Key Dates

(Anticipated Completion Date)

The Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) would like to notify you of the public comment period for the removal of the Montana Rail Link (MRL) 1930 South Avenue West Facility (Facility) from DEQ's Comprehensive Environmental Cleanup and Responsibility Act (CECRA) priority list. The public comment period on this delisting will begin on Tuesday, February 4, 2025 and ends on Thursday, March 6, 2025 at 11:59 pm. Copies of the Voluntary Cleanup Plan (VCP) are available at the Missoula Public Library located at 455 E. Main St in Missoula and the VCP and other site-related documents are available at the DEQ State Superfund Unit of the Waste Management & Remediation Division office located at 1225 Cedar Street in Helena. Please send comments to Heather Foslund at the Department of Environmental Quality, Remediation Division, P.O. Box 200901, Helena, MT 59620-0901. DEQ will hold a public meeting upon written request to the DEQ on or before March 6, 2025, by 10 or more persons, a group of 10 or more persons, or by a local governing body.

(Completed) With the submission of this CCR, all work under the VCP-RP has been completed and the City of Missoula petitions Montana Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) for closure of the VCP and delisting of the Montana Rail Link 1930 South Ave West Facility (MRL Triangle).

(Completed) As an outcome of the City’s public outreach efforts, the Missoula Valley Water Quality District (MVWQD) desires to include monitoring well-4 (MW-4) in its groundwater monitoring network, and the City is willing to allow this pursuant to the terms and conditions laid out in a fully executed Memorandum of Agreement (MOA). With DEQ guidance, this MOA will be included in the petition for DEQ delisting. 

(Completed) The preferred remedy for the MRL Park includes placement of restrictive covenants (institutional controls or ICs) that limit the use of the MRL Park to recreational land use. The restrictive covenants prohibit anything but recreational use of the MRL Park to ensure all future use remains recreational. The ICs, when combined with the remedial soil cleanup that has previously been conducted at the MRL Park in 2018, ensure protectiveness for all users of the park. Once the restrictive covenants are authorized and approved by Missoula City Council, they will be recorded with the Missoula County Clerk and Recorder's Office and included as part of any subsequent property transfer. 

(Completed) As required in the VCP process, the City installed groundwater monitoring wells. Along with a former supply well, these wells (MW-2, MW-3 and GTS Supply Well) will need to be abandoned by a contractor certified with the Montana Board of Water Well Contractors in accordance with the Administrative Rules of Montana Regulation 36.21.670 “Permanent Abandonment.”

(Completed) The cleanup plan includes minor excavation of arsenic-contaminated soil in the base of Stormdrain-3 using a vacuum truck, then disposal of the removed soil at the Republic Landfill in Missoula.

The City received DEQ approval of the Voluntary Cleanup Plan on March 27, 2024. Fieldwork is now being initiated and will be completed within 18 months or less. See DEQ's approval letter here.