Spring Meadow cleanup begins thanks to Carroll chemistry students

By EVE BYRON - Independent Record - 02/11/09

A portion of Spring Meadow Lake State Park will be closed from Feb. 17 to March 15 while soils contaminated with arsenic, lead and manganese are removed and taken to a nearby site.

While the materials are being excavated, the public will not be allowed to access the east side of the park, due to the heavy equipment in use. The trail around Spring Meadow Lake will be closed at the footbridges on the north and south sides of the park, but the west side will remain open as will the lake itself for ice fishing.

The contaminated soils were discovered about seven years ago along the eastern shore of the popular lake west of Helena by Carroll College chemistry students working on a class project. Their findings got the attention of state officials and further tests showed high levels of the three heavy metals, as well as elevated arsenic in the lake's water.

Officials with the Montana Department of Environmental Quality believe that the contamination stems from mining and ore-processing activities that began in 1910. Deposits of mill tailings were found around the historic Stedman Foundry - which is now home to Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks' wildlife animal shelter - as well as in areas inside Spring Meadow Lake State Park.

Investigations show that the water in Spring Meadow Lake is safe for swimming, and the fish do not exhibit levels of arsenic or lead that would make them unsafe to eat.

Craig Marr, FWP parks manager, said about 33,000 cubic yards of materials need to be removed. Only a portion of that will be taken out during this closure.

*
"We want to remove the stuff around the shoreline while the water levels are low," Marr said. "We'll stockpile it on our property near the wildlife shelter under a tarp. Hopefully, the second phase will start in the summer; that's not definite, but that's what we're shooting for."

Marr said he's not sure where the permanent home will be for the materials. They had considered trucking the waste to a repository south of Rimini along the Continental Divide, but the Environmental Protection Agency, as well as some Rimini citizens, had concerns with that plan and the estimated 1,000 trucks it would take to remove the soils.

Some of the materials may be of such low levels that they could go into a standard landfill, Marr noted.

"The mine waste people at DEQ (the Montana Department of Environmental Quality) told me if this was a remote site, they wouldn't even move it out of there," Marr said. "But since it's in a high-use public area, they felt something should be done."

Options included in a cost analysis by the DEQ include everything from leaving the soils in place and fencing them off to excavating and hauling to a landfill. The cost estimates range from $11,200 to $2.6 million. Click here to view the investigation, engineering evaluation and cost analysis.

A preferred alternative hasn't been selected yet.

Read More