Residents blast EPA plan

WALLACE - Wallace Mayor Dick Vester stood, marking the start of a meeting that will forever be remembered in Silver Valley history. In Vester's recollection, Wednesday night's town hall meeting to address the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) proposed Record of Decision (ROD) amendment is the first gathering of all seven Silver Valley mayors.

"It speaks to the importance of the issue and it speaks to the past we all have with this issue," Vester said. He acknowledged that everyone present was passionate regarding the EPA's proposed plan for the Upper Coeur d'Alene basin, which will last 90 years and cost $1.3 billion, but asked that the town hall remain respectful in the presence of EPA District 10 representative Cami Grandinetti.

Concerns voiced by residents, business owners and politicians of the Silver Valley during the public comment period ranged from the 90-year duration of the proposed plan to its effect on mining in the valley and the hefty price tag it carries.

"Shoshone County has been commenting for years on the EPA's process in the Silver Valley," said County Commissioner Jon Cantamessa. He feels time and efforts spent by residents in the valley have fallen on deaf ears.

The sentiment was shared by John Magnuson, son of community activist Harry F. Magnuson.

"I live in Coeur d'Alene," Magnuson said. "My heart lives in Wallace - it always has and always will."

Magnuson indicated that the public hearings hosted by the EPA should be renamed public talking processes, as a hearing indicates that someone is listening. He continued to say that he realizes that the ASARCO settlement money must be burning a hole in the government's pocket, but that the agency should consider the time they've been in the valley and know when to leave as any good house guest does.

The EPA was asked to look at the 90-year time frame they have set for the proposed plan. If this plan had started in 1920, there would have been the Great Depression, World War II, the Vietnam War and a man on the moon before the plan was completed today. Looking 90 years from now, attendees worried about being tied into an adaptive plan that can't predict the world-changing events of the future.

"The governor does not support an open ended process that amounts to a blank check for the EPA," said Katie Brodie, who stood in for Gov. Butch Otter at the meeting, reading from a statement Otter had prepared. She said that Otter urges the EPA to return to the drawing board and come up with a "clear, concise, logic-based and time constrained ROD" amendment.

"I am compelled to do what I believe is the right thing," said Mike Dexter, Hecla Mining Company's Lucky Friday mine manager, explaining his presence at the podium Wednesday night. He does not appreciate the uncertainty that the 90-year plan brings to the valley, for a lot can happen in that amount of time. According to Dexter, the priorities of the community are not served by the superfund stigma for the duration of the EPA's planned stay in the valley.

Wallace City Councilman Dean Cooper stood on behalf of the council to declare their finalized official position on the EPA's proposed ROD amendment. He said that they believe the extension of the EPA's stay in the valley is in direct conflict with the public's best interest.

"The ROD should not be authorized to go on indefinitely," Cooper said. Instead, he voiced an idea shared by others attending that a 10-year plan should be implemented instead, that the council feels should focus on storm water run-off to prevent further contamination.

"Let us discontinue putting money into something that cannot be solved," said State Representative Mary Lou Shepherd. She also expressed worry that Shoshone County needs to create more jobs to address unemployment. While the EPA claims to be creating jobs, she said they are merely seasonal jobs, compared to the full-time, non-seasonal, family-wage mining industry jobs that have been lost as a result of the EPA's presence in the valley.

James McMillan, Wallace resident and attorney, claimed that the EPA's presence in the Silver Valley is the "best government subsidized toastmasters club in the country."

He said that the mining companies in the valley know how to mine responsibly, and that they are aware of the goings on in their surroundings better than the EPA. He used the example of the Mission Flats repository as an instance of the EPA not paying attention to the businesses and residents in the valley who had been adamantly opposed to the project.

"Ideally we would get the EPA out," McMillan said. "They would be gone today."