Scientists and community members say they’re excited to work with the Environmental Protection Agency to outline a new round of sampling for toxins at a Superfund site near Missoula.
About 40 scientists, government officials and citizens met in Frenchtown to discuss the investigation into the contaminated grounds of the former Smurfit-Stone pulp mill 12 miles west of Missoula. The site’s EPA project manager, Allie Archer, confirmed the agency is planning another round of sampling.
“This is the time to address community concerns,” Archer said. “It’s one of the nine criteria of a final cleanup decision, so we’re going to make sure we do that to our best ability.”
Missoula county scientists and residents have pushed the EPA to conduct additional sampling at the site since 2016. They’ve said the agency hasn’t done enough to detect cancer-causing chemicals in the soil and groundwater. Berms at the site hold back hundreds of acres of unlined waste ponds from the Clark Fork River.
Archer told attendees the new sampling would push back the investigation’s final report, potentially to 2025. She added the EPA would do its best to work “expeditiously” through the process.
Smurfit-Stone cleanup advocate Jeri Delys said she’s fine with waiting. “We don’t want to leave any stone unturned,” Delys said. “And, we felt like additional sampling was necessary.”
Archer said the EPA would meet with stakeholders soon after the meeting to reach an agreement on the scope and scale of the new sampling.
Separately, a coalition of state agencies and private nonprofits are set to begin sampling fish from Silver Bow Creek to St. Regis this spring. It’s an attempt to determine the source of pollutants that led Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks to issue a do-not-consume advisory on a stretch of the Clark Fork River nearly a decade ago. The agency says it may have results from that study by early 2024.
