While the floods of 2018 have hit and retreated from their highest levels in a hundred years, another danger buried for over half a century near the former Smurfit mill site sits waiting.
The Missoula County Commissioners have drafted a letter to the Environmental Protection Agency and the Montana Department of Environmental Quality citing their concerns about the pollution that has accumulated over the last 50 years at the former Smurfit-Stone mill site in Frenchtown.
One of the most significant effects of the Clark Fork River flooding is the danger of toxic materials stored for the last half-century in the old Smurfit settling ponds that are separated from the swollen river by only a series of earthen berms, being released into the river.
A brief respite from the flood waters of the Clark Fork River is allowing homeowners who have been evacuated a few precious hours to check on their property, keep pumps running and retrieve medications.
When water levels on the Clark Fork River in Missoula rose to a near all-time record high on Friday concerns were running high over at the Clark Fork Coalition.
The daily briefing from the Office of Emergency Management on Thursday focused on historic flooding, streams overwhelming culverts and the threat of flooding near the old Smurfit Stone container ponds.