Beaver Wood Products Superfund Site - Open Jar of Dirt

Hello we are the Sterling family. We have 5 children, 4 girls and 1 boy their ages ranging from 22 to 16. We set up this Gofundme because our family is in a difficult situation and we need some help. We found out on April 4 2024 that our family residence is toxic from being on an old superfund site called Beaver Wood Products. The Eviromental Protection Agency came to our house and told us that our Dioxins and Furans in our soil are 2 1/2 times over the limit for residential safety standards. We were not given any assistance on trying to get our family into a better living situation and we are still in our family home. We have been in our home with these conditions raising our family since 2008 unknowingly.

Dioxin and Furan exposure cause some serious health issues especially when it comes to long term exposure. Some of the side effects of exposure are:

*Weakend Ammune System

*Headaches

*Dizziness

*Liver Damage

*Damage to the reproductive system

*Hormonal interference

*Hereditary Ties passed from mother to child

*Developmental Problems

*Carcinogenic Cancers

*Attacks the nervous system

*Endocrine system issues

We have talked to our bank and are still responsible for paying our mortgage as of right now, and we cant afford to pay a second rent or mortgage to get our family out of here. The EPA and DEQ have no programs in place for this sort of situation and can't help us.

We have hired an attorney and are struggling to come up with the retainer fees for her as well. We are going to be going for a settlement on our house as well as the secondary lot next to us and medical damages for our family.

Below is a more detailed explanation of our situation.

This property was all one 25 acre parcel called Beaver Wood Products that operated a treatment facility for post and poles from 1950 to around 2002 - 2003. They dipped wood poles in highly toxic chemicals like PCP and TDCC or dioxins and furans. They used a total of 218 different chemicals in this facility and of those 17 were found to be highly toxic to humans.

In December 2004, the EPA (Enviromental Protection Agency) began a cleanup action that was going to cost 4.5 million dollars. Once the clean up had been done there was a new deed of restriction that was to be filed and kept with the land moving forward. The deeded restrictions included that there could be no digging, excavating or removal of soil in 3 distinct units. Our house sits on one of those those 3 units, its called the "Land Treatment Unit".

The clean up at the superfund site took 5 years. The EPA only cleaned this site up to industrial specifications as it was the most cost effective possibility and they either failed to realize or did not care that it was on the scenic by way corridor to Glacier National Park leaving it basically open zoning for anything. The EPA failed to do the clean up to meet the different possibilities the land zoning offers. However, the deed restrictions were supposed to protect their decision of cleaning it up to industrial specifications because the land was never supposed to be used for anything other than industrial use moving forward. These restrictions never got moved to our tract of land when it was subdivided.

In 2006 there is a certificate of survey that shows they split the original Beaver Woods Products land into separate tracts. Permits for the septic installation, well, and foundation were drawn up about the same time. Our home was placed shortly after the foundation in approximately summer of 2007.

I purchased the property in 2008 and during the purchase there was nothing included about superfund site or deed restrictions on the property, only that the EPA had taken soil and water samples for safety requirements for the sale of the home. At this time, my family and I were not aware of our residence being on a superfund site.

Everything seemed to be great until 2016 when EPA showed up at the doorstep with a consent to sampling form and, informed us that we were living on a previous clean up site for a post and pole treatment facility. They took samples never raising alarm about it not being cleaned up to residential specifications and that everything was fine it was just follow up testing.

The EPA found the results were high in 2016 and said they felt they were contaminated or inconclusive and requested to do more sampling. However, the DEQ of Montana had reviewed the results and requested that the EPA take action for remediation immediately. The EPA did not prioritize this as the site coordinator came back out for more testing in 2021. We obliged another round of sampling still thinking things were fine as we reassured by the EPA everything was safe they just felt the tests were not thorough enough. At this time we requested the sampling results from 2016 as well as the upcoming results for the second round of testing in 2021. I did not receive the requested information until 2023 when I was informed they wanted to conduct a third round of sampling.

As time passed my family and I decided that we had dreams that pushed us to look at moving out of the flathead valley and we put our house up for sale. Our dreams were quickly terminated when we received a call from the EPA, a week or so after listing the house, stating that there was someone flying in from Denver to discuss the most recent samples and stated that they were 2 to 2 1/2 times over the regulated limits for dioxins and furans for residential safety standards. In our meeting with the EPA they again told us that our residence was on soil contamination that was not safe and explained that they wanted to fix the issue by placing a cap cover of clean fill dirt over the contamination.

We had started our own investigation and found at the end of cleanup in 2005 - 2006 they placed 6 - 8 inches of clean soil on the entire property and it was now contaminated just a few years later to levels that were dangerous. There is no way this option of new dirt was going to be a long term solution or a solution at all. We addressed our concerns wondering why if they knew from 2016 or even 2021 that these levels were dangerous why was our family still living on the property and he had very little answers or even concerns for our well being. We were fully aware there are medical repercussions of being exposed to dioxins and furans over prolonged time at this point after digging into our situation and they just left with no help for our family to get off the land and away from more exposure.

Today we are still living in our family home surrounded by toxins that threaten our health daily. We are also scared of our water and have been buying store bottled water for all our cooking and drinking needs. It has been a month since our original meeting with the EPA and our family needs assistance in finding a place to go while this mess is being sorted out.

Neither the EPA or the DEQ are helping us with much of anything they just keep saying we are looking for a solution. They claim there is no funding available for this type of situation because it is rare. Why is there no programs in place for these types of emergencies? You would think these large government agencies that there to protect our health would do something but here we are still paying a mortgage on the property that we cant safely reside or sell in order to move and our family has no where to go.

We hate to ask the community for help but we really are stuck with no other options. We want to also use our situation to inform the community of the outcome of putting homes on a superfund site clean up since this has also been proposed with the Columbia Falls Aluminum Plant cleanup. I feel that the only way this could be an option is if they remove all contamination and haul it out of our beautiful valley. The same should be done here at Beaver Wood Products or at the very least is should be cleaned up as best as possible and condemned for further use of any kind.

In advance we would like to thank everyone that has taken the time to read our story and our concerns as well as anyone that has donated to our GoFundMe account to help our family during this difficult time. We just want to get our family to safety.