Groups Back Feds For Cleanup Environmentalists, Unions Attack Critics’ Claim That Superfund Label Brings Stigma To Cda Basin

Labor and environmental groups on Friday aligned to send a message to Environmental Protection Agency ombudsman Bob Martin.

The federal government should direct cleanup of metals pollution throughout the Coeur d’Alene River basin, the groups said at a news conference.

They attacked the perception that federal Superfund projects bring economic stigma, as alleged by regional politicians and business interests.

Sometimes paying wages up to $29 an hour, jobs cleaning up pollution at the Bunker Hill Superfund site are a mainstay of the local economy hard-hit by mine closures, a union organizer told the small group of reporters.

“I think the only stigma is people that don’t want to see the truth,” said Mel Thoreson, organizer for the Operating Engineers Local Union No. 370. “If cleanup is going to be effective, you have to have someone there who can do the job. So far, EPA has done that job.”

Thoreson and Bill Carter, board member of the Idaho State AFL-CIO, urged Martin to recommend any cleanup workers get paid prevailing wages, which hinge around federal involvement.

But North Idaho business leaders and elected officials are wary of federal attempts to declare the entire Coeur d’Alene basin and Spokane River a Superfund site, said Bret Bowers, with Community Leaders for EPA Accountability Now. CLEAN is an arm of the Coeur d’Alene Chamber of Commerce.

“EPA is very much needed to help resolve the remaining cleanup,” Bowers said following the conference. “But we don’t feel there’s cleanup that has to be done in (Lake Coeur d’Alene). We don’t feel they need to paint the entire region in a negative light.”

The news conference at City Park served as a prelude to Martin’s hearing today, organizers said. Though several of the presenters will also be testifying today, organizers said most panels are weighted with EPA detractors.

The daylong hearing includes eight panels followed by public testimony. Martin will also review data before making a recommendation to EPA by the end of the year.

Activists from the Kootenai Environmental Alliance, The Lands Council and the Silver Valley People’s Action Coalition joined the union representatives.

Martin last April decided to review the coalition’s claim that botched EPA cleanup at Bunker Hill is exposing residents to potential health problems.

In May, Martin also agreed to review complaints by Idaho’s congressional delegation that EPA is breaking its own laws with planned Superfund work outside Bunker Hill.

Delegation members have said they want Idaho - not EPA - to control cleanup.

People’s Action Coalition founder Barbara Miller said the delegation’s request risks leaving “the citizens who originally requested this investigation without a voice.”

“We want to emphasize how we need EPA to be present at the site to continue the work they started,” she said.

The future of cleanup throughout the Coeur d’Alene basin revolves around the use of Superfund, other activists said.

A recent 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision gave EPA the authority to use Superfund wherever contamination poses a health or environmental threat.

The state’s 30-year, $478 million plan to deal with mine waste also relies on up to $200 million in Superfund dollars.