Bunker Hill Mining and Metallurgical Complex Site, Idaho

The Bunker Hill Mining and Metallurgical Complex was the largest mineral processing facility in the Coeur d'Alene River Basin, and was comprised of a number of mining, milling, and smelting operations, including a large smelter. Decades of mining and milling activity led to widespread contamination of neighboring rivers, streams, and soils with high concentrations of toxic heavy metals, including lead and zinc, and children in the area were found to have some of the highest blood levels of lead ever recorded in the United States. In 1983, the complex was declared a Superfund site. Gulf Resources the company which owned most of this particular smelter, ultimately declared bankruptcy. Lake Couer d'Alene, downstream from the smelter, received much of the runoff from the operation. To date over 200 buildings have been disposed of, as well as two large smelter stacks (at 610 and 715-feet respectively), which were demolished in 1996. Remediation efforts are ongoing, and will be required for several more decades. In 2011, Hecla Mining Company, which owned and operated a number of mining and milling sites in the area, agreed to settle a lawsuit originally brought by the Coeur d'Alene tribe in 1991, for $263.4 million, making it one of the larger Superfund lawsuit settlements at that time.