Trump budget cuts will hurt low-income families, speakers say

Aug. 15--Pointing to the Berkeley Pit, retired state cleanup manager Joe Griffin said Monday, "Let Butte be a lesson to the world."

Griffin was one of four speakers at a press conference overlooking the pit to raise the public's awareness about what President Donald Trump's proposed cuts to the Environmental Protection Agency and other federal agencies could mean to Butte and Anaconda residents. (See related story.)

Griffin said that because of the acid mineralizing below the water's surface, the amount of copper still in the ground, and the 10,000 miles of underground tunnels sending groundwater to the Berkeley Pit, the cleanup plan of treating and pumping pit water will have to continue "into geologic time."

The Berkeley Pit contains more than 50 billion gallons of contaminated water.

The proposed budget cuts to EPA and its Superfund program will put EPA into a position where the agency won't be able to afford to regulate polluting companies or enforce cleanup, said Griffin.

Organizer Adam Pimley, spokesperson for environmental group Montana Clean Air Coalition, said his nonprofit organization held the press conference because when the members of the House and Senate return to Washington, D.C., in early September, they will have to deal with Trump's desired reductions to the federal budget.

Trump's budget cuts are also aimed at the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Energy, the Department of Health and Human Services, and the Department of the Interior, all of which provide aid programs to low-income families or oversee public conservation programs.

Action, Inc., Executive Director Margie Seccomb said low-income residents are the most vulnerable and could be the most affected by the proposed federal reductions. Seccomb said there are 12,000 households in six counties across southwest Montana who live 200 percent below the poverty level -- estimated as $24,600 a year for a family of four.

Those households in Butte-Silver Bow, Anaconda-Deer Lodge, Powell, Granite, Beaverhead, and Madison counties are eligible for programs -- from health care to Head Start -- that face reduction or elimination.

Clark Fork Coalition Executive Director Karen Knudsen said she's seen a lot of positive things come out of the state's heavy-metal cleanup of the Clark Fork River, which is part of the overall Superfund cleanup from the Berkeley Pit to the former Milltown Dam east of Missoula. The coalition is part owner of a demonstration cattle ranch, Dry Cottonwood Creek Ranch, on the Clark Fork and was the first private property holder to see heavy metals removed from the soil along the river. The contamination was caused by a 1908 flood, which sent mining and smelting waste downstream.

She said the ranch's property values have "quadrupled" because of the cleanup.

"Cleanup provides sustained benefits," Knudsen said.

She described herself as "baffled" over Trump's proposed budget cuts to EPA and Superfund.

Griffin said a host of problems could occur if Trump's cuts are realized. The responsible party, in this case Atlantic Richfield Co., pays for "most of the science."

"If EPA doesn't have quality managers to keep up with the science, it becomes biased," he said.

EPA did not respond to a request for comment by press time.

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