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Butte residents sound-off on EPA lead cleanup proposal

The Environmental Protection Agency last month proposed to increase cleanup of residential lead contamination in Butte. At a public meeting Monday, residents welcomed the change but expressed concern at the agency’s decades-long timeline for the cleanup.

EPA’s plan lowers the amount of lead contamination necessary to trigger a free cleanup and makes more than 7,000 new homes eligible for remediation. The agency expects the additional cleanups will take 35 years to complete.

EPA site managers Monday heard public comment on the plan. Most speakers urged the agency to speed the process up, including Bill Foley, a longtime local broadcaster.

“It’s already too late for me, I’m probably damaged by lead. Sadly it’s probably too late for my kids. With the way this plan is laid out, with the timeline, it means it might be too late for my grandkids as well, and they’re not even born yet,” said Foley.

Lead contamination in Butte is the result of a century of mining and smelting activity in the 19th and 20th centuries. Buttians have long expressed concern over the pace and protectiveness of the town’s cleanup, which began in the 1980s.

EPA managers did not take questions or provide responses to comments at the meeting. An agency spokesperson said it would provide responses in writing after the public comment period ends on February 14th.

If you don’t know Butte Montana, you might have heard it’s one of the biggest toxic messes in the country. But now the “Mining City” is on the verge of sealing a deal that could clean it up once and for all. So how did we get here? What comes after Superfund? And who gets to decide?

John joined the Montana Public Radio team in August 2022. Born and raised in Helena, he graduated from the University of Montana’s School of Media Arts and created the Montana history podcast Land Grab. John can be contacted at john.hooks@umt.edu
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