The U.S. Forest Service has determined that wildfire risk around Butte’s main water treatment facility is serious enough to warrant emergency action. Agency crews will begin mitigation work immediately.
U.S. Forest Service Chief Randy Moore on July 19 signed off on emergency actions to guard against wildfire threats to a treatment facility that supplies 60% of Butte’s drinking water.
The Basin Creek-Butte Watershed Project is moving forward after years of discussion to clean up thousands of acres of deadfall caused by beetle kill around the Basin Creek reservoir.
“I think we’re already living on borrowed time,” Moore said. “It’s urgent that we get in there as soon as possible to protect this water supply.”
Jim Keenan, water plant superintendent for Butte-Silver Bow, said a large fire in the watershed would produce a ton of ash and sediment that would overwhelm the treatment plant.
“We’re concerned it might take a decade or more for the watershed to recover to the point where we’d be able to get water through the Basin Creek supply,” Keenan said.
County and state crews have been clearing deadfall from locally owned areas in the watershed, but the vast majority of land in the project area is controlled by the Forest Service.
The agency found no significant environmental impact of removing the beetle-killed trees and, with the emergency approval given by the head of the Forest Service, work will begin now instead of later this year.
