Concern over future flooding and roadway damage in areas within the Bunker Hill Superfund Site has prompted several Shoshone County cities to write a letter of resolution to the Environmental Protection Agency.

The resolution, which the Kellogg council passed Wednesday, states the city is authorized to take whatever steps they can to find resources that can assure protection of the Superfund remedy that has been implemented.

Kellogg Mayor Mac Pooler said the cities are looking out for the future of the Silver Valley as it relates to the metals contamination that the Superfund Site barriers covered up. These barriers include a layer of clean soil in public rights of way along with asphalt on the roadways.

Flooding and deterioration of the roadways could expose the metal contamination in the future, however, which is the reason for the resolution, Pooler said. "Substantial areas with the city of Kellogg have been designated as flood prone by studies conducted at the direction of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers," Kellogg's resolution stated.

"If we have a flood, it's going to take the barriers out. Who pays for it?" Pooler wondered.

He is appreciative of the $54 million that will be made available to the county and its seven cities - moneys that come from $263.4 million paid by Hecla in 2011 as part of a settlement with the Coeur d'Alene Tribe, State of Idaho and the U.S. government - but questions whether that will provide enough money for maintenance when/if flooding and road deterioration cause the metals contamination to become exposed. "We've come a long ways to have money for roads in the future," Pooler said, noting the seven cities can soon begin applying for road moneys that have been set aside in a trust. The trust is being handled by a three-person board that consists of representatives from the EPA, state Department of Environmental Quality and an at-large engineer. Those funds will provide for road remediation over 10 years.

What happens after those 10 years is what has Pooler and others concerned, however. "We feel there's a long-range program that should be looked at," he said.

"The $54 million is not enough to pave every city street (in the Valley)," Pooler said.

"A large amount of effort has gone into working with the local jurisdictions to identify the road repair needs and provide an equitable distribution of funding to address the most significantly impacted roads," said the EPA's Regional Administrator Dennis McLerran in a Sept. 7 letter to Shoshone County commissioners and the mayors in the Silver Valley.

"As further evidence of our commitment, the EPA has provided the state funding to hire a roadway engineer to be a resource to local jurisdictions as they plan and design their road repair projects," McLerran said. "We will also continue to work closely with the State of Idaho and each of the local jurisdictions as we collectively begin implementation of the Roadway Surface Remediation Strategy."

In his letter, McLerran said that "the EPA is statutorily prohibited from spending Congressionally-appropriated funds on 'operation and maintenance' of completed cleanup actions."

But McLerran noted that "the EPA formally evaluates the continued protectiveness of all aspects of cleanup actions during the statutorily mandated five-year review process. The EPA shares your concerns about the continued protection of human health, especially that of Silver Valley children, and consequently rigorously reviews potential ongoing exposures during each five-year review to ensure that the implemented remedies remain protective."

In his letter, McLerran said that lead blood levels for Silver Valley children have decreased to near national averages. "Together we have come a long way ... from the days when Silver Valley children exhibited some of the highest blood lead levels recorded in this country."

The Smelterville Council approved a resolution similar to Kellogg's on Wednesday. Pooler said that the Pinehurst and Wardner city councils have also approved a similar resolution.

The city of Kellogg is proceeding with road remediation and plans to file an application with the Bunker Hill Superfund Site Roadway Surface Remediation Board in the coming months.

"This winter we're going through selection criteria on the roads we want to do in the spring," Pooler said.

The city of Kellogg will host a town hall for local residents next year in an attempt to answer questions about the road repair process, Pooler said.