Scientist tests Thompson water

Along the banks of the Thompson Falls Resevoir Thursday, University of Montana Geomorphologist Johnnie Moore bent down to take several sediment samples from the property of Thompson Falls resident, Jon Sonju. Moore was searching for contaminants that washed downstream from the Milltown Dam, breached last March. Sonju, a geologist, invited Moore to test the sediment after he noticed a green discoloration of the water near his home at the edge of the river. Moore has conducted previous research in conjunction with the U.S. Geological Survey and PPL Montana, which owns the Thompson Falls hydroelectric dam on the Clark Fork River.

“We'll be looking for trace elements - so the ones of concern will be arsenic cadmium, lead, zinc, copper, those things,” Moore explained. “We're just going to be testing the sentiment that has accumulated on the bed of the river. We're looking at concentrations upstream so we want to see what made it all the way down here.”

The Milltown Dam has spent the past century collecting contaminated sediments from mines upriver. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Web site, the EPA has removed more than 1,000,000 million tons of waste from the Superfund site at the spillway. The EPA reports that 45 rail cars a day are taking contaminated sediments to the Anaconda Smelter Superfund site nearly 100 miles away.

But when the dam breached, some of that sediment may have been swept into the Thompson Falls Reservoir. A recent study reported higher levels of arsenic, copper, lead, zinc and cadmium in the reservoir after the dam's breach. Arsenic levels in the river to have risen 12-fold, high above the EPA's initial predictions.

Sonju isn't happy with the EPA or its predictions. He feels the EPA and Montana Department of Environmental Quality should be responsible for taking care of any damage to the reservoir.

“Since they have already accomplished the Milltown dam project, the EPA and DEQ are going to do their best to say no that nothing is wrong,” Sonju said. “My sole purpose in getting involved here is not to chastise them for making a mistake, which I believe they did. I don't want punishment for these guys, who are probably very nice, intelligent people, but let's let them work for us to mitigate any future outwashes.”

Sonju said the samples could help discover how much sediment travelled down the breach.

“The tests will give us both a reasonable idea of the background and they'll give us an idea of how much contamination that came down from the Milltown dam,” Sonju said. He added that he hoped the tests would also raise people's awareness and prevent future contaimination.

Republican Representative Pat Ingraham was at the site as well to observe the testing because of her concern for the water supply.

“I'm concerned about the water problem because my constituents are concerned,” Ingraham said. “They've called me to ask what has happened and how people are affected with the water levels and it's worth finding out.”

Democratic Senator Jim Elliot was not at the site but said that he was also concerned about the issue and would be extremely interested at the results and that it was a significant concern enough to be investigated.

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