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Locals React to Butte Cleanup Decision |
October 9, 2006
Reaction to the recently released Butte Priority Soils Record of Decision (ROD) has been mixed. For Montana Public Radio, CFRTAC volunteer Pat Munday offered his preliminary assessment of the ROD. Here’s a snippet:
First, the good news: EPA will accelerate the schedule for testing and cleanup of toxic dust in our homes; and, the agency will require thorough monitoring of surface and ground water from reclaimed areas. The bad news? The notorious Parrot tailings will be left in place, where they can continue to bleed contamination into the ground water; and Arco-British Petroleum gets nearly full credit for all the work it has done to date. Much of that work involved covering up toxic mine waste – you know, cap it and fence it – and did not allow for public comment.
To read more, check out the full commentary (PDF).
Also last week, the Montana Standard reported that environmental advocate John Ray had filed a complaint with Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of the Inspector General, contending that the Montana EPA office failed to consider environmental justice issues at the Superfund site. The Standard’s article is featured below:
Ray complains about EPA cleanup
By Roberta Forsell Stauffer of The Montana Standard - 10/06/2006
Butte resident John Ray is again taking his Superfund objections to the highest levels of the federal government.
This week Ray filed a complaint with the Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of the Inspector General In Washington, D.C. He alleges that Montana’s EPA office violated the agency’s mandate to consider environmental justice issues on the Butte Priority Soils Superfund site.
He hopes his efforts will force the agency to hold off on finalizing its Record of Decision for the site until these allegations of discrimination against poor people are addressed.
Ray contends EPA ignored its obligation to reach out to low-income citizens who live within the 5-square-mile site stretching roughly from Walkerville south to Timber Butte. He believes the environmental justice mandate should have compelled officials to give special weight to the needs of poor people while crafting a cleanup plan.
He also alleges further discrimination since the particular health risks that poor people face from exposure to mine waste were not given special consideration. Ray said he’s been assigned a case number and should hear back from Washington in five to seven weeks. He also sent a formal complaint to the EPA regional office in Denver and asked Montana’s Congressional delegation to look into the issue.
In a brief phone interview Thursday, Montana EPA office Director John Wardell questioned whether environmental justice issues apply to the site.
“We’re not treating those folks (low-income residents) any differently than we’re treating any homeowner or family throughout Butte,” he said.
The decision requires that all homes and apartments in the site be tested for heavy metals and arsenic and cleaned if the toxins are getting into the living space. Even homes outside the site borders will be sampled and cleaned, if needed, and public education and outreach programs are mandated as well.
Nevertheless, Wardell said the agency is taking Ray’s complaint seriously.
“We’ve sent the complaint to the folks who are intimately familiar with the (environmental justice) program and we’ll wait to hear,” Wardell said. |
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Milltown Superfund Update from Missoula County |
October 4, 2006
From Peter Nielsen of the Missoula Valley Water Quality District comes this update on progress at the Milltown Superfund Site:
Construction work has begun at the Milltown Reservoir Superfund Site. The Reservoir is drawn down 11.25 feet below full pool elevation. Turbidity has increased noticeably in the river downstream, but water quality remains below construction limits and water quality standards.
The photo above, courtesy Gary and Judy Matson, shows the progress of work to fortify the embankments of the Interstate 90 bridges over the Blackfoot River. This work is under the direction of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Army Corps of Engineers, and is being performed by Spaulding Construction and GeoCon. Concrete is being injected underground along the base of each embankment, through a process called jet grouting. The concrete is injected in interlocking columns that go down 44 feet to bedrock. Additional work will be performed on the embankments, abutments and center piers of the Interstate and Highway 200 bridges over the coming year. This will strengthen the bridges so they can withstand the forces of a free-flowing Blackfoot River following dam removal in early 2008. The access road on the west side of the river (left) is constructed in the location where the Milltown Redevelopment Working Group has proposed a pedestrian trail be constructed following cleanup and restoration, linking the Bonner and Milltown communities with the confluence and a proposed interpretive center to be built near the current dam site.
The image above shows the confluence of the Blackfoot River (left) and Clark Fork River (right) from the bluff overlooking the dam (lower left hand corner). Note the shallow submerged sediments just upstream of the dam in the river channel. These are the sediments that are eroding and causing increased turbidity downstream. The sediments in the triangle shaped area between the two rivers are the most heavily contaminated in the reservoir, and were washed downstream from the Butte and Anaconda area during flood events, mainly the 1908 flood. These sediments have become exposed since the drawdown began in June. Vegetation, including some grasses and willows, have started to re-vegetate these sediments in the past few months. In the background of this photo, near the Interstate, construction activity conducted by Envirocon is now visible.
