EPA, DEQ could expand repository

Big Creek would accept up to 200K more cubic yards

Big Creek would accept up to 200K more cubic yards By ALECIA WARREN Staff writer COEUR d'ALENE - No room at the repository. The Idaho Department of Environmental Quality and the Environmental Protection Agency are considering expanding the Big Creek Repository by up to 200,000 cubic yards this year to keep up with Superfund cleanup of mining waste. BCR's current 500,000 cubic yard capacity is running out of space to receive the heaps of contaminated soil from the federal and state cleanup efforts in the upper basin, said Andy Mork with the IDEQ. "In the original studies and the early part of the last decade, it seemed like 300,000 cubic yards was an ungodly large amount," Mork said. "But as we started implementing the plan for the basin cleanup, we realized, 'Wow, there's a lot of volume needed here.'" see EPA, A7 EPA from A1 BCR, which opened in 2002, has only about 95,000 cubic yards of storage space remaining, Mork said, which won't last long at the current fill rate of 60,000 cubic yards per year. Expanding the facility, which has already been subjected to required studies and public comment periods, would be easier than trying to locate a new repository site and restarting the entire process, he said. "It would be a very cost effective way to safely store the waste generated by cleanup activities," he said. The government might also truck some upper basin waste to the East Mission Flats repository, which opened last year to receive contaminated soil from cleanup in the lower basin. "One thing that's very handy about the EMF design is that it's much better suited to receive waste in wet weather," Mork said. "So if we get started this spring and we're working the upper basin and Big Creek is still drying out from snow melt, we may for a short time period transport that waste to EMF just so we can get going." The cost of trucking waste to the East Mission repository is too costly the rest of the year, he added. Mork assured that the repository at East Mission Flats, which was built to 400,000 cubic yard capacity instead of the initially proposed 600,000 due to public outcry, will never be subject to expansion. "We've committed to the public that we would establish our capacity at 400,000 cubic yards based on their comments," he said. "But that brings us closer to the time we'll need another repository in the lower basin." Locations for future repositories haven't been identified yet, he added. "It's a progressive process. We'll just pick them up as we need them," he said. "You'll probably need 10 cars in your entire life, but you don't buy 10 cars when you're 20 years old." A public commentary period isn't required for a repository expansion. If the BCR expansion plan meets environmental and engineering criteria, Mork said, preparation activities could begin in the next two months. "We're still early in the planning phase," he said. There are several repositories scattered across Idaho, some created by the EPA and DEQ, other created by responsible parties or property owners like the U.S. Forest Service. It's difficult to predict how long a repository lasts, Mork said, because fill rate depends on funding for cleanup efforts. This time last year a $15 million stimulus grant enabled the clean up crews to accomplish more than expected, he said. "Right now money is tight in the federal government, and even more tight at the state level," he said. "It's hard to say what we're going to get."