Toxic: The Mess at Smurfit-Stone

Show Notes: In part two of the Clark Fork Coalition’s panel discussion on the Smurfit-Stone complex, hydrogeologist Elena Evans with the Missoula Valley Water Quality District discusses what we know (and what we don’t know) about groundwater contamination at Smurfit and how this contamination interacts with the Missoula aquifer and the Clark Fork River. To follow along with her visual graphs and maps, download her presentation slides.

Presentation:

Show Notes:

In this episode, we join Fish, Wildlife, & Parks biologist David Scmetterling, and the Clark Fork Coalition's John DeArment for an update to the fish consumption advisory that was issued in December 2020, how that affects aquatic life, our community, and what we should do about it.

https://clarkfork.org/

http://clarkfork.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/FWP-Fish-Consumption-Advisory-Update-12-18-20.pdf

Welcome back to Toxic, the Mess at Smurfit Stone. In this episode, we talk with our team of experts about superfund, sludge ponds, and solutions. While Superfund can be complicated and mired in bureaucracy, it can get done. In fact, it’s been done! Hear the story of the Milltown Dam. What does the Smurfit Mill Site and a giant ice-dam have to do with eachother? Find out on this, our final episode of Toxic, The Mess at Smurfit Stone.

When staring this project, the milltown dam continued to come up in conversation. We needed a history lesson, both on the milltown dam, but also, what exactly SuperFund is. This episode helps answer both.

Thank you for listening! We hope you learned something, and most of all, we hope you’ll help us take action. Three things you can do that take even less than 10 minutes!

Contact the EPA, Sign our Letter of Support, And engage with this campaign. Visit clarkfork.org to take action. That’s ClarkFork.org. Let’s clean Smurfit now.

Clark Fork Coalition: www.clarkfork.org

In episode one we explored the history of the Smurfit-Stone mill site on the banks for the Clark Fork River right here hin Missoula, Montana. In episode two, we talk with scientists, lawyers and local elected officials about the science and the laws. You'll hear how in a Davis vs. Goliath situation, being on the side that is smaller, hungrier and scrappier can be a tremendous advantage.

Listen in, share with your friends and don't forget to check us out at www.smurfit.clarkfork.org.

Have questions, let us know!

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December 15, 2009: Smurfit-Stone Container Corporation announces the permanent closure of the expansive line-board plant just west of Missoula. 417 workers were told they had two weeks before they had to find a new job.

For an explanation as to why, Smurfit President Steve Klinger writes in a brief statement that mills were “high-cost facilities that do not provide adequate returns over the long term for the company.”

The immediate economic impacts of Frenchtown and Missoula are enormous. At the time, Smurfit-Stone was the second-largest taxpayer in Missoula County, second only to NorthWestern Energy.

More than a decade later, after Smurfit-Stone dropped a mess in the heart of Missoula County, An industrial graveyard filled with sludge ponds, discarded heavy equipment and toxic metals sit dangerously close to our beloved Clark Fork River. Empty cleanup promises by shell companies inheriting Smurfit’s liabilities have done nothing to remove the hazardous waste pools that today sit seeping toxins into groundwater. Inaction by the state legislature, the EPA, and ownership will not be tolerated any longer.

How did we get here?