Town meets to discuss Superfund

Members of the Superior community met last Monday with representatives from the Environmental Protection Agency and the Montana Department of Environmental Quality and Forest Service to discuss concerns surrounding the possible listing of Superior and the Flat Creek area as a Superfund site.

“It went quite well, it was very productive,” Superior Mayor Mike Wood said.

Wood and members of the Superior Town Council scheduled the meeting at their last town council meeting to give the community an opportunity to voice their opinions and concerns about the possible listing.

“I think the more people are informed the better off we are,” Wood said.

The meeting started off with a presentation using examples from similar communities to let people know what they could expect from a Superfund listing.

The main health concern in Superior stems from the use of contaminated mine tailings as fill dirt in some areas.

The Superior High School track once consisted of arsenic-contaminated materials, but it was removed as part of an emergency cleanup effort in 2002.

Gwen Christiansen, an EPA representative that has been working with the Superior town council and Mineral County Commissioners, has said are not immediate health threats but could pose long-term health risks.

“I think the overall tone of the meeting was one that was good, it was a positive meeting. People had good questions. They were concerned, but I think they felt they were getting quality answers,” Wood said.

After the presentation the crowd peppered the presenters with questions about what a Superfund listing could mean for the community.

“My feeling is that the town was not real happy about the stigma attached to [becoming a Superfund site], but they recognized that until we do the testing, we won’t know how severe the contamination is,” Wood said.

Testing funded by Superfund cannot begin until the area is a listed site, so while Christiansen and others working with the project have said that there is sufficient data to warrant further testing, they do not know exactly which areas need to be cleaned up until further testing is conducted.

Wood said that in order to combat the negative public image that can possibly come from becoming a Superfund site, the Mineral County Chamber of Commerce is taking a lead role to help inform the community and maintain the area’s public image.

“The Chamber of Commerce is going to really get proactive with this and try to show that we’re doing what we can to get cleaned up,” Wood said.

Audience members were also concerned that the cleanup would cost them money. During the emergency cleanup in 2002, the town was sent a bill for the cleanup that was well over the town budget of Superior.

Wood said that the town has filled out inability to pay applications that show that the town cannot afford to pay for the cleanup and therefore the EPA will foot the bill. He warned however that if things were to change for the town’s funding, however unlikely that may be, Superior might have some financial responsibility.

“If the finances of the town were to suddenly change for the better, they might ask us to share in the cost of the cleanup,” Wood said.

Community members were also concerned that there would be information put on the deeds to their land regarding cleanup.

While there will be nothing added to a property owner’s deed regarding cleanup, after an area has been cleaned, the property owner will get a certificate showing the past levels of heavy metals and the effect that the cleanup had on their property.

Wood said that the members of the Superior Town Council have been giving careful thought to the Superfund issue and they will most likely make a decision at their next meeting Monday evening.

“My best guess is that we will, and the reason is that we just can’t risk the health of the community. I think most of us think that the contamination problem is not severe, but we have no way of knowing until testing,” Wood said.

In order to become a Superfund site the community will need a letter of support from Montana’s governor.

Ideally, Wood said, they would have the letter by March so they could begin working on testing and cleanup immediately.

However, if the letter comes after March, the community will have to wait six months to apply for cleanup funding.

If the town can get the ball rolling on becoming a Superfund site, Wood said that the MDEQ has extra funding that may be used to start testing earlier, possibly sometime this summer.

Wood said that the Superior Town Council is still willing to listen to the concerns of the community and comments can be submitted in writing or over the phone to the council at 822-4672.

“The entire process that we’ll be going through will be open to the public and the public will be welcome to make comments at anytime during the process,” Wood said.