WASHINGTON, June 13 (UPI) -- Hecla Mining Co. will pay $263 million to close a Superfund site litigation, one of the largest cases filed under the statute, the U.S. Justice Department said.
Under the settlement, Hecla will pay $263.4 million plus interest to the United States, the Coeur d'Alene tribe and Idaho to resolve claims stemming from releases of wastes from its mining operations, the Justice Department said Monday in a release.
The money will be dedicated to restoration and remediation of natural resources in the Coeur d'Alene River Basin.
The lawsuit, originally brought in 1991, sought damages for injuries to natural resources such as clean water, fish and birds caused by millions of tons of mining wastes released into the south fork of the Coeur d'Alene River and its tributaries, the Justice Department said. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Idaho have been performing cleanup work in the Coeur d'Alene basin, located within the Bunker Hill Superfund site, since the early 1980s, and the suit also sought to recover cleanup costs.
"The resolution of these longstanding claims of the Coeur d'Alene tribe, the state of Idaho and the United States at the Bunker Hill Superfund Site demonstrates the federal government's vigor in enforcing the nation's environmental laws," said Ignacia Moreno, assistant attorney general for the department's Environment and Natural Resources Division. "This agreement will help pay for the U.S. government's cleanup activities, secures natural resource damages, and will restore critical habitats to fish and wildlife in the Coeur d'Alene River Basin."
