SUPERFUND and Mining Megasites.

The article focuses on the efforts of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Superfund program in addressing the contamination of the Coeur d'Alene River Basin in northern Idaho caused by the upstream disposal of mine tailings. It is stated that cleaning up the basin was a major challenge of the agency. This is due to the wide distribution of waste materials that prevented remediation with traditional cleanup approaches. The adaptive management (AM) was proposed, yet it is claimed that the approach appeared to provide less certainty about the outcome of remediation. As stated, development of appropriate management structures, stable financing and AM would provide improvement over approaches to achieve cleanup of mining megasites. INSET: Mining and contamination in the Coeur d'Alene River Basin.