Operable Unit Information
The Pole Plant pressure treated posts, poles and bridge timbers with pentachlorophenol (PCP), using diesel fuel to carry the PCP into the wood surface. The plant operated from 1946 until 1984 and became a Superfund site in 1987 after it was noted that diesel fuel seeping out of groundwater into Silver Bow Creek and causing an obvious oily sheen.
EPA identified PCP, dioxins, furans and polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in soil and groundwater as the toxins that EPA decided creates unacceptable risks to human health and the environment. The remedy includes collecting and treating groundwater, treating soils at a land treatment unit (LTU), which uses microorganisms to naturally degrade organic contaminants and a capped waste repository (CAMU) for residual soil contaminants.
Try out DEQ’s Montana Pole and Treatment Plant Story Map for an interactive examination of current site conditions.
What’s New
Superfund updates.
ARCO selects Butte Repository to dump toxic dirt in Silver Bow Creek cleanup
Date: Mar 27, 2026 Published By: KXLF News BUTTE -This summer, the plan is to start moving the more than 1 million cubic yards of contaminated dirt from Butte’s Silver Bow corridor and deposit it at the Butte Mine Waste Repository northeast of town. “This is a large…
Silver Bow Creek Greenway: A Legacy Worth Protecting
Date: Mar 24, 2026 Published By: The Montana Standard Guest View, Greenway Service District Board – Montana Standard March 24, 2026 In Superfund communities like ours, progress doesn’t always arrive with fanfare. Often it comes quietly and incrementally — mile…
September – October 2025 Superfund Update
CTEC Sep-Oct update Download the Update