Hecla Mining Co. and federal environmental regulators have reached a settlement concerning water pollution violations near the headwaters of the South Fork Coeur d'Alene River.

Hecla will pay a $600,000 penalty as part of the settlement with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Justice in relation to activities at Hecla's Lucky Friday Mine and mill near Mullan.

"We don't agree with the EPA on all of these allegations," Luke Russell, vice president of external affairs for Hecla in Coeur d'Alene, said Monday following the announcement of the settlement. "But it's in the best interests of the company to settle and move on."

Russell added that the company takes its environmental responsibilities seriously. Improvements were made to a related water treatment plant in 2008, and a new mine tailings facility at Lucky Friday was built in 2010, he said.

The settlement addressed effluent limit violations and unpermitted discharges into the South Fork Coeur d'Alene River and two of its tributaries.

Specifically, between 2009 and 2014 at Lucky Friday, metals-laden water from one of the tailings ponds seeped into Harris Creek.

During construction of another tailings pond, Hecla failed to install adequate controls to ensure that stormwater runoff was properly managed. That led to runoff destroying a water intake at a downstream fish hatchery.

In both cases, Hecla failed to properly report the problems to EPA.

"The last thing rivers like the South Fork Coeur d'Alene need are unpermitted discharges and permit violations," Ed Kowalski, director of compliance and enforcement at EPA's Seattle office, said in a statement Monday. "Compliance with wastewater discharge permits is critical to protecting Idaho's waterways. By maintaining the integrity of its discharges and ponds, and reporting problems quickly, Hecla can help protect and restore the health of the South Fork and its tributaries."