Epa Mining Pollution Deadline Set To Expire But Agency Threat To Make Cda Basin A Superfund Site May Be Moot Point

A six-month deadline for the state of Idaho to settle a mining pollution lawsuit expires today. But the Environmental Protection Agency won’t make good on its threat to start work on new Superfund sites in the Coeur d’Alene River basin.

The EPA says it doesn’t have to: A recent federal court ruling makes the need for new listings a moot point - pending an appeal.

“We’re happy we don’t - at this point - have to talk any more about listing,” said Mike Gearheard, the region’s Superfund manager in Seattle.

Last winter, the EPA gave Idaho environmental officials six months to settle a long-standing mining pollution lawsuit or face new Superfund listings.

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in mid-June vacated an earlier decision limiting the size of Bunker Hill’s boundaries and forwarded the case to a court in Washington, D.C.

Federal officials are interpreting that decision to mean authority to clean up contamination throughout the Coeur d’Alene River basin is already granted by existing Superfund status at the Bunker Hill site.

A century’s mining and smelting left a legacy of heavy metals such as lead throughout the basin.

The mining companies involved in the lawsuit are mulling an appeal of the 9th Circuit ruling, according to spokeswoman Holly Houston.

“I think there’s the opportunity to challenge the ruling,” agreed Bret Bowers, with Community Leaders for EPA Accountability Now, an off-shoot of Concerned Businesses of North Idaho.

North Idaho business interests and some cities oppose any EPA attempts at new, blanket Superfund listings because of the economic stigma involved, Bowers said.

But Michele Nanni, of The Lands Council in Spokane, said such EPA detractors are hurting the area by talking about cleanup boundaries.

The 9th Circuit ruling simply gives federal officials the right to pay for cleanup where it’s warranted, Nanni said. “I think it’s a real mistake for people to start calling the whole basin a Superfund site. They’re bringing the stigma down on themselves.”

Federal officials acknowledged that the 9th Circuit ruling does not specify boundaries for Superfund authority.

Officials are still defining the extent of the cleanup with a study due out next year.

The EPA defines the boundaries of the Superfund site by the extent of contamination that poses an unacceptable risk to human health and the environment, Gearheard said. “I recognize that answer probably leaves people wondering,” he said.

People like Wallace City Council members, who recently passed a resolution to oppose being included in any future Superfund activities. The EPA already cleaned up lead hot spots in public areas in the Silver Valley mining stronghold, the June 14 resolution states. Cleanup in most residential yards will finish this fall, it continues.

The council wants any additional cleanup handled by the state of Idaho.

“(T)he Mayor and the Council of the City of Wallace deem it in the best interest of the economics, health, safety and welfare of the City of Wallace … to be excluded in any Environmental Protection Agency Superfund listing,” the resolution states.