Butte’s Superfund cleanup entered a new phase Tuesday. Contractors for Atlantic Richfield officially started moving dirt to address historical mining contamination along Silver Bow Creek.
Construction crews started building an access road to the Grove Gulch project site, along the Silver Bow Creek Corridor in central Butte. It’s a small start, but one that officials say marks a new milestone in Butte’s cleanup. J.P. Gallagher is Chief Executive of Butte-Silver Bow.
“It’s incredibly important for our community, for them to see dirt moving and these projects starting to move forward. It’s a great day for Butte,” Gallagher said.
Cleanup on the Butte Hill has been ongoing for decades, but a large complex of sites along Silver Bow Creek have sat idle while officials negotiated and designed plans.
Grove Gulch is the first project in the complex to begin construction work. Cleanup in Butte is designed and paid for by Atlantic Richfield in consultation with state and local environmental officials. All work must be approved by the Environmental Protection Agency.
Josh Bryson, project manager for AR, said this stage represents the culmination of years of work.
“After sixteen years of negotiations and four years of design work, investigation work, it’s time. And I think it’s a crescendo to a massive effort by a lot of people that have put work into this,” Bryson said.
AR expects to finish work at Grove Gulch this winter. The company is finalizing designs for the rest of the Silver Bow Creek Corridor, and hopes to start work on those sites next spring.