This image is a close-up of the Envirocon construction area. This work is known as the dewatering and bypass channel constructability test. Envirocon is installing wells and wick drains to draw water out the sediments in the area where the bypass channel will be constructed. Over the next two months Envirocon will drain and pump water from the sediments, and construct a section of the bypass channel. Pumping of water from the site is expected to begin October 16. Excavation of the bypass channel will begin by about November 1, and will remove contaminated sediments down to the native river gravels, about 20 feet below the current ground surface. Water will be discharged to the Clark Fork River, and monitored closely to ensure that water quality remains within construction limits and standards. This work will allow the company to refine the design of the bypass channel, which is scheduled to be completed within the next year. The Clark Fork River is scheduled to be diverted into the bypass channel in the fall of 2007, prior to the second reservoir drawdown which will lower the water surface an additional 6 feet. The purpose of the bypass channel is to protect the most contaminated reservoir sediments from erosion when the reservoir is drawn down and the dam removed.
About 300 to 400 logs in the Blackfoot River upstream of the former Bonner Dam will be removed from the river banks by the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation. These logs were floated down the river to the mill before roads and the railroad extended up the Blackfoot, and were collected behind the Bonner Dam, which was removed last fall. Timber crib piers in the Blackfoot River behind the mill will be removed by the Army Corps of Engineers in November and December.
EPA has replaced 13 domestic wells that were affected by the lower water table in the aquifer caused by the reservoir drawdown. The water table has dropped about 4-6 feet in Milltown and West Riverside, near the Reservoir, as compared to historical water levels when the reservoir was full. |
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Local Coverage of Opportunity’s Community Meeting On Dust Problems |
October 3, 2006
Both the Missoulian and its sister paper the Montana Standard featured coverage of a community meeting in Opportunity on the ongoing dust problem associated with the BP-ARCO repository. The meeting (PDF), organized by CFRTAC and the Opportunity Citizens Protection Association, was moderated by environmental justice advocate Lois Gibbs. CFRTAC will soon feature additional coverage. |
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September Milltown Water Quality Summary |
October 3, 2006
Water quality in the Clark Fork River below Milltown dam was monitored daily for turbidity (the “cloudiness” of the water) and weekly for suspended sediment, metals, and arsenic. Upstream sites on the Blackfoot River and on the Clark Fork at Turah were also monitored weekly for metals, arsenic, and sediment.
Starting on September 18th and continuing until the end of the month, the reservoir level was lowered by another foot and a half for a total of almost 11 feet. This drawdown was a continuation of the first drawdown that began June 1st, but was suspended in early July due to mortality of caged fish and high river temperatures.
In early September, turbidity and sediment levels below Milltown Dam remained low, along with very low river flows. Levels of dissolved metals and arsenic were also low during this period and typical of the levels usually seen in the river at this time of year. After the drawdown resumed, turbidity below the dam increased somewhat, but did not exceed 12 NTU, which is the trigger value for daily metals sampling. In the second half of September, turbidity did exceed 6 NTU several times, resulting in turbidity sampling three times per day instead of once per day. Dissolved arsenic increased slightly at both the Turah station (upstream of the dam) and at the monitoring station below the dam, and dissolved zinc increased slightly below the dam. However all arsenic and dissolved metal concentrations were well below the applicable water quality standards and warning limits throughout the month.
Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks biologists are continuing caged fish studies with the resumption of drawdown, but results are not yet available. If you see one of the cages, please don’t disturb it. This study supplies critical information for monitoring effects of the Milltown project. |
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Log Removal Planned for Blackfoot River |
October 3, 2006
More than three hundred logs will be removed the Blackfoot River bed and banks this fall, according to the Montana Department of Natural Resources & Conservation. Long submerged by the Bonner Dam, the logs began to appear after that dam was removed last fall and the subsequent drawdown of the Milltown Reservoir. “The logs pose a threat to the Milltown Dam radial gate and spillway if they were to float downstream next spring during the run-off and plug the radial gate creating both safety and operational control problems,” said Tony Liane, a DNRC spokesman. For more details, see the DNRC press release or the Missoulian’s coverage. |
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