EPA extends Upper Basin comment period

In response to a flood of requests, the Environmental Protection Agency announced Wednesday it will grant a 90-day extension to the public comment period on the proposed cleanup plan for mining waste in the Upper Basin.

"The people spoke and we listened," said EPA spokesperson Mark MacIntyre. "We're hoping this will help move the process forward and we will continue cleaning up and protecting the people's health."

The new comment deadline on the Upper Coeur d'Alene River Basin Proposed Plan is Nov. 23.

After reviewing and responding to comments, the EPA will issue its final cleanup decision in an ROD amendment later.

The extension will allow more time for discussions about compromising on certain issues in the 2,200-page document, said Sen. Mike Crapo.

"I think now we have an opportunity to build a consensus-based solution," said Crapo, who had requested an extension.

Many had raised possible changes to the plan at a public meeting Crapo held last week in Kellogg, he said.

"There are a lot of good ideas on how to approach this," he said. "My goal is to help facilitate a collaborative decision-making process."

The Coeur d'Alene Chamber of Commerce, which also requested an extension, is glad for the extra time to weigh the economic impacts of the complex plan, said Todd Christensen, chamber CEO and president.

"We recognize that natural recourses of the Silver Valley are critical to the Silver Valley economy, and the Silver Valley economy reaches into Coeur d'Alene," Christensen said. "Our public policy committee will be meeting and getting into discussions of understanding the document as it's currently proposed and any modifications we would like to see."

Gov. Butch Otter had also requested an extension, said governor spokesperson Jon Hanian, because so many North Idaho residents had pointed out issues with the plan.

"A lot of folks have expressed concerns," Hanian said. "Those concerns need to be heard and listened to, and obviously vetted."

Some worry, however, over how the comment extension will delay implementation of the plan's cleanup projects.

"Until all of that stuff (mining contamination) gets addressed, contaminants are going to keep flowing into the Lower Basin where we live," said Terry Harris, executive director of the Kootenai Environmental Alliance. "Our view is, they've got to get started on it."

Terry Harwood, executive director of the Basin Environmental Improvement Project Commission, said that it is important to take time to ensure everything in the plan makes sense.

"That would be crazy to say I've got to have an ROD amendment right now, and then have the ROD not be right and the implementation projects not any good," Harwood said.

But he also acknowledged that the new comment deadline surpasses the basin commission's early November deadline to develop a work plan for the next year's cleanup projects.

"Implementation of any projects in the ROD amendment might be delayed for a period of time," Harwood said.

He hopes North Idaho residents will take the time to look over the document so they can provide helpful comments, he added.

He emphasized that the cleanup plan is more of a guiding document, while the details of cleanup projects will be worked out in the basin commission's yearly work plans.

"None of this is set in concrete," he said. "How you're going to build this thing, how to deal with which projects are first priority, all those decisions go on and on and on for a long period of time."

MacIntyre didn't have a tally of how many had requested an extension, but said the EPA had received numerous letters and heard repeated oral testimony asking for more time.

"I think it (the extension) is a general reaction from hearing it from quite a few people," he said.

EPA Project Manager Anne Dailey said the agency is still discussing if it will hold more public meetings on the plan before the comment deadline.

"We haven't made a decision, but we would be broadly announcing those," she said.

The plan can be viewed online at http://go.usa.gov/igD.

Comments can be sent to cdabasin@epa.gov, or mailed to the Coeur d'Alene Basin Team, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 1200 6th Ave. Suite 900, MS ELC-113, Seattle, WA 98101.

Some still want another extension, Crapo said, that would overlap the next legislative session.

"I believe that discussion about whether additional time is needed will be part of the collaborative effort," Crapo said.