Manager hired for Cd'A basin cleanup trust

An environmental custodial trust that is expected to spend hundreds of millions of dollars supporting cleanup activities in the Coeur d'Alene River basin in the next several decades has hired a lead manager and its first full-time employee.

Dan Meyer, of Osburn, will take the new position at the first of the year.

The Successor Coeur d'Alene Custodial and Work Trust was created last year by a U.S. District Court as part of the Asarco LLC bankruptcy proceedings. The trust will perform Superfund cleanup activities in areas contaminated by historical mining practices in the basin. The cleanup activities will be selected and approved by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

"I've got a lot of experience doing this kind of work," Meyer said. "I've been doing it for about 20 years now."

Trustee Dan Silver said Meyer "has an extensive history with the mining community, the regulatory agencies, and local community leaders."

Meyer served as the environmental manager for the Hecla Mining Co. for 16 years following early career opportunities with the Bunker Hill Mining Co. and Pintlar Corp.

In 2009, Meyer was named the remediation program manager for the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality, responsible for cleaning up residential and commercial properties in the Bunker Hill Superfund site.

Silver said that Meyer's first responsibility will be to establish a trust office in the upper Coeur d'Alene River basin.

In the next few years, the trust will be ramping up its remediation activities. The trust plans to hire local engineering and construction firms in 2011 to begin priority cleanup work identified in EPA decision documents.