing EPA’s use of Superfund for cleanup, at the request of Idaho’s congressional delegation. By year’s end, Robert Martin will deliver preliminary recommendations on the extent of cleanup to the agency’s regional and headquarters offices.

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