ADMINISTRATIVE RECORD 1549403 - R8 SDMS Community Involvement Plan Carpenter Snow Creek Mining District Superfund Site July 2014 United States Environmental Protection Agency Region 8 Table of Contents 1. PURPOSE ..................................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Superfund Law and Cleanup Program ...................................................................................... 1 1.2 Document Organization ............................................................................................................ 2 2. SITE BACKGROUND ................................................................................................................. 4 2.1 Location .................................................................................................................................... 4 2.2 Site History ............................................................................................................................... 4 2.3 Nature and Extent of Contamination ........................................................................................ 5 2.4 Summary of Community Involvement Activities ..................................................................... 7 3. SITE BACKGROUND AND CONCERNS ................................................................................. 9 3.1 Population and Demographics .................................................................................................. 9 3.2 Government and Services ......................................................................................................... 9 3.3 Community Concerns, Comments, and Issues ......................................................................... 9 4. COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT PLAN OBJECTIVES AND STRATEGIES ...................... 11 4.1 Proactive Approach ................................................................................................................ 11 4.2 Define and Communicate Roles ............................................................................................. 11 4.3 Formally Involve Local Officials and Other Community Representatives ............................ 12 4.4 Comply with CERCLA/SARA Requirements ........................................................................ 12 5. COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT ACTIVITIES ...................................................................... 13 5.1 Activities. ................................................................................................................................ 13 5.2 Site-Specific Support Activities ............................................................................................. 13 6. REFERENCES ........................................................................................................................... 16 List of Figures 1 Site Location Map 2 Site Layout Map 3 Primary Waste Areas List of Appendices A Contacts B Information Repositories C Public Meeting Locations D Local Media E Elected Officials F Community Interview Questionnaire List of Acronyms CERCLA Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act CSCMD Site Carpenter Snow Creek Mining District National Priorities List Site DEQ Montana Department of Environmental Quality EPA U.S. Environmental Protection Agency mg/kg milligrams per kilogram NCP National Oil and Hazardous Substances Pollution Contingency Plan SARA Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act 1. PURPOSE This Community Involvement Plan for the Carpenter Snow Creek Mining District National Priorities List Site (CSCMD Site), Cascade County, Montana, is an update to the CSCMD Site Community Involvement Plan dated August 2011 (USEPA 2011). The focus of this updated Community Involvement Plan is to guide community engagement activities through investigation, remedy selection, remedial design, remedial action, and the initial stages of operations and maintenance for the entire CSCMD Site (Figures 1 and 2). The previous Community Involvement Plan focused on the community of Neihart. The CSCMD Site includes the town of Neihart (Operable Unit 1) and the slopes to the east and west of Neihart and the Carpenter and Snow Creeks drainages (Operable Units 2 and 3). Operable Units are established by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to assist with better management and remediation of large sites. Operable Unit boundaries may change as a site progresses through the cleanup process, as they have at the CSCMD Site. This Community Involvement Plan has been prepared in accordance with the Superfund Community Involvement Handbook (USEPA 2005) and the Community Engagement Initiative program endorsed by the EPA Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response. The Handbook outlines the community involvement requirements stipulated in the National Oil and Hazardous Substances Pollution Contingency Plan (the NCP), which are the regulations that govern Superfund. In addition, implementation of the Community Involvement Plan will follow EPA’s Community Engagement Initiative, an EPA policy which is designed to help interested community members more effectively participate in the EPA decision-making processes. The Community Involvement Plan guides the EPA’s communications and interactions with the affected community and stakeholders as part of the Superfund process. The Community Involvement Plan serves as a basis for identifying community concerns and planning two-way communications so that the public gets questions answered and concerns publically addressed. Community Involvement staff members or contract employees strive to anticipate, identify, and acknowledge areas of conflict so that decisions can be made with full understanding of community views. The EPA conducts community interviews and, based on these interviews, prepares a Community Involvement Plan that includes a description of the site background, history of community involvement at the site (including major community concerns), community relations objectives, and a list of affected and interested groups and individuals. The community interviews form the foundation for developing a plan for keeping the community engaged throughout the Superfund process. It is important to emphasize that the Community Involvement Plan often presents opinions of residents and other interviewees. The information obtained in these interviews and summarized in the Community Involvement Plan reflects interviewees' responses, regardless of whether those responses are factually accurate. The interview questions and responses are discussed further in Section 3.4. 1.1 Superfund Law and Cleanup Program Superfund is the federal program to clean up uncontrolled or abandoned hazardous waste sites. The Superfund law, officially known as the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA), was passed by Congress in 1980 and amended in 1986 by the Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act (SARA). The Federal regulation that guides the Superfund program is the NCP, first developed in 1968 and revised to incorporate the Superfund process after enactment of CERCLA in 1980. CSCMD CIP July 2014 Page 1 of 16 Superfund’s basic provisions: Give the EPA the authority to mitigate or prevent the releases or potential releases of hazardous substances; Enable the EPA to compel those responsible for site contamination to pay for cleanup; and Depending on annual appropriations from Congress, provide funding for cleanup when money from responsible parties is not available (fund-lead). The NCP requires the EPA to develop and manage community involvement programs at both fund- lead and enforcement-lead sites. At fund-lead sites, cleanup is paid for with money appropriated by Congress and money provided by the State where the site exists. At enforcement-lead sites, potentially responsible parties pay for cleanup with oversight by EPA and the state. At either type of site, community involvement remains the responsibility of the EPA or the State when the State is the lead agency. The Superfund community involvement effort promotes two-way communication between members of the public and the government agencies responsible for investigation and cleanup actions. Under the Superfund program, the EPA investigates hazardous waste sites and is authorized to conduct two types of response actions: Removal Actions - short-term actions designed to stabilize or clean up incidents involving hazardous substances that may present an imminent threat to human health or the environment. Time-critical removal actions can last no longer than 12 months or cost no more than $2 million. Non-time critical removal actions also may be authorized and generally cost more and take longer to complete. Remedial Actions - long-term cleanup actions that reduce threats to human health or the environment due to releases or potential releases of hazardous substances. The overall objectives of Superfund community involvement are as follows (EPA 2005): Keep the public well informed of ongoing and planned activities; Encourage and enable the public to get involved; Listen carefully to what the public is saying; Change planned actions where public comments or concerns have merit and fit within the Superfund law and NCP; and Explain to the public how EPA considered their comments; what EPA plans to do; and why EPA reached its decision. The EPA’s community involvement activities also address environmental justice issues. Environmental justice