Montana Gov. Judy Martz (R) surprised her audience during last night’s State of the State address by calling for the removal of the Milltown Dam, located at the junction of the Clark Fork and Blackfoot rivers. The dam forms the Milltown Reservoir, which is contaminated with a century’s worth of heavy metals and arsenic from mines and smelters upstream. The U.S. EPA has considered two options for cleaning the site: removing both the most heavily polluted sediment and the dam, or leaving the sediment untouched and increasing the height of the dam in an effort to contain the toxins in the reservoir. Environmentalists and others favor the first plan, since it represents a permanent fix rather than a Band-Aid solution, and will aid endangered species as well as allow for thorough detoxification of the water and soil. Martz, who is generally regarded as no friend to the environment, had long declined to take a stand. Last night, however, she declared that, “The health of our families and communities; the health of our environment and our wildlife — these must come first.”
