No. 23: ‘A crisis in the courthouse’

Is our local government in Butte-Silver Bow lying about the latest water disaster that shook the community in August? Is it really being transparent when it comes to data centers planned for the Mining City?The answers to those questions are “yes,” “no,” and “whichwater crisis are you referring to?”Anonymous whistleblowers alerted the Mad About MontanaPodcast to the fact that Butte-Silver Bow’s response to the report of possible contamination from Montana Resources to the public drinking water actually made the problem worse. They also said that the imaginary dividing line of FrontStreet was just that. Imaginary. The five dividing valves that would have separated the water from downtown to uptown are on Aluminum Street. So, those who live and work in the blocks between Front and Aluminum were given a false sense of security while the Montana Department of Environmental Quality and Butte-Silver Bow pretended to solve the problem by handing out bottles of water.The whistleblowers will remain anonymous because Butte Silver Bow has a long — and recent history — of retaliating against anyone willing to blow a whistle. This episode also dives into plans for data centers in Butte and the insane amount of water it will take to run them. These plans, by the way, were made with little to know public input, and anyone who asks questions only gets chastised by the Council of Commissioners.The Montana Environmental Information Center will hold adiscussion, which will be moderated by Erik Nylund with the Mad About Montana Podcast, at 5:30 p.m. Thursday at the Montana Tech Copper Lounge.