The Site: The Bunker Hill Mining and Metallurgical Site became a Superfund site in 1983. The site covers parts of northern Idaho and eastern Washington. It is divided into three areas: the 21-square-mile “Box” populated area, the Box non-populated area, and the Coeur d’Alene Basin.
Bunker Hill Mining and Metallurgical Site Overview |  |
Basin Environmental Improvement Project Commission (BEIPC)
Contact: Terry Harwood 208-783-2528
Citizens Coordinating Council (CCC)
Contact: John Snider, Chair, 208-664-9773
Jerry Boyd, Vice-Chair, 509-455-6039
Meeting date, time & place To Be Announced on CCC webpage. |
Partners: EPA is working closely with the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality, the Basin Environmental Improvement Project Commission, the Coeur d’Alene Tribe, other federal, state, and local agencies, and local community members to move forward on this complex cleanup.
Getting it Done: Project staff are cleaning up people’s yards, finding safe places to dispose of mine waste, and cleaning up mine and mill sites. This is a long-term, complicated cleanup, likely to take decades. EPA plans to get the cleanup done as quickly as we can, and leave the area a cleaner, safer place.
Together, we’re making progress!
- In 2006, a major milestone was achieved in the Bunker Hill Box! The Upstream Mining Group finished cleaning up the last contaminated residential and commercial Box properties. In total, about 3,200 properties and street rights-of-way have been cleaned up and 17 wells closed.
- Blood-lead levels in children in the Box are down.
- Trees, grasses, and shrubs are flourishing and wildlife has returned to hillsides in the Box.
- Cleanup of Basin properties has been completed for the 2007 construction season. Property sampling continues and results are provided to property owners and to those interested in real estate transactions. In 2007, roughly 450 properties were cleaned up and over 950 properties sampled in the Basin.
- Local workers are being hired to do yard cleanup work.
- By the end of 2006, EPA had transferred about 1800 acres of Box property to the State of Idaho to facilitate economic development.
- The 72-mile Trail of the Coeur d'Alenes was certified complete in winter 2005. This project returned land to productive use, providing a safe recreational trail for local residents and tourists.
| | East Mission Flats Update
You may be among a group of citizens who have expressed interest in the East Mission Flats Waste Repository near Cataldo, Idaho. Several concerns have come up. Among them are how close the repository sits to the Old Mission; whether the repository can be seen from the Old Mission; whether the repository poses a risk to wetlands; whether flooding poses a risk to the repository; and what’s going to happen next.
Letter to Citizens (PDF) (3pp, 43K) - November 2007
DEQ’s Responses to Public Comments (PDF)
Frequently Asked Questions
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