Silver Bow Kiwanis Kiwanis Club Meeting, Sep 13, '11

12:00-1:00 Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Adriana from the Circle K joined us again for our meeting this week.

Jack thanked people for their help with the cleanup last Saturday. This time we had trucks going around to collect the trash through the cleanup site and deliver it to the corral at the city maintenance office so the city didn't have to try to find all of it along the streets.

Keith reminded us that we have another home football game in two weeks (on September 24) and will need people to tear tickets. With the three gates, we really need more than three people to help out, and this next game is homecoming, and it's a Carroll game, so it should be busy!

Then Tim introduced Matt Vincent who talked about the use of superfund restoration money. Much of this money is from various settlements with the Anaconda Company, ARCo, and others with either the City of Butte, the State of Montana, or class actions taken by Butte and Anaconda citizens.

Matt introduced us to Governor Schweitzer's recommendation for a plan going forward for distribution of the funds. Some of this money is dependent on an upcoming evaluation by Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks to prioritize particular drainages for reclamation or restoration, but much of the money is available now for work.

The restoration and reclamation work in the area provides around 700 good jobs in this region - about twice what the current mining operation provides.

The reclamation and restoration projects are divided into three different categories: Groundwater Resources, Terrestrial Resources, and Aquatic Resources. Part of this restoration includes recreational projects such as a fishing pond and the trail system because part of the settlement from the several suits was for loss of recreational use of public lands due to toxins.

The Anaconda Company was mostly operating in an era when there were few to no environmental laws, so their activities were not criminal at that time, but when the Superfund law was passed, groups and governments were able to hold businesses liable for damages that had been caused prior to that time.

There is currently over $60,000,000 in groundwater reclamation for "Area 1," which is the Parrot Tailings through the Colorado Tailings along Silver Bow Creek.

The National Resource Damage program (NRDP) is looking for comments and feedback on the current proposal before 5:00pm on October 11, 2011. Please send your comments to:
P.O. Box 201425
Helena, MT 59620
or by FAX to:
406 444 0236
or by email to:
nrdp@mt.gov

If you have questions about the proposal, you can send them to Matt Vincent at mvincent@mtech.edu

Presentation

Matt Vincent, Superfund

Menu

Country Club Melt with Fries

Attendees

17

Event Updated

2:34 Tuesday, September 13, 2011