Marysville, MT – The Montana Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) will spend the next three years clearing contaminated mining waste from the slopes of Great Divide Ski Area.nEven though the materials on the slope in front of the ski area’s base lodge are contaminated with arsenic, lead and cadmium, along with other heavy metals, DEQ officials say that they don’t pose a health hazard to skiers and snowboarders visiting the area.

“The materials at the ski hill are pretty benign,” said Steve Opp, a reclamation specialist with the DEQ, which is more concerned about the fine tailings contaminating nearby streams.

The DEQ will prepare an eight-acre repository on nearby BLM land to store the 40,000 cubic yards of material to be removed from the ski area, along with more toxic mine tailings from Bald Butte in the nearby Dog Creek drainage. The repository will be constructed this summer, with materials removed from Great Divide following the 2010-11 ski season. Such efforts are thus not expected to interfere with ski area operations.