The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said it has four “significant concerns” over Montana’s updated plan for cleanup on the upper Clark Fork River. The agency said the plan may not be fully protective of human health and the environment.
The state is running out of money to pay for remediation, prompting the revision last spring. It streamlines the cleanup, but leaves more waste in place along the river’s floodplain. The updated plan was created by the Montana Department of Environmental Quality and the Natural Resource Damage Program.
The EPA shared its concerns with the updated plan with state agencies in May, and published them last month. The agency said the state’s plan to leave more waste in place “may not be fully protective” of human health and the environment. They add that there is not a ‘clear indication’ of how the remaining budget will be spent.
The state’s environmental quality department refutes that analysis. Officials said they’re confident the remaining budget is enough to finish the cleanup at the EPA’s standards and that they’re willing to meet with EPA “to explain and clarify” spending thus far.
Cleanup work is focused on a 43-mile stretch of the river, from Warm Springs to Garrison, which was contaminated with mine waste in a massive 1908 flood. Funding comes from a 2008 settlement with Atlantic Richfield.
The state will hold a public meeting on the cleanup on November 15 in Deer Lodge.
