Smurfit-Stone and the Clark Fork River

Although mining waste cleanup at its headwaters continues, the river is emerging from a dirty, polluted, industrial past and has become a beautiful focal point for connecting Montanans to nature.

Yet serious threats remain.

Old sludge ponds and unlined, unsafe toxic waste dumps at the now-shuttered Smurfit-Stone pulp mill site near Frenchtown are leaking toxic chemicals into groundwater that flows into the river. 

The settling ponds and some of the dumps actually sit in the historic floodplain, increasing the risk during a flood event.

For more than 50 years, the mill generated a staggering amount of hazardous waste containing PCBs, dioxins, furans, and heavy metals. Much of that waste is still onsite – strewn across 1,000-acres right next to the Clark Fork River. 

Within that toxic area, roughly 140 acres of unlined sludge ponds and landfills pose an unacceptable risk to human health and the environment. In fact, biologists with Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks have determined that the fish in the Clark Fork River are unsafe to eat due to high levels of dioxins, furans and PCBs–all dangerous toxins associated with the pulp and paper industry.

To make matters worse, the only thing separating the site from the river is an uncertified, crumbling four-mile long earthen berm that’s riddled with rodent holes. In 2018, spring runoff pounded this porous berm for weeks, releasing a plume of dark toxin-laced water and forcing emergency repairs to prevent a breach.

In 2022, the Yellowstone River experienced a 500-year flood, with devastating results for riverside homes and public infrastructure. A similar flood event on the Clark Fork River would wash out the berm and send decades of buried contaminants downstream. Our river and its communities are at serious risk due to delay and inaction.

This high risk for river contamination due to flooding led American Rivers to include the Clark Fork on its 2023 list of America’s Most Endangered Rivers®.

In 2015, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) determined that International Paper, WestRock, and Wakefield are responsible for fixing this mess and began site studies but, many years later, actual cleanup has not yet begun.

Further informed by additional sampling, we can begin plans to remove what EPA data already confirm is the worst of the mess: 140 acres at the heart of the site contaminated with PCBs, dioxins, furans, manganese, arsenic, and other highly-hazardous waste sitting in unlined waste and sludge dumps. These pollutants are in direct contact with groundwater—which then flows to the river.

Cleaning up the dumps coupled with removing the berm and restoring the floodplain is the only remedy that will protect public health and safety.