By SHERRY DEVLIN of the Missoulian

Thursday, February 22, 2001

Two Rivers proposal would return Milltown Dam area to its free-flowing state

Gary Lacy wants boaters and bikers - and motorists on Interstate 90 - to come upon the confluence of the Blackfoot and Clark Fork rivers and imagine they're witnessing a convergence of land and water shaped by nature for a thousand years.

"No straight lines," said Lacy, a recreation planner and engineer. "No uniform, engineered look."

Which is, of course, what the rivers are - straight and uniform - after a century of engineering. Milltown Dam has blocked both courses since 1908, widening and slowing the channels. Construction of Interstate 90 did the straightening in the mid-1960s, forcing the Clark Fork to parallel the highway's line. Towns and subdivisions did the rest.

Now Lacy and others - most notably, the Missoula County commissioners - have proposed another change: the Two Rivers Restoration and Development Project.

"Really, in the simplest terms, this project would bring the rivers back into what I would characterize as a natural-appearing whitewater stretch that is attractive for all the reasons why people like rivers," said Lacy. "There would be deep pools for fishing and paddling, random large boulders for fish habitat, gradual bank access, waves and drops and white water."

"When we were done, people would come to Milltown and not realize that heavy equipment had made this piece of river," he said. "They would think it's been like that for a thousand years."

The proposal, preliminary and just beginning to make the rounds at civic-group lunches, is the brainchild of Peter Nielsen, an environmental health supervisor at the Missoula County-County Health Department and a longtime river recreationist.

"My perception is that folks have a pretty good idea of what they have today," he said. "But they don't have a very good vision of what they might have if Milltown Dam and the sediments in its pond were removed. That's one reason we've done this - to show folks another potential vision for the future.

"We believe that by removing the dam and sediments, we can have all the things that people have imagined for Bonner and Milltown - and also more wetlands, more wildlife values, more recreational values, less impacts on the river fishery and the natural environment, cleaner ground water, a cleaner river and better preservation of the area's history," Nielsen said. "That's what the Two Rivers Restoration and Development Project is about - two rivers, restored."

 

Milltown Reservoir was the state of Montana's first Superfund cleanup site, designated after a Missoula County sanitarian found arsenic in the drinking water of 37 homes. The problem is on the bottom of the pond, where 6.6 million cubic yards of sediments are contaminated with wastes washed down the Clark Fork River from copper mines and smelters in Butte and Anaconda.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency believes the reservoir sediments contain 2,100 tons of arsenic, 13,100 tons of copper, 1,700 tons of lead, 19,000 tons of zinc and 70 tons of cadmium.

Most of the contamination likely washed into the reservoir during a flood in 1908, not long after Milltown Dam was built. In the years since, it has created a litany of problems.

"We have ground water that is heavily contaminated," said Nielsen. "We have surface water that's periodically heavily contaminated and that causes severe damage to fisheries. We've got a structure that blocks fish passage upstream. There's no way fish can get through that dam unless Fish, Wildlife and Parks picks them up and puts them in pickup trucks and drives them somewhere. Milltown Reservoir provides habitat for predatory, non-native pike. It's a breeding center that is going to cause damage not only in this area, but in waters upstream and downstream."

For 17 years since Milltown found its way onto the federal government's pollution-cleanup list, there has been no cleanup. The EPA dug a new - safe - drinking-water well for Milltown residents. But the aquifer below their homes remains unhealthy. "Nothing has changed," said Nielsen.

About a year ago, though, things started to happen and talk turned to what might be possible if Milltown Dam were removed, and with it the toxic sediments.

"When we started to look seriously at dam removal, it became clear that if you remove the dam and sediments, you lower the stream - and both the Blackfoot and the Clark Fork would seek new grades upstream," Nielsen said. Left untouched, the streams would quickly erode steeper channels, potentially undermining bridges and highways.

Someone needed to engineer a solution.

First came the Army Corps of Engineers, with a $2 million proposal to build concrete, stair-step drop structures in both rivers. "They were functional," Nielsen said, "but unsightly. And they were safety hazards. I thought we could do better than that and create something, perhaps even at less cost, that was an asset to the community."

He started calling other communities in the West known for their river restoration work. Denver and Salida, in Colorado, on the South Platte and Arkansas rivers. In Steamboat Springs, on the Yampa River. In Durango, on the Animas River. Everywhere he called, people said he needed to talk to Gary Lacy.

 

For 22 years, Lacy - through his Recreation Engineering and Planning company - has been in the business of river restoration, whitewater-park design, boating safety and riverside greenways and trails. He lives in Boulder, Colo., on Boulder Creek. He's been kayaking since he was 4 years old, and has been a whitewater competitor on two national teams.

"One of the reasons I love this business is that every river is different," Lacy said in a telephone interview earlier this week. "Every stretch of river is different. But Milltown is probably the most unique project that I've seen. You've got the confluence of two major rivers. You've got a pretty high existing dam. And the Superfund cleanup. It's a real interesting area."

At Nielsen's request, Lacy designed a possible whitewater park for 1,800 feet of the Blackfoot and Clark Fork rivers, starting at Milltown Dam and working back upstream. His re-engineered river would drop and bend. Boulders 6 to 8 feet in size would be grounded in place in the rivers and on their banks. "Drop structures" would be safely hidden below the surface of the water, giving the river its new, post-dam gradient.

A piece of the dam would, in fact, remain - again, to help create the whitewater that kayakers and floaters seek out. The Milltown powerhouse would also remain, providing space for a possible museum. There would be places for spectators to watch boaters make their way through the waves, and trails for hiking and biking.

