Trip to Helena and Butte

Thursday, July 21: Helena - The State Capitol

We were very fortunate to have the opportunity to tour the Capital building . We were welcomed by Governor Schweitzer and Environmental Policy Officer Mr. Mike Volesky. Governor Schweitzer and Mr. Volesky, shared their knowledge about Montana’s role as an emerging world leader in creating a sustainable restoration economy that fosters the state’s land, water and communities.

At 11.30 we learned about Reporting on Environmental Issues in the Context of the State Capitol with Ms. Emilie Ritter from Montana Public Radio and Mr. Mike Dennison from Lee Newspapers .

At 2pm we moved to another issue, Executive Agency Policymaking by Montana Department of Environmental Quality with Director Richard Opper . He presented an overview of the role of DEQ. Members of the remediation division and Climate Change Advisory Council discussed such issues as passing and enforcing legislation, and the state climate action plan; this topic encompassed

aspects of an environmental impact analysis (EIA), also what is required by law and a meaningful and open decision process. At 3.30pm we had a panel discussion on The Role of Non-Governmental Organizations in Policy Formulation with Ms. Caroline Wallace from Energy Conservation Organizer (AERO) and Ms. Kendra Byrom, the Manager of Growing Community Project. The panel was about the work of their individual organizations with a focus on their impact on policy formulation on the state level and the essential role of civic engagement. That evening we were free, so we decided to explore and enjoy the city of Helena, which is even more quiet than Missoula.

Friday, July 22: Helena, Butte, And Anaconda

The first destination was The Montana History Museum. Montana’s Museum is where history and land come together in the story of the people who have called Montana home. We went for a tour of the museum, viewing works from the Native American collection, artifacts from Chinese immigrants in 1890s Butte, and pieces by Montana’s “Cowboy Artist” Charles M. Russell. 

 

By lunchtime, we were already up at Butte, another small town in Montana. In 1900, the Butte Hill and its huge copper deposits were known as “the richest hill on earth.” Unfortunately, the mine has contaminated surrounding areas including the watershed, plants, and soil. The soil in the area, and even the attic dust in many of the buildings, is contaminated with mercury, lead, cadmium, copper, and arsenic. Butte turned into a dead town, no one lived there and the whole mine was abandoned. Today, after a long restoration efforts, Butte is a city in transition to a more diversified economy, including energy research, medicine, tourism, and environmental technology.

learning about environment in Butte

Still related to the mine, we had a session about Contamination and Environmental Impact at The Berkeley Pit with Mr. Darryl Reed, the Project Manager of Federal Superfund Section at DEQ. We went by the side of Berkeley Pit, a kind of dam built to stop the contaminants flowing along to the rivers, and saw the highly toxic water and how people are working at it. Not only is the site important in itself, but also because Silver Bow Creek into which the contaminants flow, is the headwaters of the Clark Fork River. At 3pm, Mr. Joel Chavez, the Project Manager of Super Fund Sites, took us for a walk while we talked about Contamination and Restoration: at the Silver Bow Creek. We went to Anaconda Copper Company Smelter Stack, listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Completed in 1919, it is one of the tallest free‐standing brick structures in the world, about 10 meters higher than the Washington Monument in Washington, D.C. Since the smelter closed in 1980, the stack has become a symbol of the challenges that face communities dependent on finite resources.