Big Sky Times

It was once considered among the most contaminated sites in America.

This month, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has removed 82 of 87 acres at a Superfund site near Bozeman from its National Priorities List. It is one of 17 Superfund sites in Montana.

Superfund sites are declared when the EPA determines there is a hazard to human health and the environment. Congress created the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA) in 1980. It is popularly called Superfund, and it gives the EPA the authority to clean up a polluted area, either by mandating the responsible party do so, or by using federal dollars to pay for the project.

The ultimate goal is to return the land to productive use, and the EPA said that is the case with the site outside of Bozeman.

“The deletion of this 82-acre area from the National Priorities List reflects decades of cleanup actions, data collection, risk evaluation and public outreach conducted in coordination with the Montana Department of Environmental Quality,” EPA Regional Administrator Gregory Sopkin, who credited state and local partners with assisting the federal agency, said in a release.

Sopkin said the site will still be “actively monitored and inspected to secure public health.” In addition, a small area that remains on the NPL will continue to be treated.

“It’s totally good news,” Roger Hoogerheide, the EPA’s remedial project manager in Montana, told Big Sky News on Thursday.

State Sen. Scott Sales, R-Bozeman, who had not heard of the EPA action until he was called by Big Sky News, said it was welcome news.

“Why not? Anytime contaminated land is reclaimed and can be used for human consumption, that is good news,” Sales said Thursday.

He said there likely will be great interest in the property.

“The growth down here is phenomenal. It’s off the charts,” Sales said. “That piece of property likely has a fair amount of value because it’s fairly close to town.”

The pollution took place over more than a century, and the EPA spent more than three decades mitigating it. The site housed a five-stall Northern Pacific Railroad roundhouse and storage unit from approximately 1883-1945.

That was replaced by an Idaho Pole Co. wood-treating facility that operated from 1945-97, which caused considerable contamination. The EPA placed the land around the facility on its Superfund list in 1986 even as the company continued operations.

“That’s not an unusual thing,” Hoogerheide said.

Work started in 1992. The clean-up focused on creosote and pentachlorophenol, or PCP, which were used to preserve wood, as well as dioxins, deemed a likely carcinogen.

Working with the IPC, the federal agency removed contaminated soil and did further remedies by using indigenous microscopic organisms. A 4.5-acre soil canopy was placed over the contamination, and about 24,000 cubic yards were excavated and treated.

The cost? In the millions, Hoogerheide said. He couldn’t provide an exact total. The Idaho Pole Co. will bear all costs or will reimburse the EPA for money it spends, he said.

After years of effort, tests of surface, subsurface and saturated soils showed no risk to humans, causing the EPA to remove most of the site from the Superfund list.

A smaller area, including include groundwater, the Treated Soils Area, sediments, and saturated subsurface soils that are still deemed unsafe, will remain on the list, Hoogerheide said.

Much of the property – 65 acres – is still owned by the Idaho Pole Co., and some of that land is zoned for rural residential use.

There are homes on the northern part of the site. The wells there have been tested since 1992, Hoogerheide said, and no trace of contamination has been detected.

The issue is groundwater, he said. Hoogerheide said he wants to dismiss a popular misconception that removing the land from the Superfund list will allow development. It was never disallowed, he said. This just means clean-up work has been completed.

Some of the land north of the interstate was sold in April 2019, and storage units were considered, but that plan was abandoned, Hoogerheide said. Another 20 acres north of the highway are available for residential use, according to the WPA, as long as local zoning regulations are followed. The EPA also will place some restrictions on the property.

The Gallatin City-County Board of Health and the Gallatin Local Water Quality District have questioned the EPA’s actions.

Gallatin City-County Board of Health Director of Environmental Health Services Lori Christenson said her department wants additional information. She said the department is “trying to understand” what the EPA decision means” and is reading and studying material provided by the agency and the responses from the public and involved parties.

A big question is the redevelopment options for the area, Christenson said.

To learn more, go to https://www.epa.gov/superfund/idaho-pole.