Annual basin tour explores Cd'A River cleanup efforts
Photo by JOSH MCDONALD The Central Impoundment Area from Galena Ridge. In the distance you can see the Central Treatment Plant where water that runs off of the CIA and out of the Bunker Hill Mine is pumped and treated.
Photo by JOSH MCDONALD The Cataldo Boat Launch is near the old Coeur d'Alene River dredge pool where the current of the river slows way down and allowed old mining companies to dredge the heavy metal sediment that had washed downstream and settled at the river bottom.
Photo by JOSH MCDONALD EPA project manager Ed Moreen discusses the importance of cleaning up the river banks along the Coeur d'Alene River at a stop near Bull Run Bridge.
OSBURN — The Basin Environmental Impact Project Commission (BEIPC) met last Wednesday morning at the Shoshone County Health and Welfare building for their yearly tour of the Bunker Hill Superfund Site to discuss and witness how the cleanup and remediation efforts are progressing on the west end of the Silver Valley.
Prior to the tour, the BEIPC held a short meeting to discuss the goings on within their organizations including the amount of funds currently in the Successor Coeur d’Alene Custodial and Work Trust (CDA Trust), which funds the superfund work that is being done in the area.
Between $20-25 million is spent annually on cleanup efforts in the basin and the CDA Trust currently has $526.6 million dollars in it.
Each year, the tour varies on location given the type of work that has been accomplished and the situations that have been encountered over the year.
Following the heavy flooding that took place in March, this year’s tour consisted of stops throughout some of the waterways on the west end of the Silver Valley that make up the Coeur d’Alene River.
The meeting portion of the event allowed some of the small components that make up the BEIPC to give updates on their specific projects.
Reviews from the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality’s (IDEQ) Lake Management Plan, as well as a brief update on the financial state of the BEIPC were given before getting to the meat and potatoes of the quarterly meeting.
Ed Moreen, a project manager with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), spoke at length about how the wastewater that had been pumped into the rivers had washed down and settled along the bottoms of some of the less mobile waterways.
“The information that we have gathered indicates that the riverbed is being eroded during high flow events and transported downstream ultimately being deposited in the lake,” Moreen said.
“Based on our evaluations the river bed is the greatest source of lead to Lake Coeur d’Alene, greater than riverbanks and greater than the South Fork of the Coeur d’Alene River. Approximately 300 tons of lead on average is transported into Lake Coeur d’Alene on an annual basis from the Coeur d’Alene River.”
Though settling at the river bottom is not necessarily a problem, when extreme flood events occur like they did this past spring, they have a tendency of stirring up the past.
From the mid-1880s until 1968, mining companies throughout the Silver Valley discharged toxic mine waste tailings directly into the south fork of the Coeur d’Alene River, which led to it being dubbed ‘Lead Creek’.
Heavy metals like lead and arsenic are dense enough that they sink to the bottom of whatever body of water they find themselves, but torrid waters stir up the sunken sediment and then get carried even further downstream.
The tour wound through some of the more notorious waterway hotspots inside the superfund site.
During a quick stop near the Galena Ridge housing area, Rod Zion with the Army Corps of Engineers discussed their plans for constructing a groundwater collection system.
He explained that this new system would collect water that drains off of the Central Impoundment Area (CIA or more commonly known as the “slag pile”) between Kellogg and Smelterville and pump it back to the Central Treatment Plant (CTP) in Kellogg.
As rain and other forms of moisture build up, they naturally flow to the lowest point while taking contaminated sediment along for the ride.
This is how lead and other pollutants flow back into the South Fork even after the mines have halted operations.
Zion’s plan to combat this involves installing several pumps and an underground retaining wall between the CIA and I-90 so that the water can not get to the river.
“The main goal is to capture the contaminated water and pump it back to the CTP for treatment,” Zion said. “This can also help us control how much water gets extracted and treated.”
The tour continued to the Cataldo Boat Launch where the Coeur d’Alene Riverbed changes to a gentler slope and thus results in a change from a cobble riverbed to a sandy riverbed and was dredged from 1930 to 1968 to collect the materials that had settled in the dredge pool.
Other sites toured were the Rose Lake Boat Launch and other parts of the Chain Lakes that had been surveyed, remediated, and monitored by the BEIPC.
- The Rose Lake Boat Launch was a full project where the former, more primitive boat launch, had been remediated and paved so that during flood events the area near the launch could be cleaned off to avoid contaminated from being tracked into other clean areas.
- Near Killarney Lake in Strobl Marsh, work has been completed in the same manner as Rose Lake.
- In Lane Marsh, the CDA Basin team drilled test holes to see how effective placing thin layers of clean soil would be for protecting waterfowl from lead poisoning.
So far the data return has shown that the clean barriers are holding well and vegetation growth is strong, so monitoring and testing will continue through 2017.
- The Robinson Creek Wetlands project is one that will continue to be monitored over time.
The project consisted of converting an old hayfield back into wetlands for a wildlife habitat.
The reason it is such a valuable location is because it wasn’t affected by lead contamination that was so prevalent in other areas of the Basin and provides a very clean and safe area for all manners of wildlife, but mostly waterfowl.
Site excavation was completed in 2015 and then 3,000 woody trees and shrubs were planted by Idaho Fish and Game (IDFG) and IDEQ.
The system provided is intended to protect and promote the health, safety and general welfare of the people of Idaho in a manner consistent with local, State, Federal and tribal participation and resources.
In addition, the Commission has agreed to address implementation of Phase II of the Bunker Hill Comprehensive Cleanup Plan, adoption and implementation/coordination of the Lake Coeur d’Alene Management Plan, and remediation of heavy metal contamination at specific mining sites in the North Fork of the Coeur d’Alene River.
For more information visit www.basincommission.com.
The Basin Commission was created by the Idaho legislature under the Basin Environmental Improvement Act of 2001.
The Commission is made up of representatives of the State of Idaho, the three Idaho counties in the Basin, the Coeur d’Alene Tribe, the State of Washington, and the United States of America.