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

how a cleanup might work, and what the immediate community should expect in both the short and long term.

In 2005, 28 people with interests in the Milltown Superfund cleanup were interviewed. Using an in-depth interviewing technique known as the Long Interview (McCracken, 1988), the informants were asked open-ended questions that encouraged expression, in their own words, of their hopes and fears concerning the Milltown cleanup. Qualitative research approaches, such as these interviews, have the potential to expose how, under shifting conditions, a given community comes to understand and potentially redefine itself. The primary goal of these approaches is to let informants speak for themselves and, by doing so, expose both the cultural resources at work and any tensions among them. The goal in 2005 was to discover how local residents viewed the cleanup and its potential for changing the place that they knew and cared for.

After nearly 25 years had passed since the initial alarms were sounded in Milltown, one might have expected that positive momentum had emerged in support of the cleanup project. However, after spending only a few days in the local community, one would certainly discover that the proposed remediation and restoration plans were not backed by a community consensus, or even by overwhelming local support. Disputes regarding the fate of the historic Milltown powerhouse had divided the community. In early 2005, these debates were fading, as the majority of locals had come to accept the inevitability of plans to remove the structure as part of the cleanup effort, yet the powerhouse remained physically and, to a notable extent, symbolically intact. Some locals steadfastly questioned the details of the project, the motives of those influencing the negotiations, and the envisioned future. Remediation efforts were scheduled to commence that fall.

The Story Behind the Milltown Cleanup

The waters of the Clark Fork River originate as smaller streams and creeks in the mountains of western Montana. Silver Bow Creek, near Butte, and Warm Springs Creek, near Anaconda, serve as its primary