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March 3, 2010: Montana Water Trust Joins Clark Fork Coalition

Just three days after Rankin Holmes of the Montana Water Trust (MWT) spoke to Bitterroot Valley residents at the invitation of the Bitter Root Water Forum, the Clark Fork Coalition announced in a press release that it is acquiring MWT and adding streamflow restoration to its program to better protect and restore the Clark Fork watershed. The Coalition is bringing on board all three Water Trust staff members, including Holmes, as part of an expansion that will enable the group to broker voluntary water transfers aimed at increasing the amount of water flowing in western Montana’s streams. ... read more

March 5, 2010: Speakers Say Stage Set for Much More Work on Clark Fork River

The Clark Fork River has been through a lot lately, with a dam removal, Superfund cleanup, real estate booms and busts, and the like.  That sets the stage for a lot more activity along the river basin, speakers at this week's State of the River symposium agreed. From invasive species to excessive bank erosion to unresearched water rights, the river will keep lots of people busy for the next 25 years. ... read more

February 26, 2010: Missoula-based Clark Fork Coalition takes in Montana Water Trust

After years of doing most of its work from the shoreline, the Clark Fork Coalition now gets to work in the water.

The Missoula-based river watchdog group acquired fellow nonprofit Montana Water Trust to expand its water-rights legal expertise, director Karen Knudsen said on Thursday.  For the past eight years, the Montana Water Trust has been working with farmers, irrigation districts and other water users to keep more flow in the state's rivers and streams.

"We've focused on the physical aspects of the watershed, like streambanks and buffer strips," Knudsen said. "Now there's the flow piece, too." ... read more

February 10, 2010: British Columbia Declares Canadian North Fork Off-Limits to Mining, Energy Development

BRITISH COLUMBIA: British Columbia Lt. Gov. Steven Point declared the Canadian portion of the Flathead River Valley off limits to mining and energy extraction in a speech to his parliament on Tuesday.  The agreement includes commitments by both state governments to get U.S. and Canadian federal support for development bans along the river basin. ... read more

PHILLIPSBURG: An Atlanta, Georgia company thinks it can dig an estimated 3-billion dollars worth of gold out of the hills near Philipsburg. The company plans to use the Basin Gulch, which is 16-miles west of Philipsburg to explore and potentially work toward a property for long term mining. The company claims, if the state approves its exploration, the project could bring jobs, gold and in turn hard cash. But mining produces waste. And that's one thing the Clark Fork Coalition plans to keep a close eye on ... read more

January 26, 2010: Supreme Court: Groups Can Amend Air Quality Permit Appeal

HELENA - The Montana Supreme Court said a hearings examiner and a District Court judge were wrong in denying environmental groups the right to amend a complaint they filed over an air quality permit issued for a small power plant.  Three groups — Citizens Awareness Network, Women’s Voices for the Environment (WVE), and the Clark Fork Coalition — appealed a permit the Department of Environmental Quality approved for Thompson River Power near Thompson Falls. ... read more

January 4, 2010: Milltown Superfund Cleanup: Floodplain Restoration Next Up For the Clark Fork River (Missoulian)

BONNER - If the Clark Fork River looked a little confused this past year, understand: It's been getting a lot of different instructions on how to get past Bonner.

After getting shunted into a new bypass channel in 2008, the Clark Fork spent 2009 pining for the path it followed more than a century ago, before the Milltown Dam blocked its confluence with the Blackfoot River.  Envirocon excavators finished removing more than 2.2 million cubic yards of sediment from the former reservoir this past year, digging down to the original soil horizon of stumps and pine needles from the early 1900s. ... read more

December 2, 2009: Montana Ranchers Seek to Curb Residential Wells

(AP) - BILLINGS - Ranchers in Montana have asked a state agency to stop giving away water use rights for tens of thousands of new homes being built in areas once dominated by agriculture.

Across the arid West, residential subdivisions and agricultural interests are vying for control of water supplies that have emerged as one of the region's most coveted natural resources.

In the latest skirmish between the two groups, five Montana ranch owners filed a petition Tuesday with the Department of Natural Resources and Conservation, charging the state's water rules were stacked against them. ... read more

September 24, 2009: Last Trainload of Contaminated Sediments Leaves Milltown Superfund Site

(Missoulian) - MILLTOWN - In a cleanup milestone for the Milltown Superfund site, the final trainload of arsenic-laced dirt left here on Thursday for Opportunity.

