A new Superfund health study is getting underway in Butte, and this week there’s a chance for the public to learn more about it and weigh in.
Under Butte’s Superfund cleanup agreement, the county and Atlantic Richfield Company are required to do medical monitoring every five years to see if residents are being protected from historic mining contamination.
The first public health study focused on lead, arsenic and mercury exposures and examined blood lead levels in children.
Now, it’s time to conduct the next Superfund health study and some locals are interested in working with health agencies to broaden the scope.
Steve Ackerlund, an environmental consultant with the Citizens Technical Environmental Committee, says the group wants to help figure out how to do that.
“And how can we do it in a way that achieves transparency and responds meaningfully to citizen-based concerns?” said Ackerlund.
In response, CTEC is hosting a public meeting on Tuesday night to discuss how the public can participate in the new health study, and what that process will look like going forward.
The event is co-sponsored by Butte-Silver Bow County, the Environmental Protection Agency, the state health department and Department of Environmental Quality, and Atlantic Richfield. It starts at 6 pm at the Public Archives.
For more details, click here: http://www.buttectec.org/?tribe_events=butte-health-monitoring-study-update