Reading Room

Smoky Canyon Remediation

Remediation is corrective action to clean up an environmentally contaminated site to eliminate contamination or reduce the amount to an acceptable level. Under CERCLA , a remediation effort to reduce selenium contamination near the Smoky Canyon Pole Creek Overburden Disposal Area was undertaken in late 2006.

Action Memo on Pole Creek Diversion Project:
Forest Service action memorandum that outlines CERCLA project to be undertaken by J.R. Simplot Company to deal with selenium contamination from the Pole Creek Overburden Disposal Area. October 2006.
Action Memorandum in PDF - 604K

Pole Creek Diversion Project Update:
Summary: On October 2, 2006, Regional Forester Jack Troyer selected the agency’s preferred alternatives to divert Pole Canyon Creek, before it flows beneath a waste rock overburden disposal area (ODA), as part of the plan to remediate contaminant releases from the J.R. Simplot Co. (Simplot) Smoky Canyon Phosphate Mine. Pole Canyon Creek water unaffected by mine wastes will be discharged into Sage Valley below the ODA. The Site Investigation determined that significant concentrations of selenium and other hazardous substances were discharged into the environment down gradient and beneath the ODA.
Forest Service Update PDF – 70K

Contamination at Phosphate Mines In Southeastern Idaho:
Summary: Selenium contaminated vegetation and surface water related to phosphate overburden disposal was discovered in southeast Idaho in 1997. Shortly afterward, phosphate mining companies and regulatory agencies joined in response to the potentially widespread problem throughout thephosphate mining area. Five companies with a vested interest in southeastern Idaho phosphate reserves organized as a committee under the Idaho Mining Association. Under this arrangement they commissioned a regional environmental sampling program to characterize the problem in voluntary collaboration with Federal and State regulatory agencies. (Complete article
US Forest Service article on Interagency response to Selenium – PDF 415K