Owner of former Smurfit-Stone Frenchtown, Montana, paper mill says it will market most of the property not affected by EPA's investigation, responds to state's recommendation that it be a federal Superfund site

Sandy Yang

MISSOULA, Montana , December 27, 2012 (press release) – Governor of Montana Brian Schweitzer recently announced he is supporting the EPA's proposal to put a former papermill in Frenchtown, Mont. on the National Priority List as a superfund site.

Papermill owner M2Green Redevelopment, LLC, an affiliate of Green Investment Group, Inc., responded to the Governor's announcement saying, "We were not surprised that the Governor would take this position and support the EPA in their proposal to further assess and make recommendations towards remediating the site. In the meantime, we will continue to market the several thousand other acres of the property that are not affected by the EPA's investigation," said Ray Stillwell, member/manager of M2Green Redevelopment, LLC, owner of the property since May 2011.

In a preliminary assessment of the site, the EPA identified "potential sources of contamination" within one specific area of the 3,200-acre site, but that "sampling data does not indicate an emergency situation currently exists." Further, according to the EPA's findings they "do not believe there is an imminent human health danger posed by the site."

None of the other six former paper mill sites owned by Green Investment Group or its affiliates has ever been designated as a Superfund site.

Since purchasing the property, M2Green Redevelopment has analyzed and repurposed many of the site's assets, prepared a rail line agreement with Montana Rail Link and entertained interest from several prospects who believe the property has potential for their business expansion or relocation.

"This is a very marketable site and we have had already had many prospects interested in development opportunities. While our efforts so far have been focused on evaluating and repurposing many of the assets on the property, our efforts will now turn towards more aggressively marketing the site," added Stillwell.

Stillwell stressed the fact that while the Frenchtown mill site may have some environmental challenges, it is not unexpected of an industrial site with a history in pulp and paper.

For more information about Green Investment Group, Inc. and its affiliates, visit www.greeninvgroup.com

* All content is copyrighted by Industry Intelligence, or the original respective author or source. You may not recirculate, redistrubte or publish the analysis and presentation included in the service without Industry Intelligence's prior written consent. Please review our terms of use.