EPA cuts Superfund estimate

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has cut the price tag for a Superfund cleanup in the upper Coeur d’Alene basin by 30 percent. The revised figure is $910 million, which prioritizes projects with the greatest benefit for human health, said Bill Adams, an EPA program manager. Agency officials expect to release the cleanup plan in late December or early January. It targets old mine sites in the upper basin and focuses on reducing heavy metals in creeks and groundwater. Earlier this year, agency officials announced they would scrap a controversial plan to install a plastic liner along 10 miles of the south fork of the Coeur d’Alene River at a cost of $300 million. Adams said EPA also took cleanup of Hecla Mining Co.’s active operation out of the plan. That work, estimated at $60 million, was included in the event that the company were to walk away from its remediation obligations, Adams said. EPA officials are still finishing the plan, which community members and Idaho’s congressional delegation had criticized as too costly and lengthy. The cleanup is expected to take 50 to 100 years.