Cd'A basin cleanup could be reduced

COEUR d'ALENE - Efforts to clean up a century of mining contamination in North Idaho may not take as long or be as expansive as initially proposed.

The latest figures tossed out Tuesday regarding the Upper Coeur d'Alene River Basin Proposed Plan were substantially lower regarding timeline, cost and scope.

"We made a concerned effort to scale this back and focus on the things that people care most about," said Bill Adams, Coeur d'Alene team leader with the Environmental Protection Agency.

Key players involved in the cleanup planning gathered Tuesday for a quarterly update at the EPA office in Coeur d'Alene.

Adams said an amendment to the Record of Decision could be signed by July.

"It wasn't comprehensive in nature. It was a scattering of actions that didn't really meet the water quality goals in specific areas," he said of the ROD.

In the amendment, cost for the cleanup projects comes in at $635 million, down from $1.34 billion. The number of sites targeted for cleanup, 145, is down from 345. And the 90 years projected to complete remediation is down to 30 years.

"At this point, those numbers are pretty solid," Adams said.

Adams said the focus is turning to key areas, including Nine Mile Canyon, Canyon Creek and the south fork of the Coeur d'Alene River.

Another 300 or so properties in the Silver Valley are targeted for remediation this year, which would mean the removal of around 3 to 3.5 million square feet of contaminated soil.

So far, about 6,000 properties have been remediated, with another 600 to 800 projected in the next two to three years.

"We are trying to finish off neighborhoods and communities so people can start having some semblance of normalcy in their residential lives," said Bruce Schuld, Kellogg remediation manager with the Department of Environmental Quality.

Cleanup efforts will be funded through a Coeur d'Alene Trust fund of $460 million from the ASARCO bankruptcy settlement, and other $130 million with the Hecla settlements.

Terry Harwood, executive director of the Basin Environmental Improvement Project Commission, said around $100 million is projected to be spent in the next five to six years on "remedy protection projects."

Curbs and gutters in communities like Mullan, and roads in the Shoshone and Kootenai counties and highway districts could receive substantial infrastructure work, while at the same time, protecting completed remediation work.

Contaminated, orange liquid linked to mining waste has been seen oozing through potholes and cracks in roads, Harwood said. Mine tailings were used to build some gravel roads.

A pilot project to clean up the gravel roads could begin this summer.

It's up to the communities to come up with project proposals, he said, so they can get the infrastructure work funded.

"It's all tied to keeping the barrier on top of the remedy so we don't have people tracking this stuff home when their yard has just been cleaned up," he said.

"It doesn't make any sense not to protect the remedy."

Dan Meyer, senior project manager with Coeur d'Alene Trust, said around $4.5 million is budgeted for cleanup of Nine Mile Canyon, the site of mining activities dating back 100 years.

Nine Mile and Canyon Creek, "are some of the highest contributors to poor water quality in that area," Adams said.

Ed Moreen, remedial project manager for the EPA's Coeur d'Alene basin cleanup, said they hired subcontractors to conduct surveys and lead monitoring on April 26 and 27 at key locations on the Coeur d'Alene River.

The data, down the road, could provide an understanding of the river system.

"You have to understand the beds, the banks, and the floodplains are all contaminated with these materials," Moreen said. "To think about what you're going to do with it is a daunting task."

But they want to move beyond the study phase.

"Pilot projects and decision documents in the future, those are the things we're going to be moving toward," he said.