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Superfund Straight Talk Column

| March 25, 2010 9:40 AM

This month’s column will answer questions about the Upper Basin Future Repository Siting process now underway at the Bunker Hill Superfund site.  The following questions were among those asked by the public in May and June 2009 workshops hosted by the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Q.  Are the criteria for choosing Upper Basin waste repository sites set in stone? If the criteria don’t work for a site, will the government just ignore them and move forward with siting anyway? 

    The public has been closely involved in the details of the Upper Basin site selection process from the beginning. Citizens created a set of criteria that represents their values and needs and the agencies incorporated them into one set of siting criteria. Now the agencies are considering the siting criteria and other factors, like property owner issues, to select repositories in the Upper Basin.

    And the agencies are asking for another round of public input on the top two potential sites starting with a March 25 Open House that is open to the public, 4:30-7:30 p.m., at the Wallace Inn.  Essentially the train has left the station, but it’s not veering off-course because the track is being built from the values, needs, and desires of the affected communities.

    For the second part of the question, the answer is no.  The government has taken all of these steps to include the public in this process and be transparent about how decisions are made. It would be irresponsible for the agencies to ignore the criteria after investing this time and effort.  If, for some reason, they do decide that the criteria will no longer work for the project, then they will work with the public to modify them again. 

Q. Regarding the Star Tailings Impoundment, are the agencies looking at the upper tailings impoundments?

    Yes, DEQ and EPA are looking at the property north of Gray’s Bridge Road.  They aren’t proposing to store waste on the tailings piles south of Gray’s Bridge Road.  The proposed repository site north of Gray’s Bridge Road is made up of two parcels, one owned by Hecla Mining Company and a second owned by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management.  If this turns out to be a suitable spot for a repository, they will start negotiations to acquire the parcels. 

Q. Did DEQ and EPA rule out clean sites for consideration, even though they may have ranked high using the citizen criteria?

    No, DEQ and EPA did not rule out clean sites in looking for the next repositories.  The agencies would clearly prefer to use already-contaminated ground because (1) they do not want to increase the extent of contaminated ground; (2) clean ground is most desirable for development; and (3) most of the clean ground is far away from the areas where repositories are needed.  However, if a clean site ranks higher than the contaminated sites on all of the criteria, it will be considered.

Q. How much contaminated soil could the Osburn Tailings Impoundment hold? 

    DEQ and EPA estimate the Osburn Tailings Impoundment could hold between two and three million cubic yards of contaminated soil.  This number will be refined as more information is gathered and site stability is determined. 

Comments about this column can be sent to tina.elayer@deq.idaho.gov or Tina Elayer, 1005 West McKinley, Kellogg, Idaho 83837. You can also call me at 208-373-0563.

If you would like to receive the Bunker Hill Superfund Site Basin Bulletin quarterly or would like more frequent email updates from EPA, contact Andrea Lindsay at lindsay.andrea@epa.gov or 800-424-4372.