30 years on the river: Montana’s Clark Fork Coalition observes anniversary with new projects

Ronald Reagan was in the White House, men wore frighteningly short shorts, and Missoulians threw everything from crap to concrete in the Clark Fork River when a new organization decided some changes needed to happen.

"The film of the year was ‘Back to the Future,’" recalled Peter Nielsen, who once wore some of those shorts and helped found what became the Clark Fork Coalition http://clarkfork.org/ after watching a new load of riprap get tipped onto the banks beside the Higgins Avenue Bridge. "The Frenchtown paper mill’s discharge permit really galvanized everyone. They were dumping 20 million gallons of wastewater into the river every day. Sometimes it seems it really is ‘Back to the Future’ — we’re still fighting that doggone permit today. It just won’t go away."

Rob Chaney for The Montana Standard

Full Story: http://mtstandard.com/natural-resources/years-on-the-river-clark-fork-coalition-observes-anniversary-with/article_8fc83272-63ec-502c-9b7e-c2fd6106101d.html