Citizen Discourse on Contaminated Water, Superfund Cleanups, and ...

These officials tended to be members of the community as well, albeit residents of Missoula. The comments here reflect those provided by one such official. His involvement, beginning in 1981, was the longest of any official on the scene. His comments are presented under the pseudonym Orrin Pease.

Throughout this period, a number of people from Missoula became engaged as activists whose interests focused on the health of the Clark Fork River. Organizations such as Ducks Unlimited and Trout Unlimited, to name only two, joined the cause established by the Clark Fork Coalition. By 2005, the coalition employed several individuals, some of whom were interviewed for this project. Other activists were connected to the environmental programs of the University of Montana in Missoula. Some of these activists had familial links to Milltown, but the majority of them were “local” by virtue of living in Missoula. They were college educated, and as compared to many people in the hamlets, they were more comfortable with detailed technical and political terminology. Comments from these Missoula activists have been treated as a coherent whole, presented variously as composite characters Lynn Johnson and Sam Turner.

During this period, many local political leaders from both the Republican and Democratic parties became engaged with the problems in Milltown. By 2005, their active and even relentless efforts had been important in the securing of federal and state attention. It is important to note, though, that Bonner is the only incorporated entity in the immediate vicinity of the contamination, and Bonner is quite small in comparison to the city of Missoula. The hamlets were mostly left to depend on county officials to make the case for a cleanup. It was explained by many that, historically, the needs of the people of Missoula had demanded the majority of the time and effort of local politicians. Yet, regardless of whether the people of the hamlets perceived these officials as adequate representatives of their interests, the county-level officials were the primary political entities available to respond to their concerns. Comments from these county-level political leaders are presented variously as the composite characters Carol Forbes and Howard Weldon.