Clark's Fork/Blackfoot River Dam Removal Ready To Begin

[hatrack]

NorthWestern Corp., through its Clark Fork and Blackfoot LLC subsidiary, has asked the federal government for permission to begin preparing Milltown Dam for removal.

In documents filed with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, NorthWestern asked for approval to lower the water level in Milltown Reservoir by 10 feet this winter. Then work would begin to build a bypass channel around the dam for the combined flow of the Clark Fork and Blackfoot rivers - which merge just above Milltown Dam.

That channel would hold the river while the dam was removed and 2.6 million cubic yards of metals-contaminated sediments were excavated from its reservoir. Eventually, when the Superfund cleanup was complete, a new, more natural river channel would be constructed through the old reservoir and past the bluff where Milltown Dam has blocked the Clark Fork for nearly a century. The project involves NorthWestern (and its Clark Fork and Blackfoot LLC) as the dam's owner and Atlantic Richfield Co. as owner of the mines and smelters that created the metals-loaded tailings that pollute Milltown Reservoir.

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Sediments removed from Milltown Reservoir, which are contaminated with arsenic, copper, lead and zinc, will be shipped by rail to Opportunity Ponds, a series of enormous settling ponds 100 miles upstream. The first phase of pre-cleanup work could take up to 14 months, Nielsen said. The drawdown, however, would be permanent - as workers would move from building the bypass channel to actually removing Milltown Dam and ridding the reservoir of its polluted payload."

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http://www.missoulian.com/articles/2004/11/02/news/local/znews09.txt

[Buck Turgidson]

1. Fished the Clark Fork

There are nice big trout in the that river, but it's ecological history is so sad. It was very polluted by metals from the mining operations. Recently the river has been recovering.