Kevin Stone, federal Superfund section supervisor for the Montana Department of Environmental Quality, told the Smurfit Stone Community Advisory Group on Nov. 6 that DEQ's role at the site is primarily consultative to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and focused on ensuring remedies are protective and grounded in sound science. "Our mission is to champion a healthy environment for a thriving Montana," Stone said during his overview of the agency's structure and principles.

Brianna Pappst, DEQ's project manager for the Smurfit site, described the agency's routine work on the project: attending monthly technical meetings with responsible parties and EPA, reviewing deliverables and data summaries, participating in Frenchtown stakeholder working-group meetings and observing field sampling. "We are in a consultative role to EPA," Pappst said, and noted that DEQ does not make the final remedy selection but provides detailed comment packages and technical review to influence decisions.

Pappst said the remedial investigation (RI) report ' a document that will summarize site sampling from 2014 through 2024 ' is being compiled and will be a central document for identifying data gaps and informing a future feasibility study. She said DEQ and EPA are still discussing how to roll out the RI to stakeholders and the public; "there is no formal comment period for the remedial investigation report," she said, and that reality can result in short windows for public review when chapters are released.

On funding, Pappst and Stone explained that this site is PRP-led and operating under an Administrative Order on Consent (AOC); EPA's cooperative agreements fund DEQ's consultative work, and the responsible parties provide the money for the site investigation. Pappst stated the meeting identified three responsible parties by name in the room's discussion (recorded in the meeting as International Paper, M2Green and a third party transcribed as "Westra").

DEQ staff described recent field work at the site, including newly installed lysimeters and a monitoring well (L28) in a solid-waste basin, and noted that some lysimeters have produced little water to date and are sampled only when accumulation is sufficient. Pappst said the agency has asked for additional figures and sampling elements at times to ensure the proposed work plans will support defensible conclusions.

Next steps identified at the meeting include DEQ's review of the RI as chapters become available, continued monthly coordination with EPA and the responsible parties, and resuming Frenchtown stakeholder meetings. The CAG and DEQ discussed the challenge of maintaining broad community engagement during a slow, technical cleanup process and asked DEQ to clarify how and when the public and the CAG will be able to review major documents as they are released.