Work continues in Ninemile Basin

WALLACE –– Seasonal clean-up efforts have continued in the Ninemile Basin as crews from the Coeur d’Alene Trust, under the direction of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) continue to remove metals-contaminated materials from generations of mining and milling operations.

This season, the crews are working in three specific areas of the Ninemile Basin, including the Dayrock Mine and lower portion of Lower East Fork Ninemile Creek Riparian Site, the Tamarack Complex, and the East Fork Ninemile Waste Consolidation Area.

Late last month, crews began hauling the first loads of what will total in at 90,000 cubic yards of waste materials from the Dayrock Mine to the the East Fork Ninemile (EFNM) Waste Consolidation Area.

Roughly one week after that work began, other crews from the CDA Work Trust began hauling 135,000 cubic yards of similarly contaminated materials from the Tamarack Complex to EFNM Waste Consolidation Area.

The waste at these sites is heavily contaminated with lead and other heavy metals that can be washed out of the soils and routinely end up in the streams, creeks, and ultimately the Coeur d’Alene River.

This work prevents the contaminants from washing downstream, which improves water quality and reduces lead exposures for people and wildlife.

“For places like Ninemile and Canyon Creek, we prioritize based on their threat to the environment,” remedial project manager Tamara Langton told the News-Press previously. “Be it wildlife or water quality, we’re hoping that with this cleanup that these streams will stay clean and that we will see life in them again. However, keeping people safe is always the overarching theme of these projects.”

The EFNM Waste Consolidation Area is near the top of the Ninemile Basin and was expanded in 2020 to handle an additional 500,000 cubic yards of contaminated materials in order to facilitate future projects in the area.

This year, they will be utilizing just under half of that opened up space.

Groundwater and surface water sampling will continue at the waste consolidation area.

Access to the work areas will be restricted Monday through Friday, from 6:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., during active construction.

For more information, or to request access through one of the work sites contact the Coeur d’Alene Trust at (208) 783-0222.

If requesting access, please contact the office at least 24 hours in advance so that safe escort can be planned and provided through active construction zones.