Bunker Hill Operable Units 1 and 2

Site Description

The Bunker Hill Mining and Metallurgical Site in northern Idaho and northeastern Washington is divided into three Operable Units (OUs), or cleanup projects. OUs 1 and 2 focus on a 21-square mile area called the Bunker Hill Box. Mining and lead smelting from the late 1800s to the 1970s contaminated the soil, groundwater, air, and the Coeur d'Alene River with lead, arsenic, zinc, and cadmium. Since the 1970s, children in the area registered dangerously high levels of lead in their blood. OU 1 includes residential areas with metals levels of particular concern to children and pregnant women. OU2 includes historic smelter and mining areas. About 6,000 people live within the Bunker Hill Box.

Current Site Status and Cleanup Actions to Date

• Since the smelter closed in 1981, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the State of Idaho, the mining companies, and the community have accomplished an enormous amount of work. Blood lead levels in children have been greatly reduced; nearly 2,100 residences have clean yards and safer homes; and about 300,000 truck loads of contaminated mine tailings have been removed from certain areas and capped. Thousands of acres on the site have been revegetated.
• Since 1994, the Upstream Mining Group (UMG), a consortium of mining companies, has cleaned more than 2,000 residential and community areas in OU 1 under a legal agreement with EPA. In 2002, EPA and the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality took over part of this work when UMG failed to perform it, and used Federal funding to clean up 70 residential properties. UMG is again failing to meet cleanup obligations, and EPA expects to clean up another 200 of the remaining 550 properties.
• At OU 2, smelter buildings have been demolished, contaminated soil has been removed, the Central Impoundment Area has been closed, and the hillsides have been revegetated. Additional capping and maintenance work will continue. EPA will also continue to operate the Central Treatment Plant, which treats acid mine drainage, the largest source of zinc and cadmium contamination in the Coeur d'Alene Basin. This year, EPA will complete emergency upgrades to the plant.
• EPA continues to monitor the site to ensure there is no immediate threat to human health or the environment pending the start of long-term cleanup work.

Current Funding Status

• Thus far, EPA has provided approximately $150 million to cleanup OUs 1 and 2.
• In Fiscal Year 2003, EPA is providing $3.3 million, and an additional $1.5 million through settlements with Potentially Responsible Parties, to conduct new work on OU 1, and $2.7 million to conduct new work on OU2.

For more information on the site, please visit the Region 10 Bunker Hill website.

Key Accomplishments