| EPA unveils Clark Fork cleanup planBy SHERRY DEVLIN of the Missoulian The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday released its final plan for cleaning up 120 miles of the upper Clark Fork River, 99 years to the day after ranchers in the Deer Lodge Valley first sued Amalgamated Mining Co. because arsenic from its mines and smelters was killing their cattle. The $120 million cleanup, now the responsibility of Atlantic Richfield Co., calls for removal of the most contaminated soils between the headwaters of the Clark Fork near Warm Springs Creek and Milltown Reservoir just east of Missoula. Combined with the proposed removal of metals-rich sediment from Milltown Reservoir and the dismantling of its dam, the Superfund cleanup will leave the upper Clark Fork a significantly healthier river, its proponents said. "We're just deeply pleased," said Tracy Stone-Manning, executive director of the Clark Fork Coalition. "I can't think of any other river valley in the West with that kind of investment headed its way." "This is a very big day for the river," said Peter Nielsen, environmental health supervisor at Missoula's City-County Health Department. "This combined with what is going to happen at Milltown are very, very historic decisions that will transform the upper Clark Fork dramatically." "It's huge," he said. "We have a decision from the agency, and it goes a long way towards cleaning up the river." The formal record of decision calls for the removal of soils from 167 acres along the river - areas called slickens where the landscape is so polluted it is lifeless. Sandbar willows and water birches killed a century ago remain as sticks and stumps in the most contaminated places, as do the green-tinted bones of cattle and birds killed by the slugs of arsenic and heavy metals. Now, the slickens will be excavated, backfilled and revegetated. Another 700 acres of soil will be treated in place, and 56 miles of riverbank will be stabilized - so the remaining contaminants will not wash so easily into the river. Finally, the cleanup plan establishes a 50-foot riparian area on each side of the Clark Fork where native vegetation will be restored - again to lessen the effects of erosion. With so much land contaminated for so many miles, the EPA had to balance "what we could remove with what we could keep in place and treat," said Bob Fox, the agency's Superfund project manager for Montana. "We cannot remove all of the contamination," Fox said. "It is just not possible." On the upper river, in fact, Arco must remove only "the worst 5 percent" of the contamination, he said. "But we also believe the very significant work we do to stabilize streambanks will greatly reduce erosion and protect the floodplain where contamination remains." The 120-mile stretch of river is the longest Superfund site in the nation, and one of the most complicated, Fox said. Every acre is different. Much of the contamination washed downriver during a flood in 1908; the resulting pollution was not evenly distributed. "Mother Nature does not act uniformly," Fox said. The cleanup, which will begin next year and continue for a decade, will bring a more uniformly healthy - or at least livable - ecology to the upper river basin, he said. Stone-Manning said her group believes the cleanup will be "an incredible springboard for what could be the transformation of a river valley." "I think the upper Clark Fork has the potential to change what we mean by conservation," she said. "This is our opportunity to look at the economics and the health of communities along the river. "Here, we have a chance to say restoration means more than bringing fish back. It's also giving people the tools they need to stay on their land and to revitalize their communities." Ranch land will be more productive once the slickens are removed, Stone-Manning said. Communities will have a river they can look upon and market as an asset. "And what a beautiful irony for this decision to come on May 4, exactly 99 years after ranchers on the very same land first said something was wrong," she said. In the first instance, the ranchers ultimately lost their lawsuit against Amalgamated Mining - in a Montana Supreme Court decision likely influenced by the mining company's control of the government and the judiciary. In the latest instance, Stone-Manning said, she believes the ranchers will be the benefactors. Kathleen Hadley, one of the most vocal landowners and ranchers along the upper river, could not comment on the cleanup plan late Tuesday, as she hadn't yet read the 160-plus-page document. "We hope that it has done an adequate job of ensuring the rehabilitation of the ecology of the river, and that it will be sensitive to the needs of landowners," she said. "We are anxious to look at the details." The EPA did make some changes because of the 2,000 comments received on its draft cleanup plan, Fox said. Among those: more attention to weed control during the cleanup and more stabilization of a riverbank long held in place - unsuccessfully - by car bodies and rolls of bailing wire. Arco's cleanup manager did not return calls to the Missoulian on Tuesday, but has in the past expressed concern about the extent of cleanup required by the EPA. Fox said he, too, has not heard from the company - which inherited the Clark Fork cleanup when it purchased Anaconda Copper Co.'s mines and smelters in the late-1970s. "We expect Arco may not agree with our decision," Fox said. But the decision is the EPA's to make and Arco's to implement, he said. "It's good, after all these years, to finally reach the point where the uncertainty is generally past," Fox said. "We can now focus on moving forward with the best remedy that we can implement." Reporter Sherry Devlin can be reached at 523-5268 or at sdevlin@missoulian.com |