Group kicking up dust

North Fork Road coalition wants pollution solution

Flathead County's dust-abatement delinquency continues, as a new group is making more noise about dust problems on the North Fork Road.

The Montana Department of Environmental Quality on Tuesday sent a letter to the county outlining problems with a long-awaited dust-abatement plan submitted to the state April 1.

"I think it was a good plan for identifying the problem, but it was lacking in how they intend to correct the problem," said Larry Alheim, an environmental-enforcement specialist with the DEQ.

The draft plan was submitted in response to a Jan. 11 administrative order (and a $29,000 fine) for the county's failure to take "reasonable precautions to control emissions" of dust on gravel roads.

The DEQ offered to suspend $18,200 of the penalty, and now an appeal about the remaining $10,000 is pending before the state Environmental Review Board, Alheim said.

The plan submitted by the county was lacking in several areas. Alheim said it doesn't describe how the county intends to implement rural-improvement districts as a means of paying for dust reduction; it doesn't address the issue of heavy through-traffic on some county roads with few residents; and it doesn't show how the county intends to enforce its own resolutions requiring commercial or construction operations to control dust.

"And there are no hard commitments that they are going to follow and use the plan," Alheim said.

The county has been asked to revise the plan within 30 days.

County Commissioner Joe Brenneman said the county is on track to complying with the DEQ.

"Our first step was to provide the information we had," he said. "One of the first things you do with regulatory agencies is try to figure out what they want. That's a successful first step. Now that they have the feedback from them on what they want to see, we can provide the information."

But even after a satisfactory plan is developed, Brenneman said, the county will be faced with what it faces now: a lack of money for paving or using other means to curb dust.

"Our desires and our means are two different things," he said.

Within the valley are several hundred miles of gravel or dirt roads, and the county doesn't have the money to pave them all, which leaves some irate residents looking to the state for answers.

Alheim said that since 1998, the DEQ has received more dust complaints, about 53, from Flathead County than any other county in the state. Lewis and Clark County comes in second, with 23 complaints, and he said there were no complaints from 22 counties during the same period.

That prompted a warning letter to the county in June, followed by a violation letter in August. Flathead County didn't respond to either letter, prompting the administrative order and the fine.

Some of the more vocal and organized complaints are coming from a group called the North Fork Road Coalition for Health and Safety. The coalition formed last summer to address dust problems on the rugged, dusty and heavily traveled North Fork Road.

Coalition spokesman Bob Grimaldi says the group is made up of about 80 North Fork residents and likely will grow as seasonal residents arrive this summer.

The group is paying particular attention to the county's response to the DEQ because "the North Fork Road is one of the county's major particulate-matter pollution sources."

Efforts to extend paving on the road have been met with stiff opposition from other North Fork residents who are concerned that paving would bring more development, tourists and environmental impacts to the rustic North Fork.

"There have been a lot of changes since those days," Grimaldi said, referring to the mid-1990s when a serious proposal to extend paving was turned back.

Since then, a land-use committee and land-use restrictions have been established. And more importantly, Grimaldi said, it appears that there are a growing number of North Fork residents who are unhappy with dust conditions on the road, and increasing support for some paving.

A recent survey of residents conducted by the coalition found that 76 percent support dust abatement on unpaved parts of the road; that 66 percent are not satisfied with existing maintenance on the road; and that 55 percent favor paving the road from Canyon Creek to Glacier National Park's Camas entrance.

Grimaldi said that the North Fork Road is a "different animal" than other county roads that typically lead to rural residential areas. The North Fork Road, by contrast, is a major arterial access to Glacier Park. It also is used routinely as an administrative route by the Forest Service, the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation and the Border Patrol.

Although some North Fork residents have maintained that the notoriously rough road would discourage increased visitor travel, Grimaldi says that's not the case.

"People are still coming," he said. "Recreationists are coming in droves. … Not paving the road is not keeping people out. It's just not doing that."

Environmental groups often raise concerns about sediments coming off remote forest roads, but Grimaldi says those roads pale in comparison to the sediments boiling from the North Fork Road into the adjacent North Fork River.

Grimaldi stressed that the coalition is focused solely on finding some cure for the road maintenance and dust problem, and it is taking unusual steps in that direction.

The group has raised $5,000 for a study this summer by an environmental chemist from the University of Montana.

The study will include measurements of the dust coming off the road, and how much harm it may cause to humans.

"We're paying for this out of our own pockets," Grimaldi said. "And this is something the county is supposed to be doing."

Reporter Jim Mann may be reached at 758-4407 or by e-mail at jmann@dailyinterlake.com