COEUR d'ALENE - Approximately $38 million will be spent this summer to improve environmental health in areas of the Coeur d'Alene River Basin polluted by decades of mining operations.

Bill Adams, Coeur d'Alene team leader for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, said this summer will be the most significant summer of construction in a decade because of the money spent and types of work scheduled for completion.

About $20 million will come from settlement dollars from the mining and smeltering company Asarco, currently based in Tucson, Ariz. The other $18 million comes from settlement dollars from Hecla Mining Co., based in Coeur d'Alene.

"Now we have these two sources of money," Adams said. In past years, he said, federal appropriations paid for cleanup.

Approximately 250 people will be employed this summer, mostly North Idaho construction contractor workers.

The EPA and Idaho have been performing cleanup work of metals pollution in the Basin since the early 1980s.

Continuing work will include $15 million worth of property remediation work on land with high metals concentrations.

"In a couple years we should have that program completed," Adams said.

About 125 properties in the basin will be treated this summer with new soil. All the properties in the so-called Silver Valley superfund "Box" area have been remediated.

New work this year will include construction of a waste consolidation area, which will be located 13 miles north of Wallace near the East Fork of Nine Mile Creek.

Contaminated waste from mine and mill sites will be placed in the consolidation area, a project with a price tag of $7 million.

The site will have to be cleared and infrastructure built. Waste should be received there starting next year, Adams said.

The location was picked because the site is high enough in elevation to prevent contact with surface and ground water.

"It's high and dry," Adams said. "Most people won't see that work because it's far up in the drainage."

Work that will be visible to community members will include about $4 million in what are being called "remedy protection projects," which will be completed in Smelterville, Mullan and Silverton.

The money will be spent on infrastructure to prevent water moving through the community from washing away work already completed.

"This will get water through the community areas to prevent scouring of the properties," Adams said. The work will include paving and increasing culvert sizes and the capacity of drainage ditches.

Communities that can't afford to maintain roadways will get help with repairs and replacement.

Many roads in the contaminated areas are built on top of mining waste, Adams said. As the roads break down, contamination below can get exposed.

The road work will occur throughout the contaminated areas.

About $3 million will be spent on roads in the "Box" and $3 million in the rest of the Coeur d'Alene River Basin.