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Overview
The Bunker Hill Mining and Metallurgical Superfund site is one of the largest and most complex abandoned hazardous waste sites in the nation. The Bunker Hill site currently includes three operable units. Operable Units 1 and 2 are located in the portion of the site known as the Bunker Hill “Box." The Box area includes a former smelting facility that lies along I-90 in Northern Idaho’s Silver Valley. It encompasses the towns of Pinehurst, Smelterville, Wardner, and Kellogg, and the communities of Page, Ross Ranch, Elizabeth Park, and Montgomery Gulch. This part of the Superfund site covers approximately 21 square miles and affects about 5,000 people.
The picture on the main page is an aerial photo looking southeast across the former Smelter Complex. All of the buildings associated with the facility have been demolished in an on-site landfill. In the foreground, next to Interstate 90, is the Central Impoundment Area, formerly used as a mine waste disposal site in the Silver Valley. In the background, the ripples on the hillsides are trees that have been planted as part of the hillsides revegetation program.
The communities of Kellogg on the left and Smelterville on the right can also be seen in this photo. Residential yard cleanups have been taking place since 1986 in these and other Box communities, such as Wardner, Pinehurst, Page and Elizabeth Park. In 1998, residential cleanup in the City of Smelterville was certified complete by EPA, the State, and the mining companies conducting residential cleanup. In 2004, the City of North Kellogg was certified complete. These communities now have a protective clean-soil barrier that reduces lead exposures to young children, pregnant women, and other residents, and other communities will be certified as property cleanup continues.
By summer 2006, together with Idaho Department of Environmental Quality (IDEQ) and the mining companies, EPA had cleaned up more than 3,190 properties in the residential and community areas of the Box. The agencies are about 99.5% percent finished with soil cleanup in the Box, with a handful of properties remaining.
[ Main Cleanup | Brownfields ]
[ Superfund | FOIA | Records Center ]
Point of contact: Debra Sherbina
E-Mail: sherbina.debra@epa.gov
Phone Number: (206) 553-0247
Last Updated: 06/03/2008
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