region's rivers and streams still may not meet all federal water quality standards because of the extent of the contamination. About $253 million has already been spent cleaning up the 21-square-mile Superfund site in and around Kellogg where the former Bunker Hill smelter once operated.
From 1884 through 1997, an estimated 120.7 million tons of mine tailings have been dumped in creeks, rivers, abandoned mines and landfills in the Silver Valley, according to the record of decision.
Those wastes contain 3,300 tons of silver, 1.25 million tons of lead and 1.24 million tons of zinc, the EPA report says.
Lead is a human health hazard that's especially dangerous to small children. Zinc is a threat to fish and other aquatic life. The tailings also contain other toxic hazards, including the cancer-causing metals arsenic and cadmium.
The EPA plan bows to Idaho's wishes to have no Superfund money spent on Lake Coeur d'Alene, where an estimated 70 million tons of mine wastes sit on the lake bottom.
However, the lake is still part of the larger Superfund cleanup area. Its status is discussed in the record of decision.
Specific legal steps will be necessary to delist the lake from Superfund after it's demonstrated that the lake's water quality can be protected through a state-supervised lake management plan, said EPA attorney Cara Steiner-Riley.
EPA decided to leave the lake alone because several studies say the mine wastes will stay at the bottom unless the lake begins to lose oxygen.
"The lakebed sediments are stable now. That's the scientific consensus," said Mary Jane Nearman, an EPA project manager in Seattle.
But if the lake's water quality were to degrade, scientists say the heavy metals could be remobilized and travel downstream into Washington.
Iani refused to speculate Thursday on what steps EPA would take if that occurred. "I'm not going to take that bait. ... I'm not going to look on the pessimistic side," he said.
Iani said he's aware of concerns in Washington state that Idaho's lake plan may be enough to prevent more heavy metals from traveling downstream.
"It will be an interesting prospect to try to balance the concerns of both sides," Iani said.
Washington has signed a side agreement with EPA that gives the Washington Department of Ecology 30 days to comment on any proposal to delete the lake from the national Superfund list.
If the lake management plan fails after the lake's delisting, Ecology's agreement calls for EPA to restore the lake to Superfund status.
The next steps include signing cleanup contracts with Idaho and Washington and getting a controversial new commission off the ground.
The Basin Environmental Improvement Commission, formed to oversee the cleanup in Idaho, was pushed by Idaho politicians who wanted more local control.
It wasn't included in the EPA's original proposal, and it's the first time the EPA has used a regional commission to oversee Superfund work.
Although it has one Washington representative, the commission has been criticized by environmental groups as too Idaho-dominated.
Despite charges of heavy-handedness from Idaho critics of the expanded regional cleanup, the EPA tried hard to accommodate the concerns of local people in the Silver Valley, Iani said.
"There were significant changes made on behalf of the state of Idaho. We went from a shotgun to a laser beam" in pinpointing areas most in need of cleanup, he said.
Iani, the Bush administration's new regional director, took over the job last fall.
"I inherited a big criticism that (EPA) wasn't considerate of the local folks up there. That's just not true," Iani said.
The plan endorses Idaho's preferred approach for the human health cleanup, which addresses about 20 percent of the homes in the upper Basin where lead exceeds 1,000 parts per million, said EPA Superfund chief Mike Gearheard.
Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., praised the EPA agreement. Its signing "is great news for those of us who have been working to clean up the environment in the basin. Like communities in Idaho, families in Washington state have been affected by pollution in the basin. They deserve action, not more delays."
Sen. Larry Craig offered a more tepid endorsement, saying many of his constituents had fought against the plan.
"We have to decide now, as a community, if we are going to accept this, roll up our sleeves and use the representation we have in the Coeur d'Alene Basin commission to corral this process," Craig said.
Meanwhile, Idaho's congressional delegation is seeking a review by the National Academy of Sciences of the science behind EPA's plan. The Idaho politicians asked that the record of decision be delayed until after the review -- which still isn't funded.
EPA refused, saying it is confident of its science and noting that the cleanup plan can be amended if scientific problems arise.
Meanwhile, EPA is awaiting a decision by U.S. District Court Judge Edward Lodge on the liability of several mining companies for the cleanup. Judge Lodge had said he would wait for the release of the EPA's record of decision before making his ruling.
In 1996, the U.S. Justice Department sued several Silver Valley mining companies over natural resources damages in the Basin.
"We are still trying to reach settlement with the responsible parties based on their ability to pay," Steiner-Riley said.
•Karen Dorn Steele can be reached at (509) 459 5462, or by e-mail at karend@spokesman.com
