HELENA — East Helena faces environmental challenges due to the smelter site and slag pile. Agencies like the Environmental Protection Agency and non-profits like Prickly Pear Land Trust are working together to improve East Helena’s lands.
Madelyn Heath reports in the video below:
East Helena's mayor, Kelly Harris says, "It is important to find what the community wants and on top of it making sure they have a clean and safe place to work and play.”
Thanks to a collaboration of agencies and stakeholders they are answering East Helena’s want and needs.
After decades of operations, the East Helena ASARCO site was contaminated with lead, arsenic, and other heavy metals. In 1984, the EPA classified it as a Superfund site.
In recent years, the EPA has approved several cleanup projects.
“First was capping the smelter site, second was removing the process ponds and creating the wetlands which will now be Prickly Pear Park, and the third activity is capping the slag pile," Bridget Williams, of the Environmental Protection Agency says.
These cleanup efforts have both bettered the groundwater and allowed for the creation of a new trail area.
Mary Hollow is the executive director of Prickly Pear Land Trust, the owner of the cleanup area.
"One of the things that is really unique about this space is that it is going to be a major area for wildlife," Hollow says. "It is a corridor to the creek and connects in with Montana City."
Prickly Pear Park is 240 acres and in the future Prickly Pear Land Trust will transfer the area into the community’s hands.
New construction on this trail will begin to connect East Helena to Montana City.
“In the last month we actually acquired a trail easement that will help us connect safely to Montana City school which was a really awesome unexpected win at the end of 2024," Hollow says.
The progression of the site cleanup, recreation construction, and groundwater improvement are something Mayor Harris is excited about.
Harris says, “East Helenans are hard-working people. They work hard and when they are off they play hard, so this is a place for people to go out and have a good time.”
This trail is set to open to the public in the spring of this year, making the area open to the public for the first time in a century.
