In brief: Groups oppose dredging creek

Two groups opposing the Sandpoint Byway will ask the Idaho Department of Lands today to reconsider a permit to dredge and fill parts of Sand Creek to reroute truck traffic away from downtown.

The North Idaho Community Action Network and the Association of Concerned Sandpoint Businesses, which both oppose the byway, will argue during a closed-door meeting why the state agency shouldn’t have granted the Idaho Transportation Department a permit.

At a November public hearing, the groups argued that the highway would jeopardize water quality, wildlife and the pristine waterfront image that brings economic benefits to the resort town. Critics also said that the ITD’s proposal lacks scientific details to prove that dredging won’t harm wetlands and the creek that flows south through downtown and into Lake Pend Oreille.

Proponents, including local elected officials, counter that the nonstop route is critical to transportation, commerce, economic development and safety.

Jim Brady, the agency’s senior resource specialist, said that only people who officially objected to the permit within 20 days can attend the meeting.

“People are upset they can’t come but that’s not what the law allows,” Brady said.

A state deputy attorney general will act as a hearing officer during the meeting and will make a decision within 30 days.

The ITD can’t start work on the project until it also gets a permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Together with the lands department permit, the ITD would have permission to dredge and fill parts of Sand Creek to make way for the 2.1-mile route and bike path.

The Idaho Department of Environmental Quality already issued a permit certifying that the highway project won’t harm water quality.

Metaline Falls, Wash.

Rockfall kills worker in mine

A 43-year-old worker died Thursday in an underground accident at the Teck Cominco mine near Metaline Falls, Wash.

Phillip Markhart, of Red Lodge, Mont., was killed about 1:15 a.m. in a rockfall while doing underground development work in the Pend Oreille mine, according to a Teck Cominco American spokesman.

“There was a piece of rock that struck him,” said David W. Godlewski, vice president for environment and public affairs. The accident remains under investigation.

Markhart was an employee of Redpath, a company that contracts with Teck Cominco, headquartered in Spokane.

Thursday’s accident was the first fatality since the mine reopened in 2004. It was closed in 1977.

The company was preparing an underground area to begin mining for zinc, Godlewski said. Zinc from the mine is shipped to Trail, B.C., and eventually zinc concentrate from the mine is used as a galvanizing agent to protect steel from corrosion.

The mine was shut down after Thursday’s accident, and federal and state agencies were notified, Mark Brown, general manager of the mine, said in a press release.

“It is an inherently hazardous profession, and we take these hazards very seriously,” Godlewski said.