Butte-Silver Bow commissioners approve amended comments pressing EPA for faster lead cleanup timeline

Butte-Silver Bow, Mont. — The Butte-Silver Bow Council of Commissioners voted 8-2 on Feb. 5 to authorize the chief executive to submit an amended comment letter to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on the agency’s October 2024 proposed plan to amend the remedial action for the Butte Priority Soils Operable Unit (BPSOU).

The action follows nearly two hours of public comment and a lengthy council debate. The approved letter, as amended by Commissioner Evan O'Leary and seconded by Commissioner Shay, asks EPA to develop a substantially shorter cleanup schedule — proposing that at least 80% of required remedial activities be completed within 10 years and full completion within 15 years — and to avoid imposing cleanup costs on Butte-Silver Bow taxpayers.

The vote authorizes Chief Executive J.P. Gallagher to transmit the council’s comments to EPA. The motion to concur with communication 2025-18 as amended passed with an 8-2 tally, recorded by the clerk as "8 yea, 2 nay." No roll-call names for the nays were read into the public record during the vote.

Why it matters: The BPSOU proposed plan would expand the area subject to residential soil sampling and remediation and alters cleanup levels and time frames. Residents and longtime site experts told the council they want the work done far sooner than EPA’s proposed timelines, with some calling for single-digit year completion. Several speakers urged the county to insist that polluters — principally BP/ARCO as identified in federal orders covering the site — be made to fund and, if necessary, directly perform remediation rather than relying on county staffing and resources.

Public testimony and technical claims

Residents and local technical experts addressed the council during the meeting’s public-comment period. Dave Williams, president of the Citizens Technical Environmental Committee (CTEC), said CTEC will send comments to EPA and expressed support for the county letter. Joe Griffin, who has worked on the Butte and Anaconda sites and said he formerly supervised parts of the RMAP program for the Montana Department of Environmental Quality, urged the council to respect the RMAP staff and EPA oversight while pressing for additional work in comments to EPA.

Elton Ringstock summarized technical and historical points from the proposed plan, noting the proposal would lower the cleanup action level to about 175 parts per million (ppm) for lead from earlier higher levels and that, he said, the expansion would add roughly 3,637 acres and about 7,253 additional homes into the cleanup area. Ringstock also criticized the timeline in the proposed plan, which EPA described publicly as a multi-decade phasing (he quoted 15 years for sampling and 25 years for remediation), calling those time frames “totally unacceptable.”

Other residents, including Eric Nyland, Don Petritz and Nikki Boisa, urged the council to press for a much faster program to protect children and future generations. Alan Kesselheim, who recently had attic remediation done under the RMAP program, described the on-the-ground remediation process as professional and urged the county to boost outreach and reduce laboratory turnaround times to increase participation.

Council debate and staff context

Commissioner O'Leary presented a package of edits to the staff-drafted comment letter. His revisions add an explicit timeline demand (80% complete in 10 years, fully complete within 15 years), request that Census Tract 6 be added to the expanded BPSOU boundary, and ask EPA to abandon proposals to permanently place removed waste in residential areas. O'Leary asked the council to specify that the county should not bear cleanup costs and to cite legal remedies if parties designated to perform remediation refuse to act.

Eric Hassler, Reclamation and Environmental Services Director, told the council that EPA’s 25-year estimate was based on EPA using an assumed exceedance rate (properties requiring remediation) of roughly 60% applied to an 11,000-home estimate. Hassler said Butte-Silver Bow’s internal data suggest a higher exceedance rate (closer to 80%), which would substantially change the scope and timeline. He recommended requesting that EPA appear before the council to answer specific questions about assumptions, staffing, materials, repository locations and timeline calculations.

Several commissioners expressed reservations about setting a firm cleanup deadline when the precise scope of work — the expanded boundary and the number of properties affected — remains uncertain. Commissioner Fisher urged a clearer demand for resources from BP/ARCO and for comprehensive cost accounting instead of piecemeal allocations. Commissioner Thatcher said she would support the amended letter but warned the council that feasibility is difficult to judge without additional data. Commissioner Shea said he preferred a single-digit timeline and supported pressing EPA to do more.

Formal action

The council’s formal motion (communication 2025-18) — moved by Commissioner O'Leary and seconded by Commissioner Shay — to concur with the amended comment letter and authorize Chief Executive JP Gallagher to submit it to EPA passed 8-2. The clerk’s tally recorded the vote as 8 yeas and 2 nays; the meeting record did not read which commissioners cast the two nay votes. The motion’s text, as amended and approved, includes the timeline language, the added Census Tract request, a prohibition on costs to Butte-Silver Bow taxpayers, and a request that EPA identify additional repository space and avoid permanently placing removed waste in residential areas.

What happens next

The council’s authorized letter becomes part of the public record submitted to EPA during the proposed-plan comment period. Hassler recommended that the council formally invite EPA to present the basis for its timeline and cost assumptions in a future meeting so the council can close outstanding factual gaps before final decisions are made. EPA will consider public comments and may revise the plan; the proposed plan process typically includes further iterations before a final record of decision.

Votes at a glance

- Motion: Concur with communication 2025-18 as amended and authorize chief executive to submit the county’s comments to EPA (mover: Commissioner Evan O'Leary; seconder: Commissioner Shay). - Outcome: Approved. Clerk record: 8 yea, 2 nay.

Ending

Council members and members of the public reiterated concerns about children’s health, timeliness and financial responsibility throughout the discussion. Multiple speakers urged the county to press EPA and the responsible parties for clearer timelines, more resources, and guarantees that Butte-Silver Bow taxpayers will not be left with cleanup costs.