Conflict and Perceptions During Redevelopment:
A Case Study at Milltown Dam Superfund Site
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In 1981 arsenic was discovered in the drinking water in Milltown, a small community near Missoula, MT. For over one-hundred years, the Milltown Dam has been catching sediments coming downstream. The dam removal is part of the EPA’s Milltown Dam Superfund. The Milltown Dam Redevelopment Working Group, composed of concerned citizens and representatives from government agencies, has been charged with the redevelopment. Four-hundred acres of the dam site will be turned into a recreation area to be used by local community members and visitors.
The goal of this study is to help the Working Group and agency professionals identify ways to minimize recreation user conflicts, look at place attachment, achieve the goals that the citizens feel are the most important, and provide feedback on whether or not community members feel they have been included during the negotiation and redevelopment planning processes.
For the first phase of the project, a survey was designed and sent to residents in the communities surrounding the Milltown Dam. The survey was constructed to look at how often area residents participate in outdoor recreation activities including participation and recreation use as a component of a participant’s identity, perceptions about user’s levels of respect for land/water, others, and laws and regulations as well as users levels of destructiveness. We also constructed a measure of attachment to community. The participants were asked how they perceive negotiations and how they view others involved in the redevelopment process. The survey also looks at abstract concepts that all groups involved might agree on to develop ultimate, long-term goals for the area.
From the survey response, it does not appear issues arising from user perceptions hindered the negotiation process to this point in time. However, the study did suggest that those with higher attachment to community and to the rivers have different goals than those community members with lower attachment. Because differences in goals are a common source of conflict, this issue warrants further study. The concept of social identity provides a promising approach for framing the study.
The next phase of the project is to increase the response rate for the survey by continuing to ask for participation. Postcards will be sent to the survey recipients stating this project is independently funded separately from the project funds. Another continuation of this study would be to do in-depth interviews with some of the community members in the areas. The interviews would allow more insight into individual’s view of the process.
The study will help to contribute to situations of redevelopment, negotiations (inclusion and exclusion), and recreation user perspectives. The project is aiming to create a better sense of community by attempting to capture feelings towards this process. With additional changes in the community including the closure of a mill and other changes in this area, the residents need to learn the best ways to adapt and solve problems and come up with a way to productively face community issues.
Even as an undergraduate student, funding is available for projects students are interested in.
Funding Received:
- Irene Evers’ Competitive Undergraduate Research Scholarship- College of Forestry and Conservation
- Undergraduate Student/Faculty Research Award- Davidson Honors College
- Kain/McKay Scholarship in Applied Sociology- Department of Sociology
- The Watkins Scholarship- Davidson Honors College