Opportunity Cleanup

On May 31, OCPA sponsored an Opportunity Clean up. We had several residents join in as we walked every street in Opportunity picking up trash along side of the streets. Approximetly 15 big bags of trash where picked up. My hat goes off to every citizen that joined in on the clean up. Afterwards, a lunch was provided by OCPA which included Hot dogs with all the trimmings, Chile, Chips and a beverage. Thank you everyone for helping to keep our beautiful community beautiful.

Cadmium Warning

One of our local residents of Opportunity was diagnosed with extremely high levels of Cadmium in her blood stream. If you don't think we are in danger of being poisoned by ARCO/BP, think again. Here is the health facts on cadmium:

Clinical effects of Cadmium

Acute exposure to cadmium fumes may cause flu like symptoms including chills, fever, and muscle ache sometimes referred to as "the cadmium blues." Symptoms may resolve after a week if there is no respiratory damage. More severe exposures can cause tracheo-bronchitis, pneumonitis, and pulmonary edema. Symptoms of inflammation may start hours after the exposure and include cough, dryness and irritation of the nose and throat, headache, dizziness, weakness, fever, chills, and chest pain.

Inhaling cadmium-laden dust quickly leads to respiratory tract and kidney problems which can be fatal (often from renal failure). Ingestion of any significant amount of cadmium causes immediate poisoning and damage to the liver and the kidneys. Compounds containing cadmium are also carcinogenic.

The bones become soft (osteomalacia), lose bone mineral density (osteoporosis) and become weaker. This causes the pain in the joints and the back, and also increases the risk of fractures. In extreme cases of cadmium poisoning, the mere body weight causes a fracture.

The kidneys lose their function to remove acids from the blood in proximal renal tubular dysfunction. The kidney damage inflicted by cadmium poisoning is irreversible and does not heal over time. The proximal renal tubular dysfunction creates low phosphate levels in the blood (hypophosphatemia), causing muscle weakness and sometimes coma. The dysfunction also causes gout, a form of arthritis due to the accumulation of uric acid crystals in the joints because of high acidity of the blood (hyperuricemia). Another side effect is increased levels of chloride in the blood (hyperchloremia). The kidneys can also shrink up to 30%.

Other patients lose their sense of smell (anosmia).

Air monitor

It was brought to my attention that there are no pictures of the new air monitor placed near Opportunity. This is supposed to monitor air quality in our area and log it 24 hrs a day, 7 days a week.

May 20 2008, Yet another dust storm.

Yesterday May 20 between 4:00 and 5:00 pm, there was yet another dust storm that ripped through Opportunity. It also went across Highway 48 and the visibility was zero on that highway. I am surprised no one has been in a serious accident while trying to travel through one of these dust events. There was dust coming from the newly disturbed contaminated soil on the Mill Creek road and the people of Opportunity had a very hard time breathing. There was also tremendous dust coming from the stream side tailings project near Fairmont that also ripped through Opportunity. The dust blowing across Highway 48 was coming from the ARCO/BP pond area. This is getting really old and someone needs to be held accountable.

Some nice pictures of Opportunity

These pictures where shot by Ron N, an Opportunity resident. They show the beauty of our community and the breath taking scenery that we are trying to preserve.

Toxic tour

CFRTAC board members where treated to a tour of the ARCO/BP repository behind Opportunity on May 09, 2008. Charlie Coleman and Ken Brockman gave brief explanations of what was happening with the project and where the Mill Town waste material was being used.


Unloading of toxic waste at repository

Mill town waste, spread and seeded.

Charlie Coleman of the EPA
CFRTAC Board members at tour
Cats spreading Mill Town waste

What the EPA and Arco would like the finished ponds to look like.

They paint a pretty picture but is this capping and so called reclamation going to be a permanent fix? Time will tell...........

Mill Town Toxic sediments at the ARCO/BP repository

These pictures where taken off of the cfrtac website...
http://www.cfrtac.org/?p=217

One train a day, with 45 rail cars, makes the trip to the BP-ARCO repository.

Roughly 642,000 cubic yards of Milltown sediment has been shipped to BP-ARCO’s repository at the Anaconda Superfund site. CFRTAC coordinator Michael Kustudia, with assistance of pilot Gary Matson, recently flew over the repository and took these photos. The photo above shows the sediments being spread to form roughly a two-foot layer.

This repository cell awaits capping.

Milltown sediments, rich in both heavy metals and organic matter, are used to cap areas at the repository, which home to more than 300 million cubic yards of smelter waste.

photo's by Mike Kustudia

Once again

Well, Opportunity was once more blessed with a nasty dust storm. If it isn't smoke, its dust. Why does the EPA allow ARCO to do this to our beautiful community? Sometimes I wonder who is working for who. Its like we don't even exist in this community. Have you had a sore throat here lately? Its from the lime dust that is blowing into YOUR community. Think of what its doing to your lungs.. Thanks ARCO/BP, Thanks EPA, Thanks Montana Environmental Quality, Thanks Anaconda Deer Lodge County and Thanks ADLC health dept, we appreciate your concern.. Not..