Fishing for a clear answer

The breach of the Milltown Dam did not damage fish populations as much as was expected, but local fishing outfitters are dealing with a different business problem caused by the breach.

Brooks Sanford, the owner of Clark Fork Trout and Tackle, said the negative reports by the Environmental Protection Agency surrounding the breach of the Milltown Dam has caused more harm to his business than any change in fish population.

“This is something that we've been feeling for a couple years since the project started,” Sanford said.

The Milltown Dam, located at the confluence of the Clark Fork and Blackfoot Rivers, was breached March 29, sending sediment downstream and raising the river level of the Clark Fork River for several days. But despite reports from EPA that there may be a severe damage to the fish population this season, Sanford said he has not seen any real change in fish population.

Russ Forba, an EPA employee, who visited Superior in March to talk about the dam removal, said that the project has gone much more smoothly than was expected.

“This has been as successful as it could be. There's no way you could take a dam out without having some sediment released. What we've done is try to make sure that a minimal amount of contaminated sediment has been released,” Forba said.

The Milltown Dam was removed to expose contaminated sediment under the reservoir for removal. Forba said the dam held a great deal of copper, which can damage fish populations, and arsenic, which can poison water supplies, in the reservoir.

Engineers used channels to route water away from contaminated sediments and tried to keep as much from washing downstream as possible. The EPA warned fishing outfitters that the fish population could suffer this year.

Forba said that since the release, none of the test fish the EPA keeps in cages a half mile downstream from the dam have died. He said they use rainbow trout fingerlings, which are very susceptible to changes in the water.

According to Forba, the main danger to fish right now is the increased turbidity of the water, making it difficult for fish to see prey.

In the wake of bad press surrounding the dam removal, Sanford said he has had to explain to many of his customers that the fish population is not as damaged as some news outlets reported that it was.

“The guy from the Spokesman Review just misquoted everybody and people just think the river's dead,” Sanford said.

Sanford has had customers call him asking what his contingency plan is if the Clark Fork River has a large fish kill.

“Its stuff like that that makes it hard to stay positive and market your business,” Sanford said.

Sanford has been guiding in the area for 11 years and while he offers trips on the Blackfoot, Bitterroot and Missouri Rivers, he said that the Clark Fork River is his main stream and it is better for business to be able to fish right just a short drive from his shop.

“In a rural place like this it takes a long time to build up your client base and we have a lot of repeat customers, and it doesn't take long to lose that. We're really hoping we can get through the next three years without having to rebuild our client list,” Sanford said.

Sanford said that despite a lack of customers, the fishing in the area has been just like it used to be. He pulled in 20 fish with one rod in his boat on a guided trip Thursday.

“Until the word gets out that it's fishing well, people think ‘I'm staying away from there because they just burst the dam,'”

Forba said that while the EPA was harsh in its warnings about the damage to the fish population, he does not think things were overplayed.

“What we can say right now is that it went better than we expected, and that's good. But we never like to under predict things either,” Forba said.

During Forba's meeting with local fisherman last month, he said within five years this project should greatly improve the fish population because it will allow fish to travel upstream and increase their spawning area.

“I think in the end this dam removal will be a big benefit to the area. I think if we can get through these next couple of years without seeing a big deficit in fish population or a big deficit in fishermen we'll be a lot better off,” Sanford said.

Forba said the damage to the Clark Fork River in Mineral County has been much less than to other areas because the Bitterroot River flows into the Clark Fork River, doubling its flow and diluting the sediment.

At the meeting last month, Forba said the bypass channels used to keep contaminated sediments out of the Clark Fork River and the dam removal would push 1.2 million tons of sediment down the river, 450,000 tons of which would be contaminated with copper and arsenic.

Forba said since the dam's removal, 800,000 pounds of contaminated sediment, one third of what needs to me removed, has been taken out of the stream bed.

Until business picks back up, Sanford has been leading more trips to other rivers and continuing to practice catch and release fishing on the Clark Fork. He said he also pinches all the barbs on his fishhooks to keep the population up.

The Clark Fork River is catch and release fishing only, except from the third Saturday in May until the end of October, when fisherman can keep up to three rainbow or brown trout under 15 inches in length. Sanford said he releases all of the fish he catches on guided trips to help with the population.