In regards to the Eastern Mission Flats Repository, the Silver Valley Community Resource Center has some serious criticisms against the EPA. Now, they’re calling on the closure of the Mission Flats Repository citing a lack of evidence that, in some ways, it is doing more damage, than good.

From the SVCRC:

Kellogg, ID - With the onset of Spring flooding and record snow packs in the higher elevations, citizens are preparing for flooding once again of the Old Mission toxic repository. More than 3000 individuals and 75 groups including national have called upon EPA to shut down the Old Mission toxic waste repository that is linked to the millions of tons of lead being washed downstream in one day of flooding in 2011. The US/GS that is monitoring downstream pollution measured 160 metric tons of lead being washed down in one day in Jan. 2011

For approximately a year, the Silver Valley Community Resource Center, Sierra Club and Citizens for Health, Environment and Justice have pursued requests from EPA and IDEQ staff to provide the scientific data supporting their allegation, "that the water is cleaner after it goes through the (Mission) repository".

To date the agencies have not been able to provide the data to back up this statement. Information that was sent in response to Freedom of Information Act request showed that the surface water was only tested twice: once in 2008 before dumping began at the Repository and once in May of 2011, four months after the big pollution event of January.

At one location tested in May 2011, the lead pollution level was higher in water flowing out of the Repository than in the water flowing into it. The May 2011 testing does not prove the Repository is cleaning the water that flows through it. In addition, SVCRC has sent a FOIA request and has had several conversations with the US Dept. of Transportation, Hazard Emergency Division to learn more about the Conocophilips "dorp in pressure" that brought more than 70 staff t o the Mission Repository area last fall.

The community was kept uninformed of the Yellowstone petroleum gas line pressure drop. "Drops in pressure can be indications of gas line leaks" said a representative of the Dept. when SVCRC first contacted them in October of last year. Conocophilips left the community just as abruptly as they arrived, saying the "could find no cause in the pressure drop".

It was learned last week from FOIA materials sent by the Dept. of Transportation that the repository is nestled between the Yellowstone petroleum gas line and a natural gas line that has been in place in the area for the past 50 years.

The US Dept. of Transportation representative when asked to intervene by notifying EPA of the dangers related to having gas lines near the repository and to request that the repository be shut down, said, "they did not have authority over EPA". Affected citizens are asking the question as to why the pipelines were never made public an any time while the Mission Repository was proposed and developed. The US Dept. of Justice is holding British Petroleum accountable for cleanup costs of the environment and human health in the Gulf Oil spill of 2010. The Yellowstone pipeline and the natural gas lines have been in the Mission Repository for five decades. They are accidents waiting to happen with all the heavy equipment that is in operation at the site throughout the year and all the traffic and population that travels Interstate 90 a stone throw from Exit 39 where the 20 acre repository is located.

"Gas drops in pressure, lack of response by EPA to affected community members, CD'A tribal sacred grounds being desecrated, a major wetland being destroyed, National Historic Perservation laws being broken, millions of tons of pollution continuing to be deposited downstream to the Spokane and Coeur d''Alene Rivers, "this is not emotional attachment to the Old Mission, this is about EPA's destruction to the environment and human health risks. EPA needs to move to have this repository shut down, immediately", said Shane Stancik, life long Silver Valley resident, lead poisoned child and SVCRC board member.

Sierra Club, Citizens Health, Environment and Justice, SVCRC and environmental groups in the area, Center for Justice, Kootenai Environmental Alliance, Upper Columbia River SC, CD'A tribe and mayors have all written letters to EPA opposing the repository joining thousands of citizens and national groups.

SVCRC is continuing its grassroots work to shut down the repository and assist EPA in refocusing its cleanup priorities to protect the environment and human health specific to blood lead testing and intervention. "Furthermore, the use of child blood lead levels used as a remedial action objective cannot capture the broader dimensions of health and well-being that should be taken into account in remediation efforts.

To this end, it should be argued that remediation efforts should not only focus on harm reduction but also contribute to efforts to ameliorate environmental and social injustices. Securing a health future for the residents of the contaminated mine sites, such as Kellogg, requires more than just reducing child blood lead levels; it requires attention to the complex set of factors underlying the pattern of systematic disadvantages that compromise the health and well-being of a postproduction, mining community". 

For additional information to learn about the issues of the Bunker Hill/CD'A Basiu Superfund site and getting involved to stop the Mission Repository, contact SVCRC at www.silvervalleyaction.com or call 208-784-8891

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