Nora Saks: Can you explain what the difference is between the state and federal standards? It is what allowed this to finally move forward after over 30 years, right? It's not just the waiving of standards here - which are truly necessary - but it is finding the rest of what is legitimate remedy here and getting that written down. And I think this proposed plan kind of skins that cat. But the critical piece here, the part that is critical for ARCO, really, is if they don't think they can meet a standard, they don't have much incentive to keep pushing forward on good remedy measures. Joe Griffin: It's hard for the public to understand why you would ever waive standards. He retired in 2015 and now volunteers with the local Citizens Technical Environmental Committee. He was the Montana Department of Environmental Quality's project manager for this Superfund site for over a decade, a technical adviser on the Anaconda Superfund cleanup, and a consultant for Atlantic Richfield before that. To understand what this means for Butte's creeks, I sat down with hydrogeologist Joe Griffin. This "proposed plan" is the framework of the final, larger Superfund deal currently being negotiated by EPA, the state of Montana, Butte-Silver Bow County, and Atlantic Richfield, the company on the hook for most of the cleanup.Ĭentral to the plan is the proposal to waive some state water quality standards and replace them with federal ones. Last week the Environmental Protection Agency released the changes they want to make to the 2006 legal Record of Decision (ROD) which governs the Superfund cleanup of the Butte Hill and Upper Silver Bow Creek corridor.
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