Priority setting in Idaho's Coeur d'Alene Basin

摘要

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Region 10 is in the process of developing a comprehensive cleanup plan in the Upper Basin of the South Fork Coeur d'Alene River. The cleanup is a complex project addressing widespread contamination from over a hundred years of mining activity of multiple constituents over a broad geographical area in hundreds of locations affecting land and water, with significant uncertainty and many stakeholders. This paper reports on the approach EPA is using to make decisions and prioritize actions for this project, which includes three main elements: 1). the adaptive management paradigm, in which future actions are refined based on what is learned from initial actions; 2). a Multi-attribute Utility Model (MAU) which prioritizes actions in accordance with multiple objectives; and 3). a predictive analysis to estimate water quality goals at a distant point after remedial actions are taken.