The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Basin Environmental Improvement Project Commission are marking 50 years of efforts to safeguard children in Silver Valley from lead poisoning. This initiative was launched following the notorious 1973 Bunker Hill smelter baghouse fire, recognized as the most severe lead poisoning incident in U.S. history. The work undertaken has significantly improved the health conditions of Silver Valley, making it a safer place to live, work, and play.
For half a century, the EPA and its partners - including the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality, Coeur d’Alene Tribe, Panhandle Health District, and the Basin Commission - have carried out extensive clean-up operations. These include addressing numerous abandoned mines, treating and reforesting vast areas of metal-laden hillsides, and removing millions of tons of contaminated soil from over 7,000 residential areas, schools yards, play areas, roads, streambeds, and mine sites.
Over this period, average blood lead levels in children tested by Panhandle Health District have dropped from approximately 67 to 2 micrograms per deciliter (µg/dL), well below the Centers for Disease Control’s reference value of 3.5 (µg/dL). Although there is still much work to be done at the Bunker Hill Superfund Site, significant progress has been made.
On September 3rd, 1973 a fire severely damaged the main pollution control device on the Bunker Hill Mine’s lead smelter in Smelterville, Idaho. The “Silver Valley” had been dealing with substantial environmental and public health issues caused by mining and processing abundant metals for almost a century prior to this event.
Companies such as Bunker Hill Mining Corporation - then the largest lead and zinc mine in the U.S. - had been compensating downstream farmers for damage to crops and livestock due to pollution for decades. They also purchased “pollution easements” allowing them to discharge mine tailings directly into the South Fork of the Coeur d’Alene River and several of its tributaries.
Following the fire, Gulf Resources, the mine’s owner, decided that the financial benefits of continuing to operate the damaged smelter outweighed the legal risks of releasing large amounts of lead and other pollutants into the community. According to the Agency for Toxic Substances Disease Registry, a division within CDC, from September 1973 until August 1974, when it was finally shut down, the smelter released an average of 73 tons of lead each month into Smelterville and surrounding Kellogg neighborhoods.
A study conducted by the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare in 1976 found that 99 percent of Smelterville children had blood lead levels at or above the CDC’s level of concern at that time. These were among the highest blood levels ever recorded.
Health and environmental agencies responded swiftly with limited resources available at that time. Their efforts to halt dangerous waste and pollution management practices while reducing children's exposure to lead soil and dust had immediate impacts: By 1981 only 19 percent of Smelterville children tested had blood lead levels exceeding that era’s national average.
However, despite effective work addressing acute crisis in Smelterville and Kellogg, ongoing mining operations, annual flooding events, development activities, and even mine closures continued to introduce more pollution into Silver Valley communities. This resulted in repeated exposure of children to dangerous levels of lead.
In response to these challenges, EPA listed Bunker Hill Mining and Metallurgical Complex as a Superfund site in 1983. Expanded in 2002, this site includes environmental cleanup and restoration work in areas contaminated by mining waste in the Coeur d’Alene River Watershed totaling about 1,500 square miles - making it one of the largest Superfund sites in America.
Armed with new environmental statutes, state and federal agencies tackled the problem, removing wastes from countless abandoned mines, treating and reforesting denuded hillsides, and securely storing and monitoring millions of tons of contaminated soil in repositories. Previously acidic streams once devoid of life now host abundant fish populations and nurture trees and shrubs that stabilize their banks and reduce dangerous flooding.
The Panhandle Health District’s Kellogg office conducts free annual blood lead testing to identify children with elevated blood lead levels and determine their exposure sources. The EPA and the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality focus their cleanup efforts on properties with high lead levels posing the greatest risk to children. To date, EPA has removed leaded soils from over 7,000 properties throughout Silver Valley.
In conclusion, the 1973 baghouse fire triggered a massive effort to mitigate the devastating impacts that mining and smelting had on the environment and health of people in Silver Valley and downstream communities. This work has protected generations of children from elevated blood lead levels and transformed much of the landscape contributing to public health risks faced by residents in this region.
