This is a project page for the Milwaukee Roundhouse Area (MRA) site remediation
When the last Chicago Milwaukee St. Paul and Pacific (Milwaukee Road) train passed through Deer Lodge in the early 1980s, it signaled an end not only to the area’s largest employer, but also to the economic vitality of Deer Lodge and surrounding areas. Unfortunately, the effects of the Milwaukee Road’s bankruptcy are still evident today in the shuttered and dilapidated main street store fronts and lack of good-paying employment opportunities. In addition to the largest economic driver disappearing, the Milwaukee Road’s bankruptcy burdened the City of Deer Lodge with 51-acres of prime industrial land heavily contaminated and occupied by an abandoned railroad maintenance facility.
Today, an 11-acre site owned by Powell County known as the Milwaukee Roundhouse Area (MRA), is a center-piece to the larger 51-acre Milwaukee Roundhouse Facility (MRH). The MRH is listed as a high priority State Comprehensive Environmental Cleanup and Responsibility Act (CERCA) site.
At the MRA, a roundhouse and refueling operation serviced steam, electric, and diesel locomotive engines from 1908 to the 1980s. Milwaukee Road maintenance operations resulted in spills or leaks from fuel piping, underground storage tanks (USTs), and above ground storage tanks (ASTs), and contaminated on-site soils, groundwater, surface water, and sediments with metals, SVOCs, VOCs, and EPH/VPH fractions. All of the structures, including the historic roundhouse, USTs, ASTs and electrified line have been removed. What remains is petroleum contaminated soils from historic fueling, degreasing, and cleaning activities.
For the rural southwest Montana town of Deer Lodge, this site is a key to new commercial development, job opportunities and a long-envisioned safe pedestrian connection from the east to west side of town. These outcomes are publicly recognized, documented, and well supported, and will be possible once funding is secured to continue and complete soil remediation. Funding will build on the momentum of a recently completed (October 2024) $1.15 million RDG-funded soil reclamation project. The BNSF and Union Pacific railroad both operate rail-lines that directly border the western perimeter of the site, making it ideal for manufactured products needing boxcar transport.
2024 Site Reuse Plan Developed with Montana DEQ Brownfields funding, in joint partnership between the City of Deer Lodge and Powell County. Ayers & Associates and WWC Engineering were competitively procured in 2023 to complete site re-visioning with strong community. input. The result, a 2024 site reuse plan, identifies opportunities and constraints to development along with community vision and needs.
Soil Remediation 2026 Existing Conditions
Current Grants Pending:
- EPA Cleanup Grant (applied January 2026) - $4 million to complete soil remediation and restore the site to productive use. Application is under review.
- Montana DNRC Reclamation and Development Grant (awarded!) - $500,000 to continue soil remediation. Bid for soil remediation open now through March 18.
- Montana DNRC Planning Grant (awarded 2025! ) - $75,000 Stormwater Study to investigate an old remaining drain. The study is complete.
- Montana DNRC Planning Grant (awarded 2025!) - $75,000 to refine understanding of the current extent of soil contamination. The study is under review and nearly complete as of January 2025.
EPA project background (exteneral link): EPA Petroleum Remediation of the Milwaukee Roundhouse