KEA: Lake CdA ailing?

A drienne Cronebaugh, executive director of Kootenai Environmental Alliance, stands at the bottom of Tubbs Hill in Coeur d’Alene. The surface waters are clear, she explains, but deep beneath them are the remnants of a prosperous, toxic and bygone era of North Idaho that she and others worry could threaten the area’s future. At the bottom of the lake are 75 million tons of sediment contaminated with lead, cadmium and arsenic — all harmful to people and fish. The sediment steadily washed in from the nearby Silver Valley for more than a century before mining tapered off in the 1980s and ‘90s as a result of environmental and public health concerns./ Jake Thomas , Inlander. More here .