Restore Our Creek Coalition and the Montana Standard to hold public forum on the Parrot tailings

The Restore Our Creek Coalition and the Montana Standard will be holding a public forum to discuss the removal of the Parrot Tailings along Upper Silver Bow Creek.  This should be a really cool meeting because representatives from the EPA, the MT DEQ, ARCO, BNRC, and Butte Silver Bow will all be together in one place with the public.

The forum will be at 6:30 pm on Tuesday, January, 19th at the Mining City Center, 400 West Park Street, in Butte, Montana.

Restore Our Creek Stroll a success!

Butte citizens concerned about their stream and future 

The "Restore our Creek Stroll" had a great turnout last week.  The citizens of Butte, MT showed up to learn about the threats that the Parrot Tailings plume poses to the newly restored Lower Silver Bow Creek and the Clark Fork River.  Local folks from the DEQ and the MT Natural Resource Damages Program as well as the local groups which are really pushing the movement to get rid of the toxic tailings and reclassify the "Metro Storm Drain" back to what it truly is, Silver Bow Creek, put together a great program with music and transportation.  This new classification for the "Metro Storm Drain" would grant this section of the creek the same protections as all other streams under the Clean Water Act.

There will be another event in the fall.  Please show your support and look to the RBM Chronicles for more information on this event.

Pat Cunneen (BNRC) shows some ideas for a restored Upper Silver Bow Creek

Joe Griffin of Montana DEQ (retired) explains the Parrot Tailings Plume

Book tease: Opportunity, Montana - Big Copper, Bad Water, and the Burial of an American Landscape

I am halfway through this great book about the Clark Fork's obliteration due to 100 years of industrial scale mining. Today, I came a cross a great quote that I wanted to share. There are many analogies which seek to make this same point however, this one is my favorite:

"I tend not to trust extremist and ideologues.  It's not about preferring the middle of the road, it's that 'road' is too rigid a metaphor.  On a river, you can't afford to hug strictly the right or left bank and still hope to arrive downstream. You have to follow the current where it leads, left, right, or center.  Sometimes you have to get out and walk."

Eroded banks comprised of toxic mine waste below Warm Springs, MT

Mine waste stream bank