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The Bunker Hill Mining and Metallurgical Complex National Priorities List Site is located in Northern Idaho’s Coeur d’Alene River Basin. It was listed on the National Priorities list in 1983. The Coeur d'Alene River Basin is one of the largest areas of historic mining operations in the world. Since the late 1880s, mining activities in the Upper Coeur d'Alene Basin contributed an estimated 100 million of tons of mine waste to the river system. Communities in the Upper Basin were built on mine wastes. Until as late as 1968, tailings were deposited directly in the river. Over time, these wastes have been distributed throughout more than 150 miles of the Coeur d'Alene and Spokane Rivers, lakes, and floodplains.
Children continue to be exposed to lead in residential and recreational area soils which are orders of magnitude above safe levels. Ambient Water Quality Criteria are exceeded throughout the basin, with about 20 miles of streams unable to sustain a reproducing fish population and about 10 miles of tributaries with virtually no aquatic life at all. Lead poisoning is responsible for a significant number of waterfowl deaths each year--more than 15,000 acres of wildlife habitat contain sediments/soils which are acutely toxic to a waterfowl. Twenty-one of the twenty-four species of birds evaluated are at risk from the elevated metals.
This site encompasses a large geographic area and is divided into segments for manageable cleanup. One such segment known as “the Box” is a 21-square mile area surrounding the historic smelter area and includes the cities of Kellogg, Wardner, Smelterville, and Pinehurst, all in Shoshone County. Residential, community and smelter area cleanups have been ongoing since the 1980s. A significant portion of these cleanups has been completed. There are plans for upgrading the Bunker Hill Mine Central Treatment Plant, which treats acid mine drainage.
Contaminants from mining operations in the Silver Valley spread harmful levels of heavy metals down the South Fork of the Coeur d'Alene River and into the flood plains. The area addressing mining contamination outside the box is called “the Basin.” A plan for cleaning up residential and recreational areas in the Basin was developed in coordination with the community members, federal and states (Idaho and Washington) organizations. The common goals are reducing heavy metals, improving fisheries, reducing downstream migration of contaminated sediments, and providing safe feeding habitat for waterfowl.
EPA has been working at this site with our Federal, State, and Tribal partners to protect humans and wildlife from harmful exposures to heavy metals. Other cleanup actions have been completed in the Basin by Federal agencies, States, Tribes, and Potentially Responsible Parties (PRPs).
There are crossover topics that relate to the entire site, known as "Site Wide"
Last Updated: 07/06/2004 |