Rainy Creek Road is a lifeline for access to public land
At this point in time it would be ridiculous to believe the EPA has an answer to any questions relating to the future use and access of the Rainy Creek Drainage.
The primary concern of the EPA is to remove contaminated waste material from the Libby Superfund Site and transport it up to the mine site via the Rainy Creek road system.
The Rainy Creek Drainage has been designated as Operating Unit No. 3 in the list of clean-ups administered under the EPA mandated process. The studies and research which are currently in place, or completed, will continue to provide the data necessary to make the final decision as to how this Unit No. 3 will be managed in the future.
Even the time frame to accomplish this task is realistically unknown and could quite conceivably take more years than we have been led to believe.
However, this enclosed information was not intended to reflect or suggest what the conclusion of the Record of Decision with its recommended remediation actions will be.
Instead, it addresses concerns that have developed into existing conflicts relating to communications, transparency, public involvement, interpretations or misinterpretations of EPA policy and protocol.
To most folks in this county the Rainy Creek Road from Highway 37 to the south fork of Jackson Creek cutoff is the lifeline to any future management of thousands of acres of public and private forest timber lands. Without the Rainy Creek Road we have no other access to this drainage.
This public road, primarily above the amphitheater, is not and has not been used and maintained in a manner that protects the surrounding environment and certainly not the integrity of the future possible consideration of accessible status.
If the protocol that the EPA uses to haul waste material from the amphitheater to the mine site remains as it has been over the past years then it becomes obvious that the Rainy Creek Road will probably never be upgraded to a level where it could be classified as a safe means of travel with no apparent threat to human health.
— Mel Parker, Libby