Montana News
Lawmakers wrap up study on Smurfit-Stone cleanup
With Montana News, I'm Elinor Smith. Montana legislators are concluding a study on how the state can ensure the full cleanup of a former pulp mill just downstream of Missoula. MTPR's Austin Amastoy has the highlights. Gravel berms at the Smurfett Stone Superfund site hold back contaminated soils and waste ponds from the Clark Fork River. While community members and lawmakers want them removed, the state may not have legal authority to make that happen. That's a key takeaway from the Environmental Quality Council's draft report on the site of the former pulp mill. Some lawmakers believe the berms and series of huge waste pipes in the river are trespassing on state-owned land. But the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation says that would take years of legal action to prove. For now, the report does not make any policy recommendations for lawmakers to consider. But Council Member and State Representative Jonathan Carlin says it does show the legislature is committed to staying involved in the cleanup process. What the community is doing, I think we're getting the state to do, is to really push the EPA to say, we want a rest or a full restoration of the site in the most timely way and in the most thorough way. The EPA is conducting another round of ground sampling at Smurfett Stone. The results from its study will determine how the agency chooses to clean up the site, a decision that may not come until 2028. Reporting in Missoula, I'm Austin Amastoy.