Clean up of CdA River Basin to begin

After nearly three decades of talking and planning, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is set to begin cleaning up mining waste in the upper Coeur d’Alene River Basin next year.

The EPA on Tuesday released its final version of a $635 million, 30-year plan to remove heavy metals pollution from North Idaho’s Silver Valley, with possibly hundreds of jobs created in the process.

Dan Opalski, EPA Region 10 Superfund director, said cleanup work in the area – one of the nation’s largest Superfund sites – is under way as a result of other projects, but work under the basin cleanup plan could begin next spring or summer. Jennifer Pignolet, SR

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