Pat Munday - May 15, 2008
Clark Fork Technical Assistance Committee
Silver Bow Creek, Opportunity, and Connectedness
Hi, I’m Pat Munday, with the Clark Fork River Technical Assistance Committee.
Springtime in the Rockies is especially slow and faltering this year. As I look out my window from the mile high city of Butte, a snow squall is blowing. The bluebirds looked mighty hungry this morning, and elk are late moving to their calving range.
There’s plenty to do inside, though, such as read through hundreds of pages of monitoring reports on Silver Bow Creek—that little stream that flows from Butte at the headwaters of the Clark Fork River.
Thanks to Montana’s Natural Resource Damage Program, the Department of Environmental Quality is spending several million dollars per mile to cleanup and restore 24 miles of Silver Bow Creek. The flood plain is dredged to remove stream sediments high in arsenic and toxic heavy metals, the stream is reconstructed, clean soil is spread along the corridor, and the area is revegetated.
Initially, when we heard about the recontamination of Silver Bow Creek, we thought it might be an ephemeral problem stemming from recent work along Butte’s old Metro Storm Drain.
Data show, however, that this recontamination has been occurring since monitoring began in 2002. Contaminant levels are far higher than threshold levels for impairment of aquatic life. For example, the threshold for copper in sediments is about thirty parts per million. Contamination levels routinely exceed the threshold by a factor of ten, and occasionally by a factor of one hundred. Geez, if Denny Washington hears about this, he’ll start mining Silver Bow Creek!
After five years of reports confirming recontamination, you’d think DEQ and EPA would so something. Data indicate that recontamination is steadily occurring. Yet, each year, the recommendation is the same: collect more data; try to identify the source; wait and see.
What, exactly, are we waiting for? We know that under remedy many sources of contamination on the Butte hill will remain. Furthermore, completing that remedy is some years in the future. Finally, a solution to this recontamination problem is already on the table: EPA included treatment ponds as an option in the Butte hill remedy. Let’s build that treatment facility now, and stop the madness.
Every clean up has its price: sometimes in dollars and sometimes in human terms. With the clean up of Silver Bow Creek, Milltown, and other Superfund sites in the Upper Clark, let’s not forget where all that toxic mine waste goes. No, it doesn’t magically disappear.
It all goes to the vast Arco-British Petroleum waste repository near the town of Opportunity. Charlie Coleman of the EPA conducted a group tour of CFRTAC and Opportunity activists on the repository last week. It was formerly known as the Opportunity Ponds, and for many years the Anaconda Copper Mining Company dumped waste there from its Anaconda smelter.
It’s a big site: four thousand acres; more than six square miles. To date, the Arco-BP waste repository has been a big problem for nearby residents. Much of the waste was so phytotoxic that it would not support ground cover. Arsenic and heavy metals were carried off by wind and water erosion. Huge dust storms still occasionally engulf the town of Opportunity.
The day we visited, Arco-BP’s waste repository was a beehive of activity. Dennis Washington’s Montana Rail Link hauls waste by the trainload from Milltown, and Washington’s EnviroCon company spreads this waste as topsoil and undertakes revegetation. The 2.2 million cubic yards from Milltown – that’s about a million pickup loads – will cover a third of the waste repository.
Much of the waste repository has already been revegetated using contaminated soils from Silver Bow Creek. For the most part, the vegetative standard of 30% ground cover appears to have been met. Some areas are pretty sparse, and if necessary will receive additional topsoil and reseeding.
Hopefully, this vegetative cover will end the dust storms, erosion, and further contamination of the groundwater aquifer.
Opportunity is a beautiful little town, and residents worry about being so close to a corporate waste dump. Some are more than a little skeptical about EPA assurances that this toxic waste in their backyard will be safely contained. They also do not trust EPA assurances that the arsenic action level of 250 parts per million is safe. Ninety Opportunity residents recently filed a lawsuit against Arco-British Petroleum, claiming that the corporation has “recklessly jeopardized their property, health, and welfare.”
The lesson here is that in Superfund, as in all things, we are connected. What happens along Silver Bow Creek will affect the Clark Fork River, and what happens at Milltown will affect the town of Opportunity. Let us all praise the Milltown Dam removal and cleanup, but let us also support Opportunity in its quest for environmental justice.
For more news about the recontamination of Silver Bow Creek, the Arco-British Petroleum waste repository, and other Superfund issues, please check out CFRTAC’s website at hyperlink www.cfrtac.org.
From Butte to Missoula, we deserve a clean, healthy, and accessible Clark Fork River. It’s your river. Wade in, and help make the future. Thank you, and good night.
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