North Idaho Repository Proceeds Despite Concerns

11/13/2009

A field in the mountains of North Idaho has become a crossroad for two historic forces — mining and the legacy of Catholic missionaries. Federal stimulus money is accelerating projects to remove the toxic remnants of North Idaho's mining history. That contaminated dirt is going to a new dump that's near a building important to both Native Americans and Jesuits. Inland Northwest Correspondent Doug Nadvornick takes us to the East Mission Flats Repository.

Every fall, a few hundred Gonzaga University students and faculty members make a religious pilgrimage. They ride buses to a valley just beyond the Coeur d'Alene Mountains in North Idaho. Then, says Gonzaga professor Scott Coble, they walk — nine miles to Idaho's oldest building.

Coble: "It's this awe–inspiring, almost Italianate–looking church on this little knoll on the flat in Idaho, of all places."

Coble is referring to the Cataldo Mission, named after a Jesuit missionary. Father Joseph Cataldo and his priests came to this valley in the 1840s to minister to the Coeur d'Alene Indians.

Stewart: "They brought the Catholic faith and the Coeur d'Alenes embraced that faith."

Marc Stewart is a spokesman for the tribe.

Stewart: "They built a mission down near the river and then later to its current location. So it became a very cultural, religious place for them."

Sound: Man singing a sacred song.

The church has been refurbished and is now a historic museum, the centerpiece of a state park. It's visible from Interstate 90. Inside, you can hear Coeur d'Alene tribal elder Lawrence Aripa talk about the mission.

Aripa: "When I think of the way it was built, I can feel just nothing but pride because of how they suffered and how they worked."

Father Scott Coble says both the tribe and the Jesuits consider this place sacred. That's why some people consider what's happening just across the highway as a desecration.

Sound: Heavy machinery.

Heavy machines are moving mounds of contaminated dirt and huge rocks from another part of Idaho's history. It's mining waste and these crews are building the East Mission Flats Repository. It's a new dump site for the contaminated soil that's scooped out of yards and fields in mining towns up and down this valley.

Terry Harwood is the director of the Coeur d'Alene Basin Commission. He's in charge of building the site. At an open house for the public, he said there's still much to do to make the repository fully functional.

Harwood: "We have to build a wash facility, a decontamination facility, drill a well, put in some buildings and some parking and stuff."

Even as crews race to get the site done, East Mission Flats is already accepting contaminated dirt. Harwood says stimulus money has sped up the pace of the mine cleanup and the new repository was pressed into duty early.

The repository has generated a lot of opposition and not just from people who want to preserve the Cataldo Mission. Geri McCroskey from the Silver Valley Community Resource Center says the dump should go elsewhere.

McCroskey: "Why in the world would you, in the name of common sense, would you want to put a toxic dump in a wetland?"

McCroskey's group is trying to stop the repository from taking more dirt. But, so far, it has had little success.

Susan Mitchell would like to stop it too. She and her husband Paul have the closest well to the site. Mitchell says the government didn't listen to people who think this is a bad idea.

Mitchell: "If people say, 'We don't want this in a flood plain. We don't want this in a flood plain.' You may have all the science in the world behind you, but where is that piece where we listen to what matters to the people who have to live with it."

Ed Moreen from EPA acknowledges his agency could do a better job communicating with people who live near sites like this one. He says his agency has looked at hundreds of potential dump sites in the Silver Valley and found nothing better. He admits that East Mission Flats has its flaws.

Moreen: "The river floods this site. We know that. We saw it flood in 2008."

Moreen says the government is engineering the site to protect it from floods. He says it has other advantages.

Moreen: "The good thing about this site is it is accessible. It's off of exit 39 on I–90. You do not have anybody that's actually an adjacent neighbor. There are people that live in the area and we're well aware of that. We want to be a good neighbor."

Ed Moreen says EPA and the state of Idaho have drilled monitoring wells to keep an eye on toxic water that runs away from the site.

Sound: Bells and a chanting man in the background.

Opponents of the repository wish the Coeur d'Alene Tribe would be more vocal in fighting the dump site. The tribe has formally objected. But spokesman Marc Stewart says the government has addressed some of the tribe's concerns. And he says it is taking a philosophical approach.

Stewart: "No one really likes the idea of a repository, but the reality is, short of launching it into outer space or sending it someplace else, it's just a reality that everyone has to deal with."

The Coeur d'Alenes have co–existed with North Idaho's mining history for more than 100 years. It's just that now, the reminder of that toxic history is uncomfortably close.

I'm Doug Nadvornick near Cataldo, Idaho.

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