Helena DEQ starts major records digitization project

Helena, Mont. — The Montana Department of Environmental Quality’s Waste Management and Remediation Division is in the middle of a major effort to digitize old records.

According to a Facebook post, some of those records have to be kept for at least 30 years after cleanup work is completed, including files tied to remediation projects such as superfund sites.

The division has nearly 2,000 boxes of paper records in Helena and more than 1,500 more in off-site storage, the agency said.

DEQ said the work includes scanning files, checking them for quality and then destroying paper copies once digital versions are available.

The goal is to reduce storage space and make documents easier to access for project managers and public records requests, according to DEQ.