Hospital District Remediation Surprisingly Small Cost To County
Author: Hugh Van Swearingen
The Broadwater County Hospital District was recently billed for the county’s share of the cost of the latest cleanup of gasoline and diesel contamination left about 35 years ago by a filling station and bulk plant at the corner of Broadway and North Oak streets in Townsend.
No need to hold your breath, it was only $500 out of a total project cost of about $400,000.
Brian Obert, executive director of Montana Busi¬ness Assistance Connection (MBAC), estimates that 95 percent was paid by the Montana Petroleum Release Compensation Board and 5 percent by the U.S. Envi¬ronmental Agency.
The project, completed months ago, involved the demolition of a building that was owned by the Hospital District. It was used by the Broadwater Health Center hospital to house ambulances. After tearing down the building, the contractor had to excavate and then replace soil to a depth of 16 to 18 feet, Obert said.
The Hospital District also owned the hospital building across Oak Street. Broadwater County owned and still owns the corner lot adjoining the ambulance building lot. Some years ago, that lot was twice excavated to remediate petroleum pollution.
In 2019, the Hospital District was negotiating to sell the hospital building and ambulance building to Billings Clinic. Petroleum contamination was proving to be an obstacle to Chicago lawyers representing Billings Clinic. They were worried about underground pollution from the gas station seeping under the hospital building.
I was on the Hospital District board of directors at the time and still am. With help of our county com¬missioners and County Attorney Cory Swanson, the negotiations were successful. We sold the hospital building and grounds to Billings Clinic, which now also holds an option to buy the former ambulance building property. That option is on hold until the State Department of Environmental Quality certifies that no further action is needed to remediate the pollution. The certification won’t happen pending the results of soil tests yet to come. Upon certification, Billings Clinic will have two years to exercise its option.
Just look at what has transpired along with the cleanup. Billings Clinic Broadwater undertook an extensive rebuilding and modernization project. Before Billings Clinic took over, we were afraid that plumbing and air conditioning systems would fail due to age and deferred maintenance. Voters had turned us down on a mill levy tax request to finance repairs and replace¬ments. The hospital was losing money and was in debt to the county.
Special thanks are due to Brian Obert for his expertise and years of experience with remediation of petroleum pollution. He pulled everything together and got the ball rolling. MBAC is the federally and state designated economic development corporation for Broadwater, Lewis & Clark, and Meagher counties.
Thanks also to Snowy Mountain Development Corporation of Lewistown for management of the project.
Article Images
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PhotoCredit: Hugh Van Swearingen
Image 1 Caption: The corner of Broadway and North Oak before the cleanup.
Image 2 Caption: The corner of Broadway and North Oak today.
