The settlement clears the way for a full-scale restoration of the watershed, where the mining industry brought economic wealth and environmental ruin to southwestern Montana starting in the 19th century.
The agreement was announced Thursday by Gov. Brian Schweitzer, Montana Attorney General Mike McGrath and officials from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Department of Justice. It ends a 25-year legal battle between the state and Arco, although some federal claims against the company are still being negotiated.
The $168 million is part of a $187 million agreement that includes Arco making payments to the federal government for environmental restoration in Montana.
A number of cleanup projects in the upper Clark Fork already are under way, largely funded by an earlier $230 million settlement with Arco.
The latest settlement covers 120 miles of the river and nearby lands from Butte to Milltown Dam east of Missoula, where heavy metals from mining and smelting have harmed the aquifer, soils, streambed, fish, plants and wildlife habitat.
Agency officials and conservationists hailed the settlement as a major step in the river's rebirth.
“It's a historic day,” McGrath said. “It's the culmination of everything we've been working for.”
Matt Clifford, conservation director for the nonprofit Clark Fork Coalition, said the river's cleanup will set a national example.
“No one's ever put a river back together on this kind of scale,” Clifford said. “It's a one-of-a-kind project.”
Wayne Hadley, a Deer Lodge Valley resident and longtime advocate for the Clark Fork, said the settlement will go a long way toward helping the watershed's ecosystem.
But he said it isn't clear whether the $187 million will be enough to complete the job, how the funds will be allocated and whether the public will be involved early in the decision-making.
“I'm glad there's finally some resolution, but the work is just starting,” Hadley said.
Arco is responsible for the cleanup because of its 1979 merger with the Anaconda Mining Co., which was established in 1891 and came to symbolize Montana's mining industry.
The state sued Arco in 1983 under Superfund laws, and the EPA filed another lawsuit in 1989 to establish Arco's liability for cleaning up the basin.
Under settlement agreements in 1999, the state established a watershed restoration fund with funds from Arco. To date, interest from the $130 million fund has financed 74 grant projects worth about $55 million, while the fund balance has grown to about $160 million.
Under the latest settlement, the principal and interest from the restoration fund will be used to improve the basin's fish and wildlife habitat, recreation opportunities and drinking water supplies.
The settlement resolves natural resource damage claims for three sites: the mountains around Anaconda, the Silver Bow Creek area near Butte and the upper Clark Fork River and floodplain between Warm Springs Ponds and Milltown Dam.
The settlement provides $13.2 million for the Anaconda area, where nearly 18 square miles were poisoned by smelter emissions.
Another $28.1 million will go to the Butte area, where mining wastes have contaminated the surface water and groundwater.
Another $26.7 million goes to the upper Clark Fork River, where mine and smelter wastes washed downstream during high water, damaging both the river and its floodplain.
The state, which will be reimbursed $4.5 million for its technical and litigation costs, also will receive about $95 million for environmental remediation of the upper Clark Fork River.
The cleanup will take 12 years and be led by the Montana Department of Environmental Quality, with EPA oversight.
The settlement also provides funding to clean up contamination at the National Park Service's Grant-Kohrs Ranch along the Clark Fork River in Deer Lodge.
In a statement released by Atlantic Richfield, regional manager Robin Bullock said the settlement is “a major step toward completing the Superfund process in the Clark Fork River Basin.”
Meanwhile, work continues on the Milltown Reservoir Superfund project, which includes removing contaminated sediment, demolishing the dam and restoring the natural flows of the Clark Fork and Blackfoot rivers.
The $100 million Superfund project, which is funded mostly by Arco under a 2005 consent decree, is scheduled for completion in 2011.
Reporter John Cramer can be reached at 523-5259 or johncramer@missoulian.com
On the Net
For more information about the settlement announced Thursday for the upper Clark Fork River Basin go to doj.mt.gov/lands/naturalresource
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