THE DIRT: Community input needed!

Effective communication can help resolve conflicts, prevent misunderstandings and is essential for building and maintaining relationships. Creating an open line of communication is a great step toward building trust within a community. With this in mind, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is seeking your input on their new Community Involvement Plan for the Bunker Hill/Coeur d’Alene Basin Superfund Site.

A CIP is a site-specific strategy to enable meaningful community involvement throughout the Superfund cleanup process. Once completed, the final plan will describe how EPA will provide information and coordinate with partners and communities on-site cleanup activities.

To create a plan that meets people’s needs, EPA wants to better understand how people in the community currently receive and prefer to receive site-related information. EPA is seeking interested community members who want to help in the creation of the new CIP.

To develop the new CIP, EPA will need to learn about the community’s needs, concerns and expectations. To achieve this, the EPA wants to speak directly with community members to determine their thoughts about the cleanup, impressions of EPA, how they currently get information about the cleanup and what precautions they take before, during and after recreating in the area.

The intent of the CIP is to create a road map for informing and involving the community in the cleanup process. To create an effective plan, they need your help. Community involvement coordinators Debra Sherbina and Rafi Ronquillo will be visiting the Silver Valley later this month to meet in person and talk to interested community members willing to help facilitate the development of the CIP. They will be available to meet with the public in Panhandle Health District’s Conference Room at 35 Wildcat Way in Kellogg on Sept. 25-26 between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. Please stop by to meet with them.

The EPA anticipates the updated CIP will be completed in the winter of 2024-25. For more information or to set up a time to meet and discuss your ideas and concerns, contact Rafi Ronquillo at ronquillo.rafi@epa.gov or Debra Sherbina at sherbina.debra@epa.gov. They welcome your ideas for improving EPA’s community involvement program at any time.

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The Dirt is a series of informative articles focused on all aspects of cleanup efforts associated with the Bunker Hill Superfund Site. Our goal is to promote community awareness of contamination issues, to provide tools for protecting public health, and to keep the community informed of current and future cleanup projects. The Dirt is a group of committed and local experts from multiple agencies including the Basin Environmental Improvement Project Commission, Panhandle Health District, Shoshone County, Silver Valley Economic Development Corporation, and the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality.