Superfund Cleanup in Idaho Draws Local Opposition

August 13, 2010 - People who live around a toxic former silver mining complex in Idaho have a message for federal environmental officials who want to expand a lengthy cleanup effort: Go home, your help is no longer wanted.

Despite the government's best intentions, some locals think a prolonged federal presence will scare away businesses by sending a message that the Silver Valley is a dangerous place to live. Residents and politicians in this conservative region also believe it's a waste of taxpayer dollars and that the real intention of the government is to shut down the remaining mines.

"They've got their environmental science degree from some place like Berkeley and they drive their Prius to the back hills of Idaho and here are a bunch of miners and they want to do what they think is best for us," said attorney James McMillan.

The Environmental Protection Agency has spent nearly 20 years cleaning up the Superfund site in Kellogg that was once one of the most-polluted places in the country, with arsenic and lead stripping the hillsides of vegetation and poisoning the blood of children.

The cleanup efforts have greened the mountains and improved human health, although pollution still exists. Some streams and rivers are so polluted that stretches have no aquatic life, and migrating swans that land on them die.

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70 Groups Want Northern Idaho Mine Waste Moved Out

January 27, 2010 - More than 70 organizations from across the country are asking federal officials to stop moving silver mining waste to a new northern Idaho repository.

The environmental and public health groups say storing waste from the Bunker Hill Superfund site at a location just 11 miles down the road poses a public health risk. Storing mining waste in repositories that need perpetual maintenance is a "quick and dirty" solution, they said.

The groups on Tuesday sent a letter to Mathy Stanislaus, assistant administrator of the Superfund program at the Environmental Protection Agency, urging the agency to permanently remove mine waste from the area. The Virginia-based advocacy group Center for Health, Environment and Justice wrote the letter, signed also by the Sierra Club and several state and regional organizations.

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Uranium contamination found in Idaho drinking wells

September 16, 2008 - MERIDIAN, ID — Uranium has been found in the wells that provide drinking water for a 285-home subdivision near here, and the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) has suggested the city provide a solution.

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Mercury contamination in a Boise neighborhood is much worse than investigators initially anticipated

July 28, 2008 - Originally, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency experts and hazardous materials crews from the Boise Fire Department thought the spill involved between 1 and 2 ounces of mercury. Estimates of the amount have risen to as much as 12 to 16 ounces.

“I was very surprised we had to dig a foot down,” Michael Sibley, the EPA’s onsite cleanup coordinator, said. “That means there is more product out here than we originally thought.”

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Officials evacuate residents from West Idaho neighborhood where mercury spill happened

July 25, 2008 - Officials have evacuated all the residents from two four-plexes in a West Boise neighborhood as they search for and clean up a mercury spill.

The Environmental Protection Agency, Central District Health and Idaho Department of Environmental Quality are assisting fire crews to determine how much liquid mercury is on the ground in the neighborhood just east of the Flying Wye highway interchange.

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Mercury found in S. Idaho neighborhood

July 26, 2008 - BOISE, Idaho (AP) - State and federal officials in southern Idaho are investigating a mercury spill that children in a Boise neighborhood discovered earlier this week.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is working with the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality and local agencies to determine where the mercury came from.

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Idaho neighborhood has radioactive material in water

June 26, 2008 - In one local neighborhood, many residents are relying on bottled water to drink and showering with water run through a filter, because a chemical in their tap water could increase the risk of getting cancer.

It's a very real threat, and part of a problem that has been going on for years.

The people who live in the Floating Feather Mobile Home Park in Eagle have received notices for several months that their drinking water has an excess of uranium.

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