For years, the EPA has agreed with mining officials
that toxic sediments stuck behind the Milltown Dam on the Clark
Fork River near Missoula, Mont., were best left alone. But when
polluted waters escaped from the dam in February, they killed fish
and energized activists, who renewed their call for the agency to
remove the mine wastes.
Following the fish kill,
tests by Missoula’s Health Department found greatly elevated levels
of copper, zinc and arsenic in the once-dammed waters. Metals in
the Milltown Reservoir were accumulated during more than a century
of mining and smeltering upstream, in Butte and Anaconda
(HCN,10/30/95).
But EPA officials haven’t changed
their position. They said removing the contaminated sediment is
still not worth the money, a conclusion shared by Atlantic
Richfield Co., which now owns the site. Instead, the agency wants
to dig monitoring wells to track the plume of pollution as it moves
past the dam. The wells would signal EPA when to tell people their
drinking water was becoming contaminated.
* Mark
Matthews
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Fish kill doesn’t sway the EPA.
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