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Montana Natural Resource Damage Program will continue work in East Helena this year

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HELENA — East Helena faces environmental challenges due to the smelter site and the prevalence of lead.

The Montana Natural Resource Damage Program had two significant projects in 2024 and has similar goals this year.

Doug Martin, the NRDP administrator explains why NRDP does work in East Helena.

"The main impact to the natural resources there is groundwater and capping the slag pile is the remaining remedial activity that needs to take place to help protect the groundwater in East Helena.”

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The Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Environmental Quality are responsible for impacts on people and work alongside the NRDP on projects like the smelter site cleanup.

In 2024, a one million gallon water storage tank was constructed for the city and is expected to result in approximately 16 million gallons of water savings.

However, that is not the largest project that happened last year.

“Completion of what we call Segment 2, south of the Prickly Pear Greenway Trail is property owned by Prickly Pear Land Trust and we worked with them to construct about one and a half miles of trail around reconstructed wetlands," Sydney Stewart the East Helena project manager at NRDP says.

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In 2025 new construction on this trail will begin to connect East Helena to Montana City per the restoration plan.

In addition to continued trail work NRDP has plans for Prickly Pear Creek.

Stewart says, "We have a little bit of money to do surface water restoration, so we are looking at putting large trees into the riparian area around the restored area of Prickly Pear Creek."

NRDP on behalf of the governor, oversees the use of funds and allocated them to several restoration projects in East Helena as part of 2019 East Helena ASARCO Smelter Final Restoration Plan.