Excerpt from the Helena Independent Record, April 12, 2018. Read the full article here.
The reshaped Prickly Pear Creek flows through former Asarco property beneath the East Helena slag pile. Officials with the Montana Environmental Trust Group and EPA propose capping the slag pile in place as part of their final cleanup plan. Thom Bridge, Independent Record.
The environmental trust group charged with cleanup of the former East Helena smelter site proposed building a cap over the East Helena slag pile to prevent storm water from spreading contamination as its final major step in remediating the site at an open house in East Helena Wednesday.
The Montana Environmental Trust Group and Environmental Protection Agency presented a draft of its final cleanup plan, called a corrective measures study. The document, which is open for public comment, incorporates remediation and protective actions completed to date with remaining work the trust proposes.
In 1998, a century of contamination at the East Helena lead smelter site and other facilities resulted in a multimillion dollar settlement between Asarco and the EPA for violations of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) and the Clean Water Act. The smelter closed in 2001, and after later declaring bankruptcy, Asarco placed about $96 million in a trust managed by the Montana Environmental Trust Group. The state of Montana is a beneficiary in the trust via the Montana Department of Environmental Quality and the Montana Department of Justice, along with the EPA.
The trust controls both the smelter site and Asarco-owned lands in the area. Contamination includes arsenic and selenium in soils at the site that have caused groundwater plumes and levels above safe drinking water standards.
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Lauri Gorton, East Helena director of environmental programs for the trust, detailed the administrative side of the cleanup, with the trust needing EPA approval on its final plan. With a finite amount of funding – about $50 million remaining – measures are designed to minimize the need for future work.
“These things work on their own and are sustainable over time,” she said.