A hundred years ago,Gilmore, Idaho was a thriving mining town in eastern Idaho, But once the silver played out, most people left, leaving behind a ghost town.
The mines also left behind a deadly legacy, with high levels of lead and arsenic in the soil. In some spots, the lead level is 50 times higher than what is considered safe.
Now the Idaho Departments of Environmental Quality and Health and Welfare are trying to work with local landowners to offer safety tips and to figure out the next steps. Gilmore is west of West Yellowstone and south of Salmon. Property owners do a lot of camping and recreating on their land and are worried about the safety of their land and what a cleanup might mean for the area.
DEQ is holding a public meeting Wednesday night in Idaho Falls, the third in a series of public outreach events. Kevin Kostka, the preliminary assessment program coordinator with Idaho DEQ and Drew Pendleton, a toxicologist with Health and Welfare joined Idaho Matters to talk more.
