A new bi-state commission empowered to use Superfund dollars to clean up mining pollution from Mullan to Spokane is unprecedented, says the head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

"We haven't done this before," said EPA Administrator Christie Todd Whitman at a Spokane press conference. "Our main commitment is to ensure that we start to clean up."

The mine pollution scattered throughout the Coeur d'Alene Basin "is a very real concern. This is part of our industrial and mining past," Whitman said.

A formal agreement on the new Basin Environmental Improvement Project Commission will be signed today at a press conference on the shores of Lake Coeur d'Alene.

Whitman, Idaho Gov. Dirk Kempthorne, Coeur d'Alene Tribe Chairman Ernie Stensgar, and regulators and politicians from both states will attend.

As Seattle activists picketed nearby, wearing plastic oil drums and urging reauthorization of a defunct Superfund tax, Whitman defended her administration's handling of Superfund cleanups.

She said she's a believer in the "polluter pays" concept underlying the 1980 Superfund law, where companies must foot the bill for the damage they've caused.

The EPA is part of a massive lawsuit for natural resources damages in the Coeur d'Alene Basin filed in 1996 during the Clinton administration. Several mining companies and the Union Pacific Railroad have settled. A verdict on the remaining claims is expected this summer.

In addition, Whitman stressed her role in a new federal complaint filed by the Justice Department against Asarco, the biggest mining company involved in the Silver Valley cleanup.

"We moved against one of the parties last week," Whitman said. "We want them to live up to their responsibilities."

Concerned that Asarco may be shifting assets to avoid a $1 billion cleanup tab nationwide, the Justice Department is seeking a temporary restraining order to bar the company from selling a profitable Peruvian copper mine to another subsidiary owned by its Mexican parent, Grupo Mexico. Asarco says the transaction won't undermine its cleanup responsibilities.

"It was reassuring to hear from this EPA chief that the polluter should pay," said Mike Peterson of the Lands Council, who attended the press conference.

EPA is scheduled to release its 30-year, $359 million cleanup plan, called a record of decision, by the end of August.

Behind the hoopla Monday, the nascent commission established by the Idaho Legislature is already controversial.

Environmental groups Monday asked Whitman to reject EPA's revised plan that puts the Idaho-dominated commission in charge of the cleanup.

The Lands Council, the Sierra Club, the Kootenai Environmental Alliance and the Silver Valley People's Action Coalition called the commission a "political power ploy" designed to transfer cleanup authority from EPA to Idaho.

EPA's support of the commission "violates EPA's mission and is a blunder of historic proportions," the groups said.

Mine pollution from Idaho has flushed into the Spokane River. There are 11 spots in the Spokane Valley on beaches and islands along the river where heavy metals pose a health risk to people and aquatic life.

Business groups also worry that the commission doesn't have enough Washington state voices, said Rich Hadley of the Spokane Regional Chamber of Commerce.

The chamber wants a Spokane County commissioner appointed as a voting member. That slot isn't there now -- only one non-voting slot for a Washington representative to be appointed by Gov. Gary Locke on the five-member commission.

The chamber has expressed its concerns to Gov. Kempthorne and wants the Idaho Legislature to add the county commissioner position when it reconvenes in January, Hadley said.

Environmental groups also urged Whitman to restore money to the beleaguered national Superfund account. The Republican-controlled Congress in 1995 didn't renew the taxes on industry that fueled it.

The taxes covered Superfund cleanups at 30 percent of sites where the main polluter is bankrupt or can't be found -- as in the Silver Valley, where Gulf Resources moved its assets offshore and declared bankruptcy in 1993.

Although the trust has been depleted, Whitman said she's confident that funding for environmental cleanups will remain stable though she didn't directly address the Superfund tax.

One leading environmentalist was skeptical of that claim, saying the trust fund is due to run out of money by 2004.

"Any cleanup plan is meaningless if there is no money to implement it," said Dr. John Osborn, a Spokane doctor and the Sierra Club's conservation chair for Idaho and Eastern Washington.

President Bush opposes reinstating the Superfund taxes on industry, as does Rep. George Nethercutt, R-Spokane. Washington Sens. Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray favor reimposing the tax on the oil and chemical industries. Hearings will be held this fall in Congress on the proposal.

Much of Whitman's visit to Spokane took place behind closed doors.

After meeting privately at the chamber of commerce with local groups, she attended a $250 a person fund-raiser for Rep. George Nethercutt, R-Spokane, at the High Drive home of local businessman Dave Clack.

The fund-raiser was also closed to the press and public, although Nethercutt indicated at a meeting with The Spokesman-Review editorial board last week that reporters would be welcome at the campaign event.

A campaign spokeswoman said Monday that Nethercutt had made the offer "in jest" and that the event was closed.

Fund-raisers in private homes are traditionally closed, spokeswoman April Gentry said.

Whitman and Nethercutt arrived at the home at 5:35 p.m. in a Lincoln Continental. She left about an hour and 10 minutes later.

Among the attendees were Spokane businessman Don Barbieri and state Sen. Jim West, a Spokane Republican.

Meanwhile, on a downtown sidewalk, the WashPIRG activists said they traveled from Seattle to protest the closed meetings on an issue of great public importance, and to tell Whitman they want the Superfund tax reimposed.