Staff writer
Third-year commission still trying to define its place in EPA cleanup
COEUR d'ALENE -- With no role model to look up to, the Coeur d'Alene Basin Environment Improvement Project Commission is struggling to survive its infancy.
The seven-member multi-agency panel is part of Gov. Dirk Kempthorne's vision to involve local control in the cleanup on one of the nation's largest Superfund sites. The commission has a dual role of implementing the Coeur d'Alene Lake Management Plan.
"It's important to succeed," said Dick Panabaker, who is serving his final weeks on the commission. "At least we have a say in the decision-making on what we're going to do and how we're going to do it."
But the work has to be done within the bounds of the EPA plan to clean up a century of mining contamination throughout the Coeur d'Alene Basin.
In their third year of the commission, members are still trying to define their place in the cleanup.
Earlier this month, after much infighting, the commission approved projects funded with $1.5 million from federal Clean Water Act grants.
Clean Water Act funds can't be used for Superfund cleanup. They are limited to studies, demonstrations and pilot projects, said commission chairwoman Sherry Krulitz.
"Many people are tired with studies and want to get work on the ground," Krulitz said.
The basin commission decided early on to spend the majority of the Clean Water Act funds on projects in the upper basin between Mullan and Harrison.
That's a sore spot for the Coeur d'Alene Tribe, which wants attention given to the Coeur d'Alene Lake Management Plan in the lower basin. The tribe owns the southern third of the lake.
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Robert Matt, lake manager for the Coeur d'Alene Tribe, said inaction is unacceptable for anyone interested in the lake.
A plan must be in place to protect lake-dependent communities from the stigma of a potential Superfund designation.
"The risks to the economy of Coeur d'Alene Lake in not getting the plan done is what people truly need to be afraid of," Matt said.
If the Coeur d'Alene Lake Management Plan proves to protect water quality, the lake will be removed from consideration for Superfund listing, according to EPA.
But that means federal Superfund dollars can't be spent on Lake Coeur d'Alene.
Matt thinks the lake management plan is where the Clean Water Act dollars should go.
The interests of the tribe and the communities surrounding the lake are related, Matt said.
"The communities want deletion from Superfund and the tribe wants a lake plan supported by the counties and the state," he said.
But he's not seeing any urgency from the state and counties to work on the lake plan.
"It sounds to me like their priority is not deletion, but in the upper part of the basin," he said.
Meantime, most tributaries in the lake are degraded beyond temperature and nutrient limits. Alarming data suggest algae growth in the lake is skyrocketing, Matt said.
"Until people do something to reduce nutrient inputs on the lake, the reality is that there is no progress toward deletion," he said.
The commission has $500,000 of Clean Water Act funds remaining to allocate. No Clean Water Act funds are proposed next year.
Mark Warbis, aide to U.S. Rep. Butch Otter, R-Idaho, said the river cleanup has a higher funding priority than the lake. So the delegation is seeking Superfund dollars, rather than Clean Water Act funds.
"If you address Superfund upstream, in the long term, you're addressing the lake," Warbis said. "You can do all the lake management planning you want, but if you don't address the upstream cleanup issues, the management plan will not be effective."
EPA has allocated about $15 million in Superfund dollars to the Coeur d'Alene Basin each of the last two years. Most of the funds have been used for cleanup of soils in contaminated residential yards, mine and mill site cleanup and operation of the central treatment site in the upper basin.
Mark MacIntyre of the EPA said funding is always a struggle, but fiscal 2006 is going to be a leaner budget year for all agencies.
"The budget is a moving target until it is signed," he said. "Our budget is due Oct. 1. But sometimes we don't know what our budget is until June. Ultimately, it lies with the White House and Congress."
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The tribe has issued a $5 million challenge for the state and counties to implement a lake management plan.
"The tribe is the only party with money on the table," Matt said. "We're standing by our commitment to the lake."
Matt said the federal government is also obliged to chip in to the Coeur d'Alene Lake Management Plan.
"They are trying to put the burden on the tribe and the state, and that's not appropriate," he said.
Matt's not ready to give up on the basin commission.
"The commission is one of the only hopes we have of seeing effective local control," he said. "We may need new leadership and reaffirm commitments to the lake."
There will be some new faces on the commission.
Panabaker, will be replaced by Kootenai County Commissioner Rick Currie.
Toni Hardesty, new director of the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality, is stepping in for her predecessor, Steve Allred, to represent Idaho on the commission.
Ron Kreizenbeck, acting regional EPA director, is filling the federal seat vacated by former regional director John Iani.
The commission is also on the verge of hiring an executive director.
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The tribe isn't alone in thinking too much priority is given to the upper basin. Down the Spokane River and across the border, Washington state officials are feeling ignored.
At least 11 "hot spots" of metals contamination have been discovered on the Spokane River shoreline.
"We would like more work in Washington," said Jani Gilbert of the Washington State Department of Ecology. "We don't think it's given as high a priority as it should be."
Gilbert said her agency wants to see the basin commission succeed, although it only has one Washington voice.
"We always felt we needed more presence," she said. "It's important that Washington be recognized as receiving part of the problem."
Some groups don't want the basin commission to survive.
The Lands Council and Spokane chapter of the Sierra Club don't trust Idaho to participate in cleanup.
"This commission was created by Idaho -- long opposed to the Superfund cleanup of our watershed -- as part of a strategy to take control of the Superfund cleanup of the Spokane River-Coeur d'Alene Lake Basin from EPA," said John Osborne of the Sierra Club in an e-mail circulated after a recent meeting.
In a critique of the same meeting, Jim Hollingsworth of The Lands Council of Spokane, said the commission is doomed to failure.
"It's only a matter of time," Hollingsworth said. "It is wearing thin and will in the end, as sure as gravity, bring down the make-believe world that exists only in their minds."
Gov. Kempthorne remains committed to the commission.
"The goal is to keep decision-making local rather than have onerous restrictions dictated by the federal government," said Mike Journee, the governor's spokesman.
