Idaho wrangles with the feds over a
Superfund site
COEUR D’ALENE, Idaho
– For years, a handful of locals in Northern Idaho have grumbled
that federal cleanup efforts were botched and that Bunker Hill, the
largest Superfund site in the country, was still unsafe after 20
years. Now, the cleanup is supposed to wind down (HCN, 11/25/96:
Pollution in paradise), but some say the job is far from
finished.
Recent studies show that lead
contamination has spread from lead and silver mines in the Silver
Valley, down the Coeur d’Alene and Spokane rivers and throughout
the entire 1,500 square-mile Coeur d’Alene River
Basin.
Over 16 percent of children tested in the
area show above-average lead levels. Beaches along some rivers are
posted with signs warning of lead poisoning, which can depress
intelligence, cause hyperactivity and result in memory loss. This
summer, Spokane, Wash., health officials warned children and
pregnant women not to eat fish from the
river.
Now the Environmental Protection Agency
wants to expand its cleanup of the 21-square-mile Bunker Hill site
to include the entire Coeur d’Alene Basin. Idaho politicians say
they want the EPA out of Idaho and cleanup responsibility
transferred to local governments. But local activists worry that if
the state takes over, cleanup will never be
complete.
The man in the
middle
In the middle of the debate is Robert Martin, theEPA’s only national ombudsman. The ombudsman’s office gets
thousands of citizen complaints about EPA wrongdoing every year.
Few receive full-blown investigations.
Although
the ombudsman’s recommendations are nonbinding, they carry clout:
In 1992, Martin’s team of investigators led the EPA to reverse
plans to cap radioactive waste at the Shattuck site in
Denver.
In February 1999, the Silver Valley
People’s Action Coalition, a small and often maligned band of local
residents, asked the ombudsman to review Bunker Hill. Last April,
Martin agreed, and locals and coalition members were
thrilled.
“We feel more confidence that we will
be heard,” said coalition founder Barbara Miller. The citizens’
group has been critical of all aspects of the EPA’s cleanup; it
says plans to remedy recontamination of yards have failed and that
groundwater continues to leach toxic metals from mine waste stored
on site.
Then in June, at the request of Idaho’s
entire congressional delegation, Martin decided to review claims
that the scope of future EPA cleanup efforts in the valley is
unwarranted and too costly. Sen. Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) and the rest
of Idaho’s delegation are openly critical of the EPA and call the
Superfund program a waste of taxpayers’ dollars. Miller worries
that if the state takes over, nothing will ever be
accomplished.
“Without the EPA we stand very
little hope of getting anything done in the way of cleanup,” says
Miller. “State agencies and politicians have known for years that
contamination was continuing and they haven’t done anything.”
The Coeur d’Alene Tribe can attest to that.
Currently involved in several lawsuits related to mining pollution
of the river, the tribe says the state underestimates the amount of
money needed to get the job done. According to experts hired by the
tribe, cleanup of the entire region could cost as much as $3.8
billion. The state predicts cleanup will cost roughly $478
million.
Federal officials say that, based on the
history of the region, they doubt the state can pull it
off.
“Let’s be real here,” says Chuck Clarke, the
EPA’s regional director. “The contamination has gone on for 50 or
100 years, and we haven’t seen a lot of cleanup go on without us.”
The home front disagrees
But state officials and industry groups insist that cleanup will
only work if it is implemented by those who understand the region:
local government officials. According to Idaho Republicans, it is
the presence of the federal government that has stalled cleanup
efforts.
“The EPA has been involved in this for
years and there has been millions of dollars spent,” says Susan
Wheeler, spokeswoman for Republican Sen. Crapo. The senator is
concerned that “when Superfund is involved, most of the money goes
toward litigation and as a result, cleanup efforts suffer,” she
says.
As an alternative, the state says it should
be in charge of cleanup while using up to $200 million in federal
Superfund money. The Idaho Department of Environmental Quality
wants to create a locally based board, which would include a county
commissioner from each of the three affected counties, to be in
charge of basin cleanup. DEQ director Steve Allred says this will
help achieve community consensus.
“The continued
economic vitality of the region is a huge part of this,” says Kate
Kelley of Idaho DEQ.
Local industry groups and
mining companies agree that transferring cleanup to local hands is
the responsible thing to do: Local businessmen say the stigma of
Superfund cleanup kills tourism, and the county is a poor
one.
“Lake Coeur d’Alene is known worldwide not
only for the resort and the golf course but because it is so
scenic,” says Bret Bowers, executive director of Community Leaders
for EPA Accountability Now, an industry group. “When Superfund is
mentioned in the same breath with the lake, it creates an untrue
perception of what’s occurring here.”
Currently,
EPA ombudsman Martin is holding public hearings in Spokane and
elsewhere in the basin. He plans to make preliminary
recommendations to regional and top EPA officials by the end of the
year. Some environmental activists say that Martin will be unable
to make an objective decision in the face of all of the political
pressure coming from the Idaho
delegation.
Martin, a soft-spoken man who is
careful with his words, bristles at the
suggestion.
“I don’t feel that, to be frank, the
ombudsman’s office is in the pocket of the Idaho delegation,” says
Martin. “Not everyone will get what they want.”
Zaz Hollander is a reporter for the Idaho
Spokesman-Review. She is also a former HCN intern.
Rebecca Clarren is an HCN assistant editor.
YOU CAN CONTACT
…
- Robert
Martin, EPA ombudsman: 800/262-7937; - Barbara
Miller, Silver Valley People’s Action Coalition:
208/784-8891; - Idaho Department of
Environmental Quality, Boise: 208/373-0240.
Copyright © 2000 HCN and Zaz
Hollander
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Who’ll clean up a mining mess?.
Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.
