Coeur d'Alene Basin
Bunker Hill Superfund Site Information
Cleanup Areas:
Site Summary: 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. Read more...
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 on this complex cleanup.
Cleanup Areas
Mine and Mill Cleanups
Repositories
Current Projects
Information about the Proposed Cleanup Plan
Asarco Settlement Information
Institutional Controls Program
The Panhandle Health District manages the Institutional Controls Program, a locally-enforced set of rules and regulations designed to ensure the integrity of clean soil and other protective barriers placed over contaminants left throughout the Bunker Hill Superfund site.
Announcements
Basin Bulletin - Click on the triangle 
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Basin Bulletin: A Quarterly Review of Cleanup in the Coeur d'Alene River Basin
Site Information
The Box
| The Bunker Hill Mining and Metallurgical Superfund site is one of the largest and most complex abandoned hazardous waste sites in the nation. The Bunker Hill site currently includes three operable units. Operable Units 1 and 2 are located in the portion of the site known as the Bunker Hill “Box." The Box area includes a former smelting facility that lies along I-90 in Northern Idaho’s Silver Valley. It encompasses the towns of Pinehurst, Smelterville, Wardner, and Kellogg, and the communities of Page, Ross Ranch, Elizabeth Park, and Montgomery Gulch. This part of the Superfund site covers approximately 21 square miles and affects about 5,000 people. ...more overview... |  |
Site Progress for the Box
- In 2008, cleanup of residential and commercial properties in the Box was certified complete. Over 3,000 properties have been cleaned up to date. Many local communities cooperated in this massive, multi-agency effort to test, partially remove, and cap metals-contaminated soils.
- 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.
- Hundreds of yards are cleaned up every year in the Basin. Property sampling continues and results are provided to property owners and to those interested in real estate transactions.
- Local workers are being hired to do yard cleanup work.
- Agencies are continuing to look for secure places, called "repositories," to put contaminated materials from yard cleanups.
- By the end of 2006, EPA had transferred about 1800 acres of Box property to the State of Idaho to facilitate economic development.
- Thousands of people are enjoying the 72-mile Trail of the Coeur d'Alenes, which was completed in 2005. This project returned land to productive use, providing a safe recreational trail for local residents and tourists.
- Recreational areas along the Spokane River are being cleaned up.
- Nearly 400 acres of safe feeding habitat for wild birds and other wildlife is being created.
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