The WPS and the Northside Community

The White Pine Sash Mill Superfund site is located in the area generally referred to as the ‘Northside’ community. Though it has a stigma from  mainly being inhabited by low income, non-traditional families in the past, the demographic has changed a lot in the last decade or so.  The Northside is now home to many new families and young couples who have moved in to the area due to its proximity to downtown and other city services. 

Since 1996, The Northside Community Devleopment  Corporation has strived to represent the interests of the Northside and improve the community as a whole. Since it has the best interest of the Northside neighborhood in mind, the NMCDC has long advocated for the best cleanup that the Montana Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) can provide regardless of costs. Bob Oaks, the current Executive Director, has followed the White Pine Sash Mill Superfund issue since it began. "We have basically been a local watchdog and neighborhood advocacy organization in terms of White Pine's superfund status."  The NMCDC submitted a comment during the public comment period that the DEQ held from March 1st to April 14th 2014.

The official comment can be found here on the NMCDC's website : http://www.nmcdc.org/index.html

Residents of the Northside community themselves have even spoken out against the proposed plan. Heidi West,  featured in the article below, attended the Public Meeting held on March 11, 2014 and gave her peace about why she wanted the residential cleanup and almost broke down in tears.This issue hits home for people who care about the community they live in and want the the best for the future residents who will live here. They want to feel that their opinions and concerns are being heard and truly considered.

According to Oaks,  "This will be the only opportunity to charge the party responsible for cleanup with cleanup costs.  If it is not cleaned up to the best standard now, it is unlikely that it will ever receive added cleanup investment.  It will generationally set in stone limitations for future use."

http://missoulian.com/news/local/missoula-neighborhood-pushes-deq-to-strengthen-cleanup-order-for-northside/article_3a87d02c-b21d-11e3-9b02-001a4bcf887a.html

Lots of community members attended the Public meeting/hearing that the DEQ put on at the Red Lion Inn on March 11, 2014. Though only a few people stayed to giver their public comments verbally, the tone of the questions that people had regarding the plan was less than positive. Oaks, who also attended the meeting with thre rest of the NMCDC staff stated in regard to the public meeting "I thought it a poor showing by MDEQ and that it had a good deal of misinformation and inherently contradictory information.  The main presenter is new to the site and relatively new to MDEQ.  I also felt that a case was being made that cherry picked evidence to justify DEQ's conclusions rather than to describe all the evidence and explain how values were assigned to each input."

The NMCDC believes the DEQ has definitely 'cherry picked' evidence used to support its ruling of anticipated future use as well as the real potential for the site according to the Northside community as a site for potential residential development. According to Oaks the proposed  plan "Establishes different standards for cleanup of former industrial sites in the community based on unclear neighborhood character/quality distinctions".  In other words, the DEQ really hasn't taken into account the amount of backlashing that it's getting and the overwhelming support for a higher standard to be pursued. When asked what his biggest complaint about the issue was so far, he answered "Inadequate cleanup determination".

 In the case that the Record of Decision turns out to be that the site only be cleaned up to commercial standards, the NMCDC is seeking legal advice for how to proceed. When asked what the best use of the site would be regardless of what the DEQ decides, Oaks replied "The highest and best community use would likely be some form of mixed use that could include housing services and job creation.  If the vacant WPS and Clawson sites were combined, they constitute 27 contiguous acres -- close to downtown and adjacent to city services.  It is will be an enormous loss to the neighborhood and the community if these properties are developed piecemeal without a master planning process that includes the adjacent residential neighborhood and the larger community." 


  

WPSM Parks Plan

The WPSM is home to the White Pine Park, its located in the central-east part of the superfund site. Before this last summer, the park was just a large grass field. After summer of 2013, the Missoula Parks and Recreation department added a playground to the park. The playground has a jungle gym rope toy, a few spring toys and some other smaller play toys. 

This first link is to the City of Missoula Parks and Rec Playground project plan: 

http://ci.missoula.mt.us/DocumentCenter/Home/View/8494

The second link is to the master plan that has been set for the park: 

http://www.ci.missoula.mt.us/DocumentCenter/Home/View/8493

Reading Material About the White Pine Sash Mill

The first article dates back to 2008 written by Rob Harper. The article details the fight for different zoning regulations within the WPSM site. This article is about the general thought of cleaning up the site to residential standards instead of commercial / industrial.

http://missoulanews.bigskypress.com/missoula/white-pine-sash-awaits-deq/Content?oid=1138500

Interviews with residents

The White Pine Sash Mill is in the heart of the northside Missoula community, however, there is a lack of interest by the local residents. Many local residents of the surrounding area have little knowledge of the WPSM. Out of the residents that were interviewed, only two had any real opinions on the subject. Most residents responded with "what's the White Pine Sash Mill?" or "Sounds like they (MT-DEQ) know what they are doing". During the interviews there was also a few people who knew nothing about it but after talking to them, they wanted to learn more about the mill. The few residents who did know about the mill were highly opinionated about the mill. Through my interviewing, when people knew about the mill, they wanted it to be cleaned to residential standards instead of just to commercial levels.

 Ellie, a resident of Missoula wanted to see the park cleaned up to higher standards than the levels which the MT-DEQ stated. During the interview, she stated that she uses the park and she was concerned about the contaminates that were present. She was also concerned about the deterioration of the northside lot where the debris field is. She was worried about all the debris and the gasses and how it affects other residents of the community. She commented on how much debris is in the field and that she wishes it would be cleaned up. She seemed much less concerned with the rest of the lot however. Overall, she wants the northside of the WPSM to be cleaned up first then worry about the rest of it.

Picture of White Pine Park

Here is a picture of the park with the police depot in the background.

Picture of WPSM

Pictured here is the northside of the White Pine Sash Mill superfund site. This is part of the property that is mainly grass and shrubs with debris scattered within the confines of the property.

Current Status of the WPSH

Nestled in the heart of the Northside Missoula community is the White Pine Sash Mill (WPSM) State Superfund site. The site is located between Scott st and Rodgers st, north of the Scott street bridge. As of now, there are 3 owners of the Superfund site. The northern most part of the property is owned by Scott Street LLP. The middle of the property is owned by the city of Missoula, while the southern most part of the property is owned by WWW investments. The chunk of the land owned by Scott Street LLP is currently an empty field with debris scattered in it. The land is currently overgrown and in need of some care. The city of Missoula has a park on the premises, the northside police depot, and a general city of Missoula vehicle yard. WWW investment's part of the land is home to zip beverage and a separate small lumberyard operation. 

Currently, the Montana Department of Environmental Quality has assessed the site for cleanup options and has released their proposed plan. The MT-DEQ had a public meeting on March 11th to discuss the plan with people and to take their comments on the issue at hand. The MT-DEQ also had a public comment section that closed on March 30th. the MT-DEQ is currently assessing those comments and deciding on a plan on how to move forward. 

One of the big hurdles for the MT-DEQ has been deciding what the future land use will be for the site. The future land use will be a major factor in deciding what the standard is for cleanup at the site. The only part of the site where this matters however is the northside owned by Scott Street LLP. The other parts of the property are going to remain industrial for the distant future. The other chunk of land affected by the land use decision will be the park that is sandwiched in the middle of the site. The city of Missoula White Pine Park, is located in the middle of the site and is one of the many parks on the northside of Missoula. The city has stated that they are intent on keeping the park where it is and many residents support this decision.