WALLACE _ Robin Stanley, a retired school superintendent, spent four hours preparing a presentation for Christie Todd Whitman, the head of the Environmental Protection Agency.

But when Whitman toured the Silver Valley on Tuesday, Stanley said he was accorded just 20 seconds to make his statements.

"She can say that she visited the site -- she drove past it at 55 miles per hour," Stanley said, disgusted.

On Wednesday, Stanley got his 15 minutes at a town hall meeting here staged by Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Id. More than 50 people showed up for the early afternoon meeting, a two-hour criticism of Whitman's whirlwind tour and complaints about the EPA.

"We're like an old dog right now that is down, and everybody wants to kick us," said Bill Delbridge, a Wallace grocer who has lived in the area for 38 years. "And the Silver Valley is tired of it."

Security concerns and time restraints cut short Whitman's two-day tour of Eastern Washington and North Idaho, just as she reached the Silver Valley, where EPA began an environmental cleanup two decades ago.

Crapo hosted the meeting Wednesday to gather comments from local residents who felt jilted by Whitman's quick tour of the valley.

"I am very much aware that you're mad," Crapo told the crowd.

"We could have had (Whitman) here for a week and not been able to discuss everything we wanted to talk about."

Crapo praised Whitman for visiting the region, home to one of the oldest and largest Superfund sites in the country, and said regional EPA officials appear willing to allow more local control of cleanup in the Coeur d'Alene Basin. A final plan for cleanup, estimated to cost $359 million over 30 years, will be released at the end of the month.

Several in the crowd said Whitman's visit focused too much on Lake Coeur d'Alene and Spokane, to the detriment of the Silver Valley.

Whitman met with local officials and environmental activists in Spokane on Monday. She toured Lake Coeur d'Alene with Idaho's state and tribal leaders on Tuesday, saying her agency would not include the lake in Superfund action. She did not say the lake is not on the Superfund list, however, as reported by some media. Regional EPA officials say the lake is a Superfund site, because millions of tons of contaminated sediment lie at the bottom.

By Tuesday afternoon, Whitman's tour fell behind schedule, cutting short her visit to the Silver Valley. She was unable to visit the 21-square-mile Bunker Hill Superfund site.

"We saw where we really fit on her ... scale," said Bill Calhoun, a mining consultant. "I don't trust Christie Todd Whitman."

Several people asked again that the cleanup be postponed, anywhere from 18 months to five years, until a national review of the science underlying the cleanup can be completed.

They argue that the EPA has used disputed science to justify the cleanup. EPA officials have continually defended their evaluation of the basin, and say they are confident it will stand up under review.

"We invite whatever review or scrutiny people would like to bring on," said Mark McIntyre, EPA's regional spokesman in Seattle.

EPA studies found 26 percent of 2-year-olds tested from 1996 to 2000 throughout the basin had elevated blood-lead levels, which have been correlated with reduced IQ, slow growth and development, memory loss and other problems. A Panhandle Health District survey of 322 children last year found that blood-lead levels fall below the federal safety limit.

Several Silver Valley residents said the media has sensationalized health concerns from lead pollution and unfairly portrayed local residents' opinions.

"I've been a little embarrassed to call myself a reporter given the current crop of EPA stenographers covering this," said David Bond, a longtime Silver Valley journalist. Bond's column in the Wallace newspaper, which frequently criticized the EPA's work, was sponsored by a mining company until earlier this year.

Crapo said the EPA has become more willing to work with local and state officials in recent years.

"We've made progress," Crapo said. "I view yesterday a very positive move. I don't view it as the end of our efforts to get the management issues resolved."