The Kim Williams Trail would extend its reach from Missoula, through Hellgate Canyon and across the Clark Fork River. Hiking trails would give the public access to newly restored wetlands on the northeast side of the Clark Fork. There could be an amphitheater, an interpretive center for visiting school groups, and an expanded equestrian park.

"There are just so many possibilities," said Stan Zimet, whose OZ Architects took all the ideas offered by Lacy, Nielsen and Bonner community groups and produced a preliminary site plan. "It's a big, big piece of land, so I'm sure there are going to be lots of other ideas. We're just providing the starting point for what the river might look like without a dam."

"It's not too difficult for people to imagine, because the end product should look like a natural river," Zimet said. "Like nobody had touched it before. It's not hard to imagine a meandering river. I am so encouraged about the upswell of support for looking at what might be."

"And I don't want the talk about kayaking to overshadow the possibility of cleaning up an EPA Superfund site," he said. "That's the primary thing. Everything else flows from the cleanup."

But the side benefits, Zimet said, "could be really great."

"I'm really excited about it actually," said Missoula County Commissioner Bill Carey. "We have an opportunity to create a beautiful park and an economic development project that would mean numerous businesses starting up and eventually expanding and putting people to work outdoors."

Lacy's seen it happen all over the West.

"These whitewater parks have caught on, just as the sport has," he said. "Most people are short on time and want recreation that's close to home. These parks give people a place where they can literally go out their back door and paddle, surf and practice their skills. And they can - if a community wants - attract lots of boaters and big events."

In Salida, Colo., where work began last week on a whitewater park on the Arkansas River, water-based recreation is a $55 million business. More than 300,000 people took commercial raft trips down the Arkansas last summer. Salida hosts the nation's oldest whitewater festival - the FIBARK kayaking race.

By restoring the Arkansas as it flows through Salida, the town can do a better job of capturing some of those boaters - and their money, said Michael Harvey, executive director of the Arkansas River Trust. "What Gary Lacy has done elsewhere is, he has taken these parks and turned them into real centerpieces. We want that for Salida. We want people out on our beautiful, world-class river."

"All these years, Salida really turned its back to the river," Harvey said. "One bank is privately owned with commercial property, and the other is owned by Union Pacific Railroad. We haven't even had good public access.

"Now we want to highlight our river by doing trails and cleaning up the banks and gaining easements - and enhancing the river's natural features. It's more than a place for kayakers to play. This is an attraction, an asset that we have. It's good for the environment, but also socially, culturally and economically. It makes good economic sense."

"I'm hoping for even a percentage of the success that other cities have reported," said Joe Deschamp, the environmental business manager for BP Amoco in Casper, Wyo., where a Lacy-designed whitewater park is part of a refinery cleanup and redevelopment.

Amoco closed its Casper refinery in 1991, and has since entered into a land-reuse agreement with the city. As at Milltown, the proposal begins with environmental restoration, but also includes a golf course, bike paths, walking paths, a natural area, developed parks, light business development alongside the golf course - and a mile of the North Platte River.

The river, Deschamp said, runs through the middle of the old refinery property. By engineering a whitewater park, Lacy was able to solve some of BP Amoco's technical cleanup problems, while also making the river course safer - and more fun - for boaters.

"The whitewater park that Gary Lacy built in Golden, Colo., is a $2 million a year positive cash flow to the community," said Gary VanZandt, the Casper kayaker who went to BP Amoco with the whitewater-park plan. "I think our park is going to turn out to be a good thing for everybody.

"When the refinery shut down, we lost a lot of good-paying jobs. We lost two refineries about then, and the oil industry went on its nose. There were a lot of empty houses in town. We're trying to take a negative situation of an old industrial site and turn it into a positive thing for the community. And it looks like we may succeed."

 

Lacy won't even answer questions about whether the Two Rivers Restoration and Development Project is "do-able."

"Because that's not a question," he said. "This is just such a great opportunity. The historical aspect is something very new and different for us. It's really a plus for the Two Rivers site."

"There are a lot of reasons why these parks have been popular with communities," Lacy said. "Some are just fish habitat. Some are absolutely intended to bring in boaters and big-time events. Some are beautification and environmental restoration. Some bring a community back to its river. The great thing is, you get all those benefits from just about every project - and definitely from the Two Rivers project."

The proposal does, however, require removal of Milltown Dam and its reservoir - which is opposed by Arco Environmental and Montana Power Co., the companies responsible for the costs. The Bonner Development Group also has supported retention of the dam and reservoir, and its director - Bruce Hall - has turned down invitations to meet with Nielsen and the commissoners about the Two Rivers idea. He also did not answer telephone calls this week from the Missoulian.

But everywhere else they've gone, county officials have seen smiles on faces when they unroll the Two Rivers map.

"The exciting thing is the prospect of restoring a couple of miles at the confluence of the Clark Fork and Blackfoot rivers," said Brian Maiorano, Missoula County's floodplain administrator. "They are in an incredibly altered state right now. To restore them to naturally functioning rivers would be amazing - for fisheries and wildlife and wetlands and recreation."

Imagine the Blackfoot River at Bonner looking like the Blackfoot River at Marco Flats, Maiorano said. "Imagine floating from Marco Flats all the way to downtown Missoula."

Imagine another 50 acres of wetlands, he said, and the attendant diversity of waterfowl, wildlife and amphibians. "Functioning rivers and riverine wetlands," he said.

"From the preliminary data we've looked at, this type of restoration would be very feasible," Maiorano said. "Obviously, the two rivers used to exist there in a natural state, and we believe they could be returned to their natural state. It looks very, very feasible."

And also, he said, "like a lot of fun."

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