Photos: A visit to the UBMC

DEQ's UBMC Project Manager David Bowers stand above the site of the old Mike Horse dam and tailings impoundment as he holds an image of two fish pulled out of the Blackfoot River this year by Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks researchers. The fish, an 11 inch brook trout and a five-inch West Slope Cuthroat, were found at the confluence of Anaconda and Bear Trap Creeks. Bowers said re-establishing fisheries was one of the mandates of the settlement with ASARCO, so the discovery has them very happy and very hopeful.

The Blackfoot River flows through the restored stream bed below the Water Treatment Plant. Work on stream bed restoration is finished to just below the project area boundary, where they were best able to tie it in to the Upper Marsh. Unlike most other stream bed restoration efforts around the U.S., the work in the UBMC has relied on native, local materials. "Most every where, when they do stream construction they use coconut fabric," Bowers said. "Here, its all home cooking. We had a lot of bug kill. The bug infestation gave us a lot of material to use so we took advantage of it."

Visitors hike up the side of the UBMC repository on Section 35, with the reddish, impermeable glacial till capping the waste creating a mars-like landscape. A long -term temporary cap will be constructed over the repository next year. Before putting a final,permanent cap on the respository, the partner agencies expect to spend up to five years conducting performance monitoring in the Upper Marsh to determine if more waste removals will be necessary there.

Rancher John Baucus examines the restoration work and re-vegetation on the upper Mike Horse Creek drainage, the area described as "Ground Zero for the cleanup. The restoration, combined with the upper seep capture system that pumps contaminated ground water and back into the mine workings. has improved water quality to the point that they are very nearly meeting DEQ aquatic wildlife standards.

An excavator operator obliterates the haul road through the Bear trap canyon above the Water Treatment Plant, mixing in compost as he goes. Crews were at work above the machine planing native vegetation amid logs and debris laid down to create micro-topography.

David Bowers discusses the change in stream channel construction below the confluence of the Anaconda and Bear Trap Creeks, the headwaters of the Blackfoot River

A load of woody debris to be used as micro topography heads into the Bear Trap canyon, where workers were busy revegetating the floodplain.

Restoration work continues on the Blackfoot River floodplain below Shaue Gulch. Dave Bowers said after the breech of the Mike Horse Dam in 1975, mine waste was deposited in the area in a layer that ranged from one to eight feet thick.