Oregon Public Broadcasting

The generation-long cleanup of mining waste in north Idaho is taking a new turn. The Environmental Protection Agency has released a plan it says will focus on polluted areas that it hasn't had the time or the money to get to. Doug Nadvornick reports.

For about 25 years, the work on the old Coeur d'Alene Mining District has focused on making north Idaho's Silver Valley a healthier place to live. Crews have removed contaminated soil from more than 5,000 front yards and business lots and replaced it with clean dirt. That work is almost done.

Now, the EPA is turning its attention to the canyons and streams that surround Idaho towns like Kellogg.

Project Manager Bill Adams concedes cleaning up those heavy metals will take another generation or two and cost another billion dollars. Adams says 25 years of cleanup, so far, has been a success.

Bill Adams: "I recall long ago when I first went through this site; it looked like a bomb went off in Kellogg and I had no idea even what had happened. Just amazing. There was no trees anywhere. It was just incredible."

Now trees fill the hills overlooking north Idaho's Silver Valley. The area has re-made itself into a tourist area that caters to skiers and mountain bikers.