Silver Bow Creek Rehabilitation Succeeded

Silver Bow Creek Rehab Returning Durant Canyon to Former Glory

I's taken 15 years, but the reclamation of Silver Bow Creek from where it passes Ranchland Packing in Butte through Durant Canyon to Fairmont Road is nearing completion.

And the results are stunning.

The combination of the 1908 flood event, which washed millions of pounds of mine tailings down the creek, and the creek'sstatus as contaminated for many years, left the waterway devoid of fish or insect life.

Its banks for more than 20 miles to the Warm Springs treatment ponds resembled the surface of the moon, not a once verdant world-class trout stream.

But remediation and restoration are bringing Silver Bow Creek back to its former glory, returning it to its status as "Sin-tahp-kay-Sntapqey." That's Salish for a river where the fish are so plentiful they can be shot in the head. It's what the Indians initially called the creek. (White explorers in the early 1800s named the creek Silver Bow for the way the sun glinted off its waters.)

The Department of Environmental Quality will finish the work through Durant Canyon, about 12 miles west of Butte, it began in 2009 by summer 2015, and soon after the Greenway Service District trail will wind its way through the area.

It's a beautiful place to take a run, bike ride or kayak trip, with high walls of trees and jutting rock.

The state Department of Environmental Quality has removed more than five million cubic yards of mine tailings in those 15 years, and has fewer than 300,000 cubic yards remaining. In places through Durant Canyon, the tailings were 17 feet deep, said Greg Mullen, environmental science specialist with the Natural Resource Damage Program.

"You can call this a million-dollar view because it cost that much," joked Joel Chavez, DEQ project manager, during a tour of the canyon earlier this month. "This is remarkable in here. I think it will be recreated pretty hard."

In recent weeks, work crews have seen beavers, elk, minks and great horned owls in the canyon. Grasses and willows grow vibrantly green along the stream banks. Cottonwoods and aspens are taking root.

Contractor crews have in stretches through the canyon placed the creek inside a 48-inch pipe in order to clean the riverbed. Currently 4,900 feet of the Silver Bow Creek is in pipe, though it will be placed back in its bed in late fall. Crews are backfilling the streambed with clean fill and armoring the banks to protect them against a flood event.

One amazing result of the cleanup: Silver Bow Creek is six miles longer than it used to be after miners straightened and channelized it in areas. The creek is now about 27 river miles from Butte to Warm Springs.

Source: mtstandard

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