The rail cars have pulled away some three million tons of toxic sediment since October 2007, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. That represents just one-third of the contaminated sludge in the former reservoir - but 85 percent of the pollution washed there from old copper mines and smelters upriver. ... read more

September 16, 2009: Memo: If Invasive Mussels Get Into Columbia, Salmon are in Trouble (Oregon Environmental News)

Northwest wildlife and power officials are increasingly concerned about the impact a tiny traveling mussel could have on the region's multi-billion dollar effort to save Columbia and Snake river salmon.  So far they aren't in the Northwest, but when they do arrive - and officials expect them to within the next five years - they will cling to fish screens, turbine bays and other parts of the big dams on the Columbia and Snake river.  That will likely mean the region will have to spend more money to keep those facilities clean to simultaneously protect endangered salmon and provide the cheap hydroelectric power the region is used to. ... read more

September 8, 2009: Restoration River: A Three-Part Series Unlocking the Upper Clark Fork's Potential

In July, Missoulian reporter Rob Chaney and photographer Tom Bauer explored the Superfund cleanup zone to see firsthand the challenges and opportunities that await the Upper Clark Fork.  The removal of Milltown Dam and its toxic reservoir was a massive undertaking. But it was only one tip of a 120-mile river corridor in need of repair. The Upper Clark Fork River Basin is the largest geographic Superfund site in the United States. Roughly $412 million will be spent to remediate, restore and replace lands from Butte to Missoula damaged by the mining waste. ... read more

July 4, 2009: Governor floats free-flowing Clark Fork (Missoulian)

It was a fish story for the ages: On Friday afternoon, the first person in more than 120 years to legally float past the confluence of the Clark Fork and Blackfoot rivers and through the channel previously occupied by the Milltown Dam caught an 18-inch cutthroat trout right where the two rivers merge ... read more

June 28, 2009: Funds could open final chapter of Upper Blackfoot Mine Complex cleanup

The headwaters of the Blackfoot River are one step closer to again being home to a cutthroat trout population lost to the legacy of mining in the area. Earlier this month, a federal bankruptcy court judge in Texas approved pumping $138 million into a trust for environmental cleanup in Montana, including $10 million for Mike Horse mine ... read more.

June 27, 2009: Float trip to explore resilient river (Missoulian)

When a waterway becomes synonymous with “Superfund” the way the Clark Fork River has, it needs a reputation rescue. Daniel Kiely hopes to start such a renovation with an ambitious float from Racetrack, just below the Opportunity Ponds toxic waste settling zone ... read more

June 23, 2009: Decade of cleanup on Clark Fork is worth celebrating

The Milltown Dam's removal may have been the most visible event of the past decade of restoration work in the drainage, but as the coalition's executive director, Karen Knudsen, notes, it was only one step in a "globally significant watershed-wide recovery." ... read more.

April 27, 2009: Dam removal will spur changes in Clark Fork's banks

The Clark Fork River is ready to throw its weight around. A century behind a wall made Missoula's main waterway a fairly predictable neighbor. It rose and fell like the Bitterroot and Blackfoot rivers, but Milltown Dam leashed much of the Clark Fork's ability to reshape its banks. So features stayed the same for miles above and below that barrier. Watch the Video or read more.

February 4, 2009: Group, Resident Mull Appeal of Air Permit for Power Plant (Missoulian)

A power plant with a lousy history is gearing up for a fresh start under new ownership in this community. At least one wary neighbor and a conservation group in Missoula are considering whether to fight the decision by the Montana Department of Environmental Quality to grant yet another air quality permit to the facility. Even as the Clark Fork Coalition awaits a Montana Supreme Court decision on an appeal filed over an earlier permit granted to Thompson River Power, it's considering a possible new challenge to the sixth and latest permit. ... read more

January 6, 2009: Plum Creek Withdraws Road Plan (Missoulian)

Plum Creek Timber Co. has abandoned its controversial forest road negotiations with Agriculture Undersecretary Mark Rey, citing strong public opposition. “We've been thinking about it for a while,” company spokeswoman Kathy Budinick confirmed Monday. “The controversy just seemed to be continuing, and we want to be responsive to those concerns.” Missoula County officials and others argued that an amendment would have eased the way for residential development on Plum Creek lands. The concerns centered on access easements, which allow the Forest Service and Plum Creek to share roads across intermingled lands. ... read more