Feds Confirm Toxic Risks At Cda River Lead Still May Threaten Kids In Silver Valley, Agency Says

A federal study shows that current standards for mining-waste cleanup along the Coeur d’Alene River aren’t good enough to safeguard local residents who fish and camp near the water.

Researchers also found that a potential public health hazard still exists for some Silver Valley children.

The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry released the two studies on Thursday.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency had requested the work.

This is the first formal declaration that toxic mine wastes still pose a public health hazard in the Silver Valley outside the Bunker Hill Superfund site.

“I don’t think we’re saying anything that people don’t already know,” said lead researcher Richard Kauffman, based in the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry’s Seattle office.

That agency does roughly 1,000 such studies a year; about half find the health-hazard rating merited.

A spokeswoman for the mining industry downplayed the results, which are based on national models rather than local examples.

The mines are pressing for more Silver Valley children to have blood lead tests because that’s the only way to get a real picture of the risk, said Holly Houston of the Mining Information Office in Coeur d’Alene.

“Otherwise, we’re playing a guessing game,” she said.

The federal study warns that locals may need more protection along the Coeur d’Alene River than they get now.

Lead levels in river beaches range from very low at Thompson Lake to high at Bull Run Beach, where samples contained nearly 15 times the level that now triggers quick action - 2,000 parts per million.

Tourists and people visiting the area aren’t likely to face any risk, researchers found.

But that 2,000 ppm level “does not provide an adequate margin of safety for area residents,” the report says. Neither do standards for antimony, arsenic and cadmium. Signs posted last fall already warn beach users about toxic metals.

The new information is important because a final cleanup plan for the basin could be years off, the EPA’s Sean Sheldrake said. The agency can use the new data to re-evaluate ways to safeguard the public, Sheldrake said.

“This way we don’t have to miss a whole generation of kids,” he said.

Officials with the state of Idaho, who are developing a cleanup plan separate from the EPA’s, said they didn’t learn anything new from the reports. Several years of blood lead testing in local children tell the same story, said Rob Hanson, with the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare.

“It basically says there’s a problem out there and you should be concerned,” Hanson said. “We know that and we are concerned.”

A lead cleanup activist, however, called the studies very significant.

The new information gives the EPA ammunition in its battle with the state over the future of mine waste cleanup, said Michele Nanni, with The Lands Council in Spokane.

“The state and the mining companies continue to downplay the problem,” Nanni said. “We now have another report confirming the importance of soil removals and confirming that EPA is doing the right thing.”

The mining companies and state favor cleanup only where it can be shown that children have high blood lead levels. The EPA wants to deal with pollution before it causes health problems, officials say.

The ATSDR study found that lead poses a potential health risk for kids, especially 1- and 2-year-olds, living in nearly 20 Silver Valley homes.

Researchers analyzed 1998 lead data from soil, house dust and tap water samples from 80 homes, most in Osburn, some in Wallace and a few in Mullan and the lower basin. The federal scientists plugged those lead levels into a scientific model to gauge the hypothetical risk.

Kids between 12 months and 24 months old living in 18 homes are at particular risk, according to the study.

The EPA is already doing yard removals at homes with 2,000 ppm lead, or 1,000 ppm if there are young children present.

Cleanup work is finishing at the Huggie Bear day care center in Silverton. Owner Charlotte Hoven said staffers keep the center’s 50 kids clean and make sure they don’t eat dirt.

But the work is appreciated.

“I grew up here. The entire valley is leaded,” Hoven said. “I wasn’t really worried, but I’m happy they’re doing it.”

This sidebar appeared with story: ON FILE Reports available

Copies of the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry health reports are available at Harrison City Hall, the Wallace Public Library, the North Idaho College Library, the Spokane Public Library and the Coeur d’Alene offices of the Environmental Protection Agency, 1910 Northwest Blvd., Suite 208.