UBMC cleanup work once again underway

Work at the Upper Blackfoot Mining Complex last week, nearly a year after the Montana Department of Environmental Quality suspended clean up efforts to determine, with the U.S. Forest Service and the Montana Natural Resource Damage Program, how to best use the $11 million remaining from the $39 million settlement with ASARCO in 2006.

UBMC Construction Manager Shellie Haaland said Missouri River Contractors was awarded the contract for the removal and remediation work on the site this year. She said their "notice to proceed" date was July 16, and the hauling of contaminated material resumed Monday, July 23.

MRC has been the contractor on the project since 2016. Many of the MRC employees, including Superintendent Eddie Roatch, are well acquainted with the area, having worked for Helena Sand and Gravel at the UBMC since the remediation work began in 2014.

As in years past, Meadow Creek and Mike Horse Roads are closed to public traffic during the construction season, which potentially can last into November, due to the heavy truck and equipment traffic. The area can still be accessed on a walk-in basis, provided users avoid the roads.

Drivers using Highway 200 and Highway 279 should expect to see increased truck traffic and reduced speeds in the area around Meadow Creek and Mike Horse Roads while hauling is in progress.

The clean-up work this year is focused first on the area from the confluence of Mike Horse and Bear Trap Creeks to the water treatment plant, which holds an estimated 92,000 cubic yards of contaminated material. Once removals in that area are finished, the contractor has the option to tackle additional areas, known as Additive Alternative Areas A and B, if there is enough time remaining in the construction season. Combined, those areas stretch from the water treatment plant to the project boundary and have roughly 165,000 cubic yards of material that needs to be removed.

However, conditions such as wildfire, rain, snow or freezing temperatures can have an impact on the schedule.

Despite her position as construction manager, Haaland confirmed for the BVD that she will only be on site at the UBMC one day a week, having been assigned duties related to the Black Pine Mine clean-up near Philipsburg and to the asbestos clean-up at Libby. While most of her duties on site have been assigned to an engineer, she remains the point of contact for people with questions or concerns, at 406-431-1401.

According to the latest Mike Horse Messenger, published in June, tours of the UBMC, coordinated by the Blackfoot Challenge, are scheduled once a month in August, September and October.