Craig Blasts Epa Request For Mining Records Feds’ Directive, Part Of Lawsuit For Basin Cleanup, Called An Unnecessary Burden By Senator

Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, has demanded that the federal Environmental Protection Agency back off a request that businesses turn over mining records dating back to 1880.

Earlier this week, the EPA demanded that 70 companies come up with a detailed account of their role in more than a century of Silver Valley mining.

The agency plans to use the information to add defendants to a multimillion-dollar lawsuit against companies the government says contaminated the Coeur d’Alene Basin with heavy metals.

Late Friday, Craig called the agency’s request a fishing expedition for federal lawyers.

“From time to time documents come across my desk that make it abundantly clear why citizens criticize their federal government for abusing authority and unnecessarily burdening its citizens,” Craig wrote to EPA’s Catherine Krueger.

Krueger heads the EPA’s office of environmental cleanup. She could not be reached for comment late Friday.

Her letter infuriated dozens of small companies that are targeted, many of them inactive and comprised of a few penny stockholders. The letter threatened small mining claims as well as a handful of international corporations with fines of $27,500 per day if they fail to meet the deadline.

The Department of Justice seeks to recover hundreds of millions of dollars from companies to help clean up mining pollution in the basin.

Craig said the EPA shouldn’t be asking for documents that date back to 1880, saying that “Idaho didn’t enter the Union until 1890. The federal government controlled these lands, and in many cases was involved in mining activities before and after 1880.”

He characterized many of the companies targeted by EPA as “one or two elderly citizens who are not prepared to respond to such a voluminous request.”

However, not all the companies EPA sent letters to are mom and pop mining concerns. Others include national and global concerns such as Cominco American, Noranda Exploration, Seafirst Bank, and Louisiana-Pacific Corp.

EPA’s existing lawsuit against mining concerns includes ASARCO Inc., Hecla Mining Co., Sunshine Mining Co. and Coeur d’Alene Mines Corp.

New defendants could include those who leased mining claims, transported ore, or financed miningrelated businesses.

Although adding defendants is within EPA’s authority, Craig told Krueger that Congress never intended Superfund laws to enable lawyer fishing expeditions nor to harass and intimidate citizens with unreasonable requests.

, DataTimes