Gold Creek, a tributary to Lake Pend Oreille on the eastern shore, has a long history of mining. Several mines located along the creek have heavily impacted the water quality and resulted in contaminated soils. Remediation work was done on the Conjecture Mine in 2007 by the US Forest Service (USFS) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and restored a portion of the creek. The upstream Weber Mine tailings continued to leach elevated levels of arsenic and lead into the creek with sediments settling behind a historic timber dam. The drainage continues to support a population of Bull Trout as well as Westslope Cutthroat Trout. A partnership between the USFS, EPA, and TU was initiated to implement a project to remove the Conjecture Dam and contaminated sediments accumulated behind it, as well as the tailings from the Weber Mine alongside Gold Creek, and restore the creek above the dam.
Work was completed in 2025, beginning in July through the first week of October. The dam was removed leaving behind approximately 7.5 feet of heavily contaminated soils. Over 4,500 tons of material were removed from the 300 feet of Gold Creek upstream of the dam, and approximately 50,000 tons from the Weber Mine tailings adjacent to the creek. All of the removed materials are contained in an on-site repository. TU worked to re-construct the channel, installing rock weirs and adding wood to the creek. With all of the riparian vegetation removed, it will be some time before the canopy returns. The area will be seeded and planted in the coming year, and monitoring will be ongoing.
Project
- Reconnection, Remediation & Restoration
Partners
- The Panhandle National Forest
- The Environmental Protection Agency
Focus
- Physical Barrier & Contamination
Gold Creek's cold stream temperatures help to make it one of the most critical Bull Trout spawning streams on the Pend Oreille system, hosting around 100 redds each year.
Efforts are underway to remove a culvert on private property near to the Conjecture Mine site. This effort will close out multiple large efforts by the USFS and partners to clean up this fork of Gold Creek and reconnect the entire drainage for Bull Trout and Westslope Cutthroat Trout.
