Southwest Montana News

BUTTE – Work on the Montana's approximately 20 Superfund sites has not ceased, even as the COVID-19 crisis has brought much of the rest of Montana to a grinding halt.

Scaring off birds may not be everyone’s idea of essential work, but at the Berkeley Pit outside Butte, bird protection specialist Mark Mariano continues to do his job to keep waterfowl away from the toxic lake at the abandoned open-pit copper mine.

With the spring bird migrations in full swing, Mariano’s work falls into the essential category under Montana’s coronavirus directives.

Yet, Mariano is not the only bird protection specialist working at the pit, so his daily routine now also involves sanitizing the workspace and equipment.

"We do have to share these tools, so that’s the weak spot in this,” he recently told Montana Public Radio. “You know, you haven't really lived until you've disinfected an AR [-15] first thing in the morning — that’s used to scare birds off a giant toxic lake."

Joe Vranka is the Environmental Protection Agency’s Montana Superfund chief. He told MTPR that high-priority activities are still ongoing at the approximately 20 Superfund sites across Montana.

"Right now, the way we’re operating, the work hasn’t slowed down at all,” Vranka said. “We’re as busy as we’ve ever been.”

Those staff that can are working remotely, and decisions are being made on a case-by-case basis to decide what work is essential, he said, according to the report.

At the Berkeley Pit, Mariano said he has enjoyed some of the added peace without planes above or boats out on the water.

"It’s been some really awesome birding," he told MTPR.

In fact, the added quiet provided by the stay-at-home order makes this a great time for anyone who can to get out to the shorelines and look for birds, he said.

"It's a wild time to have an ecological education,” he said. “And it's a distraction from the crazy."