There’s lots at stake in the cleanup of mining wastes in the Lake Coeur d’Alene Basin, including water quality in the Spokane River. How and why to comment.
Smelterville, Idaho takes center stage this evening as representatives from the Environmental Protection Agency and concerned citizens meet in what is the only scheduled public meeting to discuss the EPA’s outline for cleanup projects along the The Upper Basin and the Box.
There’s an open house scheduled from 5 to 6:30 p.m. at the Shoshone Medical Center facility, immediately followed by a public meeting from 7 to 8:30 p.m.
Lake Coeur d'Alene
Up for review is a 2,200-page plan that will update some of EPA’s ecological cleanup priorities in the Upper Basin and the Box. The Upper Basin includes the South Fork of the Coeur d’Alene River and its tributaries downstream to where they flow into the North Fork. The Box is the 21-square-mile area around the old Bunker Hill smelter where EPA began its cleanup activities in the early 1980s.
As it stands now, tonight’s meeting is the only scheduled event where the public will have the opportunity to weigh in in person. However, the public comment period is current and goes until August 25, 2010. You can send comments via email to cdabasin@epa.gov or send it via mail to:
Coeur d’Alene Basin Team
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
1200 6th Avenue, Suite 900, MS ECL-113
Seattle, WA 98101
Particularly concerning to those who live, work and play in the directly effected area is the cost of the project and who will pay for all of it. By law those responsible for cleaning up the mess are on the hook for the cleanup, however, some of the cleanup falls to the taxpayers – a concept that is sticky and convoluted, and really needs to be communicated and understood better for there to be any sort of agreement, acceptance or otherwise moving forward on plans.
Concerning to everyone in the area – whether or not you’re immediately connected to the Basin or the Box – is the meeting of water quality standards. And that’s where the Spokane Riverkeeper comes in. Our interest in this case is our goal of the Spokane River meeting water quality standards. We simply cannot envision that without upstream pollutants being cleaned up.
In the coming weeks we intend to submit our comment on the proposed cleanup plan taking into effect our interest in a cleaner Spokane River. One of the best things about having a river shared between two states, thus two interests, is the collaborative potential with other groups and organizations sharing a common regional goal of clean water and watersheds. We look forward to working with such groups in the coming weeks to come up with our comment.
