Flood Waters lap at East Mission Flats Repository
January 20, 2011
America has a handful of "Sacred Cows." Not very many, and in a nation as young as ours, they tend to come and go. One of our "Sacred Cows" du jour is wetlands. A definition of wetlands from the online Merriam-Webster is:
land or areas (as marshes or swamps) that are covered often intermittently with shallow water or have soil saturated with moisture
Important, yes, without question. Wetlands, in their many forms, provide a home and a living to a myriad of creatures from the microscopic to the magnificant. Much of the surface water that irrigates, cools and cleanses our lives is filtered through wetlands in the form of runoff, both before and after we use it, in a continuous cycle.
But often, the wetlands fall victim to the bureaucratic bungling at which our government, and its various agencies, has become so adept. Such is certainly the case with the wetlands that lay between Interstate 90 and Old Highway 10, just west of the Coeur d'Alene River at Cataldo. In fact, that is what makes wetlands a "Sacred Cow." Government agencies give great lip service to them ... seemingly, they must be preserved at all costs ... yet, they are expendable when faced by the government juggernaught wanting to take them and use them for its own purpose.
The East Mission Flats Repository began receiving soil from sites in the Silver Valley in September 2009. From the time it was first proposed, local residents were very vocal about the downside of locating it there. The rains and warm wind of January 2011, melting and adding to the winter's snow pack, brought confirmation of what those local residents were saying.
Below is a brief report and photos by Randy and Claudia Childress of Prichard, Idaho.
"On Jan. 17, 2011 around 2 pm we went to the repository site at Cataldo to see how the flood waters were affecting it. We took pictures from the frontage road out of Cataldo and saw that in several places the flood waters were high enough to break down and breach the black plastic barrier that was set up to contain the contaminated material. Flood waters were over the road within the site.
"We then drove to the frontage road just off of I-90 and found that there also, the flood waters were over the barrier and the waters were mingling with the pond waters to the west and to the east along the freeway. This site is definitely within the floodway and it is impossible for the contained materials to be kept out of the adjoining wetlands. It is not built in an area that will be safe from flooding in the future. This entire area cannot be kept from the CDA River floodwaters or from high ground waters during flooding."
Randy and Claudia Childress
Prichard, Idaho
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