Butte-Silver Bow health director to request EPA work on West Side Soils, health risks
Though ill-defined, West Side Soils appears to largely encompass the Flat as well as the area west of Uptown. That area contains many residences as well as hundreds of abandoned mine sites and old mine dumps.
Butte-Silver Bow Health Officer
"I am stunned we don't know the reality of that particular site (West Side Soils). From a human health perspective, I'm very, very upset about it," Sullivan said Friday.
The fact that EPA has failed to ensure residents' safety by beginning the initial work on the site leaves Sullivan with the same impression many in
But EPA has stated in the past that
"EPA cannot figure out how to apportion full-time employees to Superfund areas," Sullivan said. "We can put men on the moon, right?"
The internal report cited
Arsenic is a known carcinogen. Lead causes irreversible developmental delays in children.
In order to begin the work, EPA would need to investigate the large swath of land -- which in the Flat is heavily populated -- determine how bad the environmental damage is, and name the responsible party or parties.
Sullivan says she has already reached out to the state's public health department to try to coordinate a county-state partnership in making the formal request to EPA.
EPA spokesperson
The state health department's spokesperson
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President
The New York Times reported earlier this week that those budget cuts include a proposed cut to enforcement by
The law that enacted Superfund -- called the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act, or CERCLA -- was passed in 1980. The law acquired the name "Superfund" because
According to a 2015 U.S. Government Accountability Office report, annual federal dollars to the Superfund program generally declined from about
BSB Chief Executive
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