Considering the fact its watershed contains three of the nation’s largest superfund sites, the Clark Fork River maintains a remarkable trout fishery. Even as cleanup continues at the Butte and Anaconda copper pits, the current focus rests on the removal of the Milltown Dam a few miles upstream from Missoula.
Built to provide hydropower to a century-old lumber mill, the dam also collected sediment washed down from the copper mines. Periodic floods flushed the deadly metals downstream, with resulting fish kills.
The cleanup involves removing millions of tons of sediment while the river is diverted through a bypass channel.
“There have been some short-term impacts. Last year fish died in our test cages all the way down to the confluence with the Bitterroot River (4 miles below Missoula). We probably will see more contaminated sediments moving through in the future,” said Pat Saffel, fisheries manager with Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks.
Until its anticipated completion in 2008, the project blocks trout movement into the Blackfoot and upper Clark Fork, as well as Rock Creek.
“Once this is resolved, I expect higher and more stable fish populations,” Saffel said.
