EPA funding will help assess proposed cleanup sites

COEUR d'ALENE - Spending money can be the key to saving down the road, when it comes to mining waste cleanup.

Millions in Asarco settlement funds will be spent this summer on projects that include assessing if some sites can be dropped from the Environmental Protection Agency's proposed $1.34 billion cleanup plan.

"It will all help us determine what final remediation will look like for those areas," said Dan Meyer with Coeur d'Alene Trust, the private organization charged with managing the Asarco bankruptcy funds.

Upcoming Superfund projects and related items were discussed at a meeting on Tuesday with representatives of the EPA, the Department of Environmental Quality, the Coeur d'Alene Basin Commission and Coeur d'Alene Trust at the EPA office in Coeur d'Alene.

About $3.5 million in Asarco funds will go toward cleanup-related efforts this year, Meyer said, including characterization inspections of 12 mine sites along the Nine Mile Creek drainage.

The inspections will determine if these sites should be dropped from the EPA's proposed 90-year cleanup plan for the Coeur d'Alene Basin, which would shave years and some cost from the plan.

"We're doing a real focused characterization to see if they will be considered for remediation," Meyer said.

Trust-funded efforts will also include site investigations at the East Fork of Nine Mile Creek. Waste rock and tailings will be analyzed to determine the cleanup required, Meyer said.

Addressing contamination in that area is crucial, said Terry Harwood with the Basin Commission, because the Nine Mile is a tributary to the South Fork of the Coeur d'Alene River.

"Going after those (contaminated areas) would really make a difference in the South Fork," Harwood said.

Coeur d'Alene Trust, which coordinates with the EPA, will also fund analysis of metal concentration in Canyon Creek at the Gem Mill site, which neighbors private residences.

The trust will also fund the capping of a U.S. Bureau of Mines site in Osburn, where tailings are being kicked up by off-road vehicle use.

It's a human health issue, Harwood said.

"You can stir up red dust and take it home with you," he said.

Shawn Blocker, an EPA acting team leader, said project focus teams are still processing the thousands of comments submitted on the agency's proposed basin cleanup plan.

Blocker said he supports the idea of responding to complaints by removing the proposal for a $300 million liner in the Coeur d'Alene river. Instead, groundwater treatment would be installed.

"You'll still see 50 to 70 percent reduction in contamination," Blocker said. "It's not as good, but it still does the job of reducing that load."

A ROD Amendment with the final cleanup decision will likely be issued in November or December, he added.

The agency representatives at Tuesday's meeting also discussed how recent sediment measurements in the Coeur d'Alene River revealed that contaminant levels were three times higher in Harrison than in Cataldo.

The cause, Harwood said, is likely that riverbanks are eroding into the water.

He assured that it was not because of leaking at the East Mission Flats Repository, which rumors have suggested.

"That's not true. It's not happening," Harwood said.

Andy Mork with the Department of Environmental Quality further assured that the surface of the repository for contaminated materials is graded, compacted and sprayed with a polymer that seals the surface.

Cleanup of contaminated yards is continuing this year in the upper basin, Mork added, with tainted material to be deposited in the East Mission Flats Repository and the newly expanded Big Creek Repository.

About 350 properties will be cleaned this year, Mork said.

"We have about three years left in the program, with about 300 properties (cleaned) a year," he said.

The EPA is working to clean mining waste in the upper and lower basins, caused by a century of mining activities in the Silver Valley.

At this time, more than $494 million are available from the 2009 Asarco bankruptcy proceedings to help pay for environmental cleanup in the basin.

The Coeur d'Alene Trust was established to manage these funds and complete cleanup approved by the EPA.

Meyer said he has confidence in the projects scheduled this year.

"Some of them are definitely important for human health," Meyer said.