Archive for category: East Helena News

The Montana Environmental Trust Group (METG), Trustee of the Montana Environmental Custodial Trust, is moving forward with cleanup of the former Asarco smelter.  METG’s progress is visible on the west side of Highway 518 in East Helena where construction workers can be seen operating excavators, cranes, trucks and other heavy equipment.  Work underway on the so-called “East Bench” – the area between Prickly Pear Creek (PPC) and Highway 518 south of Highway 12 – is one part of a series of inter-related, EPA-approved cleanup plans (called Interim Measures or IMs).  These IMs are designed to reduce the offsite migration of contaminants in groundwater resulting from more than a century of smelting activities at the former Asarco facility.

Contaminated soils in direct contact with groundwater beneath the smelter site contribute to the contaminant plumes migrating off-site.  Because it is not technically or financially possible to remove all the waste that is contaminating groundwater, the cleanup plans focus on “getting the waste out of the water.”  Surface water from PPC and the manmade Upper and Lower Lakes raises groundwater levels in the south plant area, which increases the loading of contaminants to groundwater and pushes plumes of contamination offsite.  The cleanup plan is designed to reduce surface water recharge from Upper Lake, Lower Lake and PPC to groundwater at the south end of the site and is referred to as the “South Plant Hydraulic Control (SPHC) Interim Measure (or SPHC IM).”  To lower groundwater levels and reduce this recharge from the south plant area, SPHC IM entails draining the water from the lakes and realigning PPC to the east away from the south plant area.

East Bench construction activities are paving the way for realignment of PPC, which is the centerpiece of the SPHC IM.  Beginning in May, utilities were moved from the area where the realigned PPC will be constructed.  Working with NorthWestern Energy and CenturyLink, existing power distribution lines and telecommunications cables were moved to a utility corridor along Highway 518.  Partnering with the City of East Helena, METG also installed a new City waterline to replace the existing East Bench waterline.  At the City’s request, METG upgraded the waterline to allow the City to improve and expand its water service.

METG began construction of the PPC Temporary Bypass Channel in early July.  The purpose of this channel is to temporarily divert PPC flows away from the south plant area to drain water from Upper and Lower Lakes.  The PPC Temporary Bypass Channel consists of a low flow channel and a larger floodplain channel.  Material excavated from the PPC Temporary Bypass Channel will eventually be used as part of a capping system to be installed on the former smelter property.  After Upper and Lower Lakes are dry, the Upper Lake berm and diversion structure will be removed.  With the Temporary Bypass Channel in operation, the realigned PPC can be constructed, PPC flows can be directed into the realigned PPC and Smelter Dam can be removed.  (Smelter Dam and other PPC structures, which have not been maintained, could fail and potentially cause downstream flooding.)  The PPC Temporary Bypass Channel may be retained as an overflow channel while the realigned PPC stabilizes in the new creek bed after which the channel can be reclaimed and integrated into the PPC realignment.  The PPC Temporary Bypass Channel is slated to be operational this fall.  Remaining work on the creek will be implemented in the next two to three years.

Implementation of SPHC IM, including PPC realignment, will significantly reduce the loading of contaminants to groundwater.  Realignment of PPC will also create numerous other benefits, including: reduced erosion of slag into PPC; increased flood storage; enhanced creek habitat; and elimination of the major impediment to fish passage on PPC by removal of Smelter Dam.  Construction of the PPC Temporary Bypass Channel represents a critical first step in the realizing these important environmental and community events.

For more information please contact Cindy Brooks, Director of Remediation and Redevelopment for the Montana Environmental Custodial Trust, by email at cb@g-etg.com or by telephone at 617-448-9762.

Download this press release as a PDF

EAST HELENA, MONTANA— Residents and commuters driving on State Highway 12 or Smelter Road near the American Chemet facility should take one last look at the former Asarco Ore Storage and Handling Building (OSHB). That’s because the massive pre-cast concrete structure—bigger than a football field and more than six stories high—is coming down. “Barring weather delays, demolition of the OSHB is slated to begin on April 8th,” according to Cindy Brooks, head of the Montana Environmental Custodial Trust, the Trustee that assumed responsibility for cleanup of the Asarco 2009. Under oversight of the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Montana Trust is poised to begin construction of several measures designed to address groundwater and soil contamination resulting from a century of smelting operations. In the coming weeks, the Montana Trust also plans to remove other buildings near the OSHB, including the two green-and-yellow fabric structures—dubbed the “Barnham and Bailey” buildings because they resemble large circus tents. EPA and the Montana Trust are seeking to recycle and salvage as much material as possible from the planned demolition activities.

According to Betsy Burns, EPA Cleanup Manager for East Helena, “It’s gratifying to see demolition move forward after several years of planning and studies. This work represents an important step in the clean up the former Asarco smelter.” EPA and the Montana Trust hope to remove the remaining on-site structures by the end of next year, leaving the 14-million ton slag pile as one of the last visible remnants of the Asarco smelter. Burns also advised that, “Folks may see construction on the western side of State Highway 518 just east of Prickly Pear Creek where power, telephone and water lines will be relocated to make way for construction of the temporary bypass channel for the section of the creek below smelter dam.” The Montana Trust has been working closely with the City of East Helena, NorthWestern Energy and Century Link on these utility projects.

The OSHB is the largest and newest building on the smelter property. In its heyday, the Asarco smelter produced lead bullion from diverse concentrates and ores from mines and facilities all over the world. In 1988 alone, Asarco received more than 200,000 tons of such raw materials—delivered by rail or truck, offloaded, stored in piles and then blended and mixed with fluxes to render them suitable for smelting. Before the OSHB was constructed in 1990, these operations took place in the outdoor storage yard or in a small, unventilated building, which generated significant, uncontrolled dust. The OSHB was designed to enclose and ventilate these operations in order to control dust emissions. The useful life of this behemoth structure was cut short after little more than a decade, when the smelter was shutdown in 2001.

The Montana Trust assumed ownership, management, cleanup and redevelopment responsibility for the ASARCO sites in Montana, including the former East Helena smelter, when the ASARCO bankruptcy was settled in December of 2009. The Montana Trust is cleaning up the East Helena site under the oversight of EPA as Lead Agency. Other Montana Trust sites include former ASARCO mines in Lincoln, Phillipsburg and Superior. The United States and the State of Montana are the beneficiaries of the Montana Trust.