BUTTE — At a corner lot on Platinum Street —one of a dozen streets named after metals on Butte's west side— the attic in a home is being cleaned by the Butte-Silver Bow County Residential Metals Abatement Program (RMAP). The team cleans toxic heavy metals from attics and yards in Butte.
It is arduous work requiring hazmat suits and bulky equipment that can be a heavy burden in both the dead of winter and the boiling heat of summer.
According to EPA data, as of 2023, RMAP has cleaned approximately 1,500 properties.
Last fall, the US Environmental Protection Agency announced a new cleanup level of 175 parts per million lead in soil and interior dust, replacing the current action level of 1,200 parts per million that requires cleanup. The plan also extends the cleanup boundary that consists of over 3,627 homes to include more than 7,253 homes in a 25-year time frame.
The EPA is taking public comments on the proposed cleanup and at the beginning of January, Butte-Silver Bow County asked the city council for approval to submit a comment to the EPA on behalf of the Butte-Silver Bow Department of Reclamation—the entity that oversees RMAP.
But some are calling for the county to include public input within their comment on the cleanup of Butte.
"There is no safe level of lead in the blood of a child. EPA’s plan says 25 years. That’s two more generations of kids," says Evan Barrett, a Butte resident and environmental justice activist with Butte Watchdogs for Social and Environmental Justice. He and others spoke at a recent council meeting to demand the city take a direct stance on the time frame for cleanup.
In October 2021, the CDC updated the blood lead reference value (BLRV) with the intention to identify children with higher levels of lead in their blood compared with levels in most children.
The CDC's website says:
"The value is based on the 97.5th percentile of the blood lead distribution in U.S. children ages 1–5 years. Updating the BLRV to 3.5 μg/dL allows children within the range of 3.5–5 μg/dL to receive prompt actions. This helps mitigate health effects and remove or control exposure sources.
The CDC's website says updating the blood lead level reference value encourages CDC, federal agencies, health departments, providers, communities, and other partners to take the following steps:
- Focus resources on children with the highest levels of lead in their blood compared with levels in most children in that age range
- Identify and eliminate sources of lead exposure
- Take more prompt actions to reduce the harmful effects of lead
The CDC says there is no safe level of lead in children and even low levels of lead in blood have been shown to reduce children's IQ, ability to pay attention, and academic achievement.
"Because any blood lead level can harm children, our focus is on eliminating exposure in the first place."
According to the National Public Health Agency, exposure to lead can cause brain and nervous system damage, slowed growth and development, learning and behavior problems, and hearing and speech problems.
"It is important as citizens that we express our concerns to the EPA during this time of the comment period. The voice of the policy-setting body of our local government, however, packs a much larger punch," says Bill Foley, a Butte resident.
He entered his public comment on Butte-Silver Bow's comment to the EPA before county commissioners at a Jan. 15 city council meeting. Butte-Silver Bow’s comment submitted to the council includes a question on why a school and sports complex were not included in the new boundary, but the city's comment largely consists of questions about logistics and how the cleanup will impact the county entity.
"We would like to see the program stay within the local government and operated within a similar fashion that it has been but a little bit more expedited. That would be, you know, to pick up the pace but to still be in control of the work so that we are directly involved with the implementation on the residences within our county," says Eric Hassler, the director of B-SB Department of Reclamation and Environmental Services, the entity that oversees the cleanup of homes and yards.
Before the council of commissioners, Hassler explains the reasoning behind questions to the EPA on the issue of where the toxic waste will be dumped and how the work will impact RMAP staffing.
"It's too long (25-years). But to come out and say a very distinct time period... We want to know it's feasible. We need to know. We want to know that it's truthful in what that is being told. And some of those questions that we have posed in there are necessary to be answered to see what that—the scope of the whole project is, if you will," says Hassler.
Hassler tells the council that "staffing is definitely going to be a constraint pending how things go."
He says soil removal is contracted out but when it comes to the attics, B-SB tried to contract out the work.
"We tried. We tried the contracted services route and the ones that did try to go through training eventually just said 'Sorry, we're no longer interested in that kind of work.' So the choice was to develop crews that could incorporate that work and complete that task."
Butte residents speaking at the meeting did not address Butte-Silver Bow's questions posed to the EPA in the city's comment letter, but the three people who spoke were adamant that the cleanup of Butte needs to happen immediately.
Barrett says if Butte-Silver Bow can do the cleanup fast enough to do it, good.
"If they can’t do it, they need to bring outside contractors in to help. Whatever it takes, but let’s not take 25 years to do it. Let’s not even take 10 years to do it. I think it ought to be about 5 years. Insist that BP get it done and get it done right now."
Standing before commissioners, Butte resident Don Petritz choked back tears and pounded his fist on the podium.
"Our children and grandchildren are already facing this lead poisoning danger. We cannot allow it to pass on to any succeeding generations."
The public comment period for the EPA’s proposed plan ends on Feb. 14 and public input on the city’s comment can be made at the Jan. 22 council meeting at the county courthouse in Butte.
