State health department, federal agency studying air-quality data in Greeley neighborhood

Feb. 19--The state health department is working with a federal public health agency to conduct a public health report on Butte air quality data.

The Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services (DPHHS) is leading the report, under a cooperative agreement program with the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), which is part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

The report, a "health consultation," evaluated air quality in the Greeley neighborhood for particulate matter and metals from March 2019 to September 2019, according to Laura Williamson, state epidemiologist with DPHHS.

She said the health consultation is analyzing ambient air quality collected at the former Greeley Elementary School on the north side of Butte, near the Montana Resources mine. The data is from the same air monitors used by Butte-Silver Bow and Montana Resources to collect air data.

"We were hearing from the community that ambient air quality is a concern, and the health department has data but not the technical expertise to analyze the data, so we stepped in," said Williamson. She said the state then partnered with ATSDR to produce a brief report of the analysis.

Dr. Kai Elgethun, ATSDR Region 8 director, wrote in an email to The Montana Standard that the health consultation "is a review of environmental data as it pertains to human health."

According to ATSDR health consultations "are not medical examinations, community health studies, or public health assessments."

"Most often, they are a review of environmental data to help answer a single question about a potential human health hazard," Elgethun said. "The question being addressed is whether particulate matter exceeded the National Ambient Air Quality Standards and whether metals in air exceeded health-based screening levels."

"The impetus for this health consultation was an information gap that was realized in December, and the decision to do the work was made by ATSDR and DPHHS," Elgethun said.

Elgethun said ATSDR and DPHHS have notified the Environmental Protection Agency about the health consultation but "are not doing this work at their request."

Williamson said the health consultation report is currently under scientific review by ATSDR and will be made available to Butte-Silver Bow once completed.

Karen Sullivan, Butte-Silver Bow health officer, said a separate study on the air quality data is being conducted by Montana Resources.

"Because of concerns about air quality in the Greeley Neighborhood, Montana Resources retained Bison Engineering to do some enhanced air quality monitoring that looks at particulate matter and total suspended particles," said Sullivan.

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