ATSDR - Carpenter-Snow Creek and Barker-Hughesville Sites in Montana

Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry

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ATSDR MEDIA ANNOUNCEMENT

ATSDR Releases Final Public Health Assessments for Carpenter-Snow Creek
and Barker-Hughesville Mining District Sites in Cascade and Judith Basin counties, Montana

For Immediate Release: April 16, 2004

ATLANTA - The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), a public health agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, has released its final public health assessments for two Montana sites: the Carpenter-Snow Creek Mining District Site in Cascade County; and the Barker-Hughesville Mining District Site in Cascade and Judith Basin counties.

Discharges of heavy metals from mining and processing operations are present at the Carpenter-Snow Creek site. As in the public comment version of the health assessment for this site and as announced earlier at public meetings, ATSDR notes the possibility of adverse health effects of exposure, particularly in children, to lead in the soil at Neihart.

At the Barker-Hughesville Mining District site, ATSDR identified the possible risk of cancer and noncancer health effects for populations that may be exposed to arsenic and lead in surface soils. This health risk was noted earlier in the public comment version of the health assessment for this site and announced at public meetings.

According to ATSDR's public health assessment, contaminant concentrations present at the Barker-Hughesville Mining District site are great enough to result in health effects if exposure occurs on a daily or near daily basis. Therefore, ATSDR recommends that the Barker-Hughesville Mining District site be remediated.

The public health assessments for both sites are available for review at these repositories:

Neihart Post Office
108 North Main St.
Neihart, MT 59465

Belt Ranger Station
4234 Highway 89
Neihart, MT 59465

Great Falls Public Library
301 2nd Ave. North
Great Falls, MT 59401

Monarch Post Office
Monarch, MT 59463

For more information, community members can contact Environmental Health Scientists Teresa Foster or John Crellin, toll free, at 1-888-422-8737. Regional Representative Dan Strausbaugh also may be contacted at 406-457-5007. Callers should refer to the Carpenter-Snow Creek in Neihart, Mont., or the Barker-Hughesville site in Great Falls, Mont.

Established by Congress in 1980 under the Superfund law, ATSDR conducts public health assessments at each of the sites on the EPA National Priorities List, as well as other sites when petitioned. Headquartered in Atlanta, ATSDR is staffed by more than 400 health professionals including epidemiologists, physicians, toxicologists, engineers and public health educators.

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Members of the news media can request an interview with ATSDR staff by calling Jennifer Sarginson or Jill Smith in the ATSDR Office of Communication at 404-498-0070.

Back to ATSDR Home page

Updated by R. Searfoss April 19, 2004
For more information, contact ATSDR at:
1-888-422-8737 or e-mail (public inquiries)
404-498-0080 or e-mail (news media)