Page 9 - Flathead Beacon // 6.11.14

FLATHEADBEACON.COM NEWS JUNE 11, 2014 | 9

Bigfork Man Faces Trial In

Animal Abuse Case

PROTECT
Gary Cuthbertson
August she found out that her father had “He could have woken up the neigh-
charged with cruelty to fallen ill and she needed to travel to Hol- bors, he could have called 911, he could
animals after his neigh- lywood, Calif. to care for him. Just be- have called animal control, he could
fore leaving Bigfork, she says she asked have done a lot of things,” she said. “Ear-
bor’s horse died tangled her neighbor, Cuthbertson, to watch ly intervention would have saved Ro-
the
her horses and that Cuthbertson said he meo. (Cuthbertson) had a responsibil-
in a fence
would call if there were any issues.
ity.”

A few days later, early on the morn- But Cuthbertson said there was
ing of Aug. 22, Cuthbertson was leaving never an agreement between the two
By JUSTIN FRANZ of the Beacon
his house to go ishing when he noticed neighbors other than that he would call
present
that Romeo was upside-down with one Valentine if something happened to the
A Bigfork man has been charged with of his legs stuck in a fence. Cuthbertson horses.
animal cruelty after his neighbor’s horse called Valentine in California and left After the incident, Cuthbertson was
got stuck in a fence and died last August.
a message. Cuthbertson said he called charged with animal cruelty. If convict-
Serra Valentine says she had asked again an hour later.
ed, he could face up to a year in jail and

her neighbor, Gary Cuthbertson, 80, to Valentine got the message when she a $1,000 ine. After being charged last
watch her horses last August when she woke up and frantically called family week, Cuthbertson was ofered a plea
traveled to California to tend to her dy- members and neighbors to get help to deal of a $100 ine and a deferred six-
ing father. But Cuthbertson said there her horse. Help arrived about two hours month sentence but he declined the ofer.
was “no agreement of any kind” between later and Romeo was taken to a local vet- “If I was guilty that would be a great
the two neighbors and that he’s inno- erinarian but by then too much liquid deal, but I’m not guilty, she’s just after
cent.
had gathered in his lungs and he died.
money,” Cuthbertson said.

Valentine had owned the horse, a Pal- Valentine said had Cuthbertson The case is set to go to a jury trial on
omino named Romeo, for four years and done more to help, Romeo might be alive July 24.
said that he was a “perfect animal.” Last
today.
[email protected]

CFAC
tamination in order to determine if any Glencore and said he doesn’t trust the
remediation is necessary.”
company will make a decision in the best
Continued from page 5
The Flathead County Commission interest of the local economy.

not move forward without community has not committed to endorsing the Su- “We’re concerned about whatev-
support.
perfund designation, nor has the board er Glencore has in their bag of tricks,”
Since then, the Columbia Falls City rejected it. Commissioner Pam Hol- Shepard said.
Council has given the OK for City Man- mquist said she’s still waiting on more Shepard said he’s also concerned
ager Susan Nicosia to write in support data from the EPA, and that she feels the that the county commission hasn’t tak-
of placing the site on the Superfund Na- need to be cautious when approaching a en a strong stance for or against a clean-
tional Priority List.
project that could take years.
up plan, and believes any existing con-
The study found various contamina- “There’s so many moving parts right
tamination in the groundwater or soil
tions around the site, especially in the now, and there just isn’t enough infor- could leach into the Flathead River near
north and south percolation ponds and mation yet,” Holmquist said.
the CFAC site.
the plant’s landill area. Cyanide, arse- In an interview last week, Nicosia “This thing isn’t going to heal itself,”
nic, lead and luoride were all found in said the results from the initial water Shepard said.
the groundwater in and around the plant.
tests were enough to prompt the city to Holmquist said she’s aware of the
The EPA also sampled water in ive test its main source for the city water criticisms of the commission’s stance
residential wells in a nearby neighbor- supply, in an efort to get the most infor- so far on this issue, but she still plans on

hood, called “Aluminum City,” and cya- mation to the public.
waiting for more information.
nide was found in two of the wells. The “We’ve never had any indication that In the past couple of weeks, the DEQ
concentrations in both wells were below there is a problem but we want to be able has opened up talks with Glencore to
the Safe Drinking Water Act’s allowable to come back to our public unequivocal- discuss the future of the plant.
limits, but it was enough for the EPA to ly and say that there’s nothing in our wa- Jenny Chambers, administrator for
want to take additional samples west of ter supply,” Nicosia said.
the DEQ’s remediation division, said last
the plant.
The city normally tests for luoride, week that she was in touch with Glen-
In a June 9 email, Parker said the but this time it ordered a whole panel of core, having spoken on the phone with

results from those tests showed no cya- tests on the water, which should be re- company representatives on May 23.
nide in the wells, which he said wasn’t leased in the next annual water report.
The discussion was just the irst, she
particularly surprising because ground- There are multiple options for deal- said, and mainly focused on summariz-
water lows change in the spring com- ing with contaminants found at the ing what has happened so far and laying
pared to the fall.
CFAC site, Nicosia noted, and it could out possible future options.
“Even though cyanide was not de- be handled on a state, federal or private “It’s really hard to igure out which
tected in residential wells in the April level. At this point, she said Columbia direction we would want to take this

sampling event, EPA believes there still Falls is in favor of the EPA and DEQ be- without understanding the interest of
is a need for further investigation at ing involved.
Glencore or CFAC directly,” Chambers
the site since there is contamination in Now that the site has been assessed, said.
the soils and groundwater at the site, moving on to further action from the The next meeting with Glencore
and contaminants were detected in do- DEQ or EPA – such as a more in-depth should be an in-person discussion, she
mestic wells, Flathead River, and Cedar remedial investigation – would require said, to speak more in depth. That meet-
Creek last fall,” Parker wrote. “This ad- community support, including from the ing is tentatively scheduled for later this
ditional investigation will help EPA and county.
month.

www.ThreeRiversBankMontana.com
DEQ better understand the hydrogeol- Columbia Falls City Councilor Mike [email protected]
ogy and the nature and extent of con-
Shepard has been an outspoken critic of