Little new work will take place in Rimini or the surrounding mountainsides this year, due to an additional internal review by regional Environmental Protection Agency officials, as well as the ongoing investigation into the costs at the Upper Tenmile Superfund project.

The delay means that replacement of hazardous materials in the road that runs through Rimini won't take place this summer, and the near-completed community sewer system probably won't be hooked up to homes this year.

"The work ... will be part of the ROD (Record of Decision) amendment, and that work will not begin at least until the 2008 work season," John Wardell, Montana EPA director, said on Thursday.

The EPA will continue its search for a water supply for the community of about 40 residents; will replace the soil in the final two yards awaiting that work; and will perform touch-up work on some of the 44 properties remediated last year.

The delay in finishing the work clearly frustrates Rimini resident Jim Martin, who asked EPA Project Manager Mike Bishop when the federal agency would finally be finished in the tiny hamlet west of Helena.

"When are you people going to be out of Rimini?" he asked Bishop during a meeting Thursday night at the Helena library. "Is this going to go on and on, exponentially? Are you accomplishing anything?"

Bishop said he expects the remainder of the cleanup in Rimini will take an additional two or three years.

He couldn't say whether the community wastewater treatment system will ever be hooked up, noting that they're evaluating costs not only to complete the work, but also what it would cost to dismantle what's already been installed, including a 48,000-gallon underground tank.

Bishop also said he doesn't know when -- or if -- work proposed to remove contamination from about 60 old mine sites in the surrounding mountains will take place; mine wastes were removed in the past few years from about 10 of those sites.

The Upper Tenmile Creek watershed is the primary source of the city of Helena's drinking water, as well as being home to the community of Rimini. But the area also is contaminated with heavy metals left over from more than a century of mining, and was placed on the federal National Priorities List as a Superfund site in 1999.

In the initial Record of Decision, issued in 2002, the EPA said it would find a new source of water for Rimini residents, including a taxpayer-funded water treatment plant, since the town's water is contaminated with arsenic. The EPA also wanted to replace lead-contaminated soil in yards, but knew it might disturb septic systems that couldn't be replaced due to health laws. So the EPA said it would build a community wastewater system, if necessary.

The total cost of the project was expected to be around $22 million, including the construction of a pit to encapsulate the waste from residential lawns and surrounding mountainsides. Replacing sections of the road, which were built with contaminated soils in the 1980s, also would be part of the work.

But in November, the EPA put the work on hold pending an amendment to the ROD. EPA officials said the skyrocketing costs, far beyond what the federal agency initially anticipated, prompted the review, as well as the question of whether building a community wastewater and/or water system would illegally enhance property values of vacant land.

Wardell said that because of the costs, another layer of review -- in addition to doing the ROD amendment -- is necessary.

But it's hard news to swallow for some Rimini residents, including Kirk and Kathy Eakin, who moved their young children into Helena at their own expense while the cleanup work is being done.

After learning about the new delays, Kirk Eakin said on Thursday that he's not sure whether he'll move his family back to Rimini for the summer, only to move again when the road work takes place in 2008, -- or not -- or stay in their rental home for another year.

"This has been dragging on so long my kids will be out of the house at college before this gets done," he said. "When they were talking about the ROD recently, the impression you got is that it was going to be out any day. This is amazing.

"The whole project amazes me, in how they can squander this much time and money."

Reporter Eve Byron can be reached at 447-4076 or by e-mail at eve.byron@helenair.com