Disaster averted
The section of broken tailing pipe that caused roughly 1,000 gallons of contaminated water to spill across the road leading to the Galena Mine near Wallace.
Courtesy photo
WALLACE — Quick thinking and even quicker reaction prevented a bad situation from becoming a potential disaster last week.
It was Friday, April 15 when the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) was informed that a tree had fallen and landed on a section of pipe that carried mine tailings from the Galena Mine to their tailings area.
The fallen tree landed almost perfectly on one of the connecting pieces of pipe, causing it to break and begin discharging the contaminated tailings-laced water onto the road that leads to the mine, as well as the nearby drainage ditch that empties into an adjacent creek.
In mining, tailings are the materials left over after the process of separating the valuable materials from the non-valuable materials from the ore that is extracted from within the mine.
These tailings can contain harmful chemicals and toxic heavy metals.
Matt Drews, with the Galena Mine, explained the situation — as well as how it was handled.
“An estimated 1,000 gallons of tails was discharged and most was contained within the drainage ditch of Lake Gulch Road,” Drews said. “An unknown amount was able to reach Lake Creek but the tails had dried out by this point and the amount was nominal. By noon that day there was no evidence of tails in Lake Creek or the South Fork.”
Upon learning of the situation, Drews immediately contacted DEQ to begin coordinating with them for the cleanup efforts.
“It was a small spill and we were able to take care of it quickly,” Drews stated.
Drews was able to get crews from McGillivray Environmental, Zanetti Bros., Shoshone County and Avista Utilities on site quickly, and had the situation completely rectified within 24 hours.
Much of Shoshone County lies within the Bunker Hill Superfund Site, where more than a century of mining and milling operations resulted in heavy metal contamination throughout the area.
Due to this history, the cleanliness of the waterways, including the South Fork Coeur d’Alene River is of the utmost importance and many of the agencies in the area understand how to respond and react quickly.
“We really appreciate the work by the staff at the Galena Mine to quickly respond to the damaged tailings line and get help right away to clean up the spill,” Dan McCracken, a regional manager with DEQ, told the News-Press. “Their rapid response prevented a major release and helped to minimize the environmental impact caused by this incident.”