EPA, Trust to continue work on county's east end
Crews drill test holes at a site in the Ninemile area. The test holes help determine how the local work crews will go about the cleanup efforts in that region.
Courtesy photo
Multiple ongoing projects in the Wallace area of the Coeur d’Alene Basin have picked up in recent weeks, including several in the Canyon Creek and Ninemile regions.
The work is being completed under the supervision of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the CDA Work Trust.
At Ninemile, crews are hauling 30,000 cubic yards of mine waste from the upper portion of the Lower East Fork Ninemile Creek Riparian Site to be placed in the East Fork Ninemile Waste Consolidation Area.
This consolidation area is near the top of East Fork Ninemile Canyon where work was completed last year to add 500,000 cubic yards to its footprint, which opened up the capacity to handle more waste from local cleanups.
Hauling will run from 6 a.m. through 6 p.m. Monday through Friday, with the hope of being completed by October.
In August, crews will begin further cleanup investigation work in the area.
According to a recent release from the EPA, this work is being done to, “help us understand the nature and extent of contamination at this location. It will determine the need for a cleanup design that protects people and wildlife, and improves water quality.”
The cleanups prevent the existing contaminants from washing downstream, improving water quality and reducing exposures for people and wildlife.
Up Canyon Creek, cleanup investigations have begun — which help determine how the specific cleanups are conducted.
Seven sites will be investigated, including at the Gem Complex, Standard Mammoth Reach, Ajax No. 3, the Canyon Creek Garbage Dump, Marsh Mine and O’neill Gulch.
Several other cleanup investigations that began in past seasons will continue this year, including Tamarack Mine No. 7, Black Bear Fraction/Flynn Mine and Hecla Star Complex.
The process of investigating each site requires drilling and monitoring wells, test pits, and well as the collection of soils, surface water and groundwater samples.
This will likely require multiple pieces of heavy equipment, including several trucks and drilling rigs.
These investigations should wrap up by September, with work taking place between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. Monday through Friday.
All of the work is part of an ongoing effort to remediate the area following more than a century of poor mine waste management practices that led to most of the region struggling with heavy metals contamination.