Powell County, Montana
The Tramway Creek Mining Complex (TCMC) Mine Waste Removal Project in Powell County, MT is a joint Montana Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ), U.S. Forest Service, and Trout Unlimited project.
The TCMC includes 42 inventoried legacy mining-related waste rock piles and six known discharging adits located within the Tramway Creek drainage and along the banks of the Little Blackfoot River within the Upper Little Blackfoot watershed. Contamination is a residual of historic mining activities beginning in the late 1880s and continuing through the 1970’s; with primary lode development and production having occurred between the 1890’s and 1950’s.
North Wind Portage was awarded the contract as design engineer and began site characterization work in 2016 followed by prioritization and identification of waste rock piles to be removed in 2018. Design work began in 2019 with solicitation of a construction contract in 2020. Due to funding shortages, the scope of work was reduced to focus on only removing mine waste that was actively eroding into the Little Blackfoot River. The design was revised in spring 2021 followed by removal of mine waste and site reclamation in summer 2021. The North Wind team continues to work with the project partners to identify funding sources and solutions to address removal of additional mine waste within the Tramway Creek drainage.
