CTEC Newsletter and Technical Comments
Local Superfund News
Superfund
Basics
Science,
Society & Superfund : A Social History of America’s
Largest Superfund Site
Silver
Bow Creek/
Butte Area Site
West
Camp/Travona Shaft
Warm
Springs Ponds
Butte
Priority Soils
Berkeley
Pit
Pitwatch.org
Rocker Timber Framing & Treating Plant
Stream
side Tailings
Lower
Area 1
Superfund Contacts
Review
the latest report (.PDF format) on the Anaconda Smelter Superfund
site.Of the nine criteria the EPA
considers before deciding a course of action, two of the most
critical - state and local acceptance of the plan - require public
input. If you have comments or opinions about cleanup options
for Butte area sites that you'd like the EPA to pursue, it's
important to voice your opinion to people and organizations who
help decide the course of action that local clean up efforts
will take.
As well as being a place to express opinions, the local news
organizations are also a great source for news, analysis and
timely information about the work going on to clean up the Upper
Clark Fork Superfund sites. Each newspaper has a web site that
you can search for past and present stories about Superfund sites.
Click on any of the icons below to visit the sites of these Montana
news outlets.
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To send questions and comments, write to CTEC, P.O. Box 593, Butte, MT 59703, call us at (406) 723-6247, or send us e-mail:
Featured Story:
Repairing a River: Superfund & Restoration
along the Clark Fork
by Justin Ringsak, Clark Fork
Watershed Education Program
The environmental impacts of over 100 years of hard rock mining
in Butte stretch well beyond the city limits. And today Montana
communities from Butte to Missoula along a 120-mile stretch of
the Clark Fork River are working to manage those impacts and
restore the environment. A textbook could be devoted to the details
of each and every restoration project along the river, but, as
we continue to address the Berkeley Pit and the environment on
the Butte Hill, it is worthwhile to review the work that has
been done downstream, as well as the work yet to come.
Anaconda
In September 1983, the EPA placed the area surrounding the smelter
in Anaconda, easily identifiable from the towering old smoke
stack and lack of vegetation, on the Superfund National Priorities
List. Coordinating with ARCO, the potentially responsible party
for the site, the EPA and the State of Montana have been investigating
the extent of contamination. ARCO's liability and EPA's costs
are the subject of ongoing negotiations and litigation.
The site, located at the southern end of the Deer Lodge Valley,
covers an area of approximately 300 square miles, and includes
the former Anaconda Company ore processing facilities, two very
large tailings ponds (the Anaconda Ponds and the Opportunity
Ponds, now known as the BP-ARCO Waste Repository), as well as
the former Anaconda smelter stack, which, at 585 feet tall, is
the largest freestanding brick chimney in the world. The communities
of Anaconda and Opportunity both lie within the site footprint.
Around 100 years of historic milling and smelting of ore from
the Butte mines produced wastes with high concentrations of arsenic,
copper, cadmium, lead and zinc, which pose potential risks to
human health, as well as nearby ecosystems. The air pollution
that came from the smelter stack potentially impacted some 300
square miles.
Significant cleanup progress has already been made. From 1983
through 1986, the EPA oversaw the demolition of smelter facilities
and initial stabilization efforts. In May 1986, the EPA temporarily
relocated families with small children. In 1987 and 1988, all
Mill Creek residents were permanently relocated. The Mill Creek
area was cleaned up, graded and replanted in 1999. In 1991 and
1992, under an emergency removal action, arsenic contaminated
soils were cleaned up in three Anaconda neighborhoods. In 1994,
approximately 275,000 cubic yards of waste material, including
arsenic, cadmium, lead and zinc, were excavated from the old
Arbiter Plant site and moved to a repository on the smelter hill.
In 1992, the EPA and ARCO started to address immediate concerns
about contaminants released into Warm Springs Creek in the Old
Works area on the northeast side of Anaconda by stabilizing areas
adjacent to the creek, repairing breaks in levees and installing
fencing to limit access. In 1991, the EPA stabilized flue dust
from the old smelter, which contained copper, arsenic and cadmium,
with cement and lime, and then placed the treated materials in
a repository. Treatment of over 500,000 cubic yards of flue dust
was finished in late 1993. Remedy began for what is known as
the Old Works/East Anaconda Development Area in 1996, starting
with the renowned Old Works Golf Course. Construction in other
parts of the area was completed in the late 1990s with the exception
of the industrial area, where work to remove, cover and revegetate
remaining wastes and contaminated soils began in 2003, with an
expected completion date of 2010.
Remedial action for soils in residential yards was initiated
in 2003, and future residential areas will be monitored and cleaned
up, if necessary. A Record of Decision addressing all remaining
issues was signed by the EPA in 1998. The potentially responsible
party for these remaining areas, ARCO, is preparing remedial
designs that are then reviewed by the EPA, which is also working
with the community and local officials during the process. Construction
is expected to be completed over the next 15 years.
Work also continues at the site formerly known as the Opportunity
Ponds, now referred to as the BP-ARCO Waste Repository. The site
contains 160 million cubic yards of tailings from Anaconda smelting
operations, and currently 2.2 million cubic yards of contaminated
sediment that washed down the Clark Fork River to the Milltown
Dam, primarily in a 1908 flood event, are being excavated from
the Milltown site and shipped by rail to the repository, where
they are spread over the top of existing tailings. Because the
Milltown sediments were deposited in the Clark Fork River behind
the dam for nearly a century, they are richer in organic material
than existing Opportunity tailings, and will serve as topsoil
for revegetation at the site.
Residents from the nearby community of Opportunity have expressed
concerns about the repository, specifically the issue of tailings
dust blowing from the site in heavy winds. Steps have been taken
at the site to mitigate blowing dust. In April 2008, about 90
residents from Opportunity and Anaconda filed a lawsuit against
ARCO and other companies for what the residents say are property
damage and health hazards traced to past smelting operations.
The complaint claims that corporate environmental cleanup activities
have been slow and have yielded unsatisfactory results.
Clark Fork River
This site includes the Milltown area as well as the Upper Clark
Fork River from the outlet of the Warm Springs Ponds to upstream
of the former Milltown Reservoir. Contaminants from historic
mining and smelting upstream are present to varying degrees at
different points within the site, and were determined by the
EPA to pose potential risks to both human and environmental health.
Contaminants of concern include the usual suspects, arsenic,
cadmium, copper, lead, and zinc, with arsenic being the primary
contaminant associated with human health risks, and copper with
environmental health risks. According to the EPA, in general,
studies have concluded that human health risks are low enough
to be considered "acceptable", but the ecological risks
are high enough to be considered "not acceptable".
The EPA released a proposed plan for cleanup in August 2002.
The cleanup proposal included a combination of removal and in-place
treatment of tailings and contaminated soil, followed by revegetation.
Stabilization of eroding streambanks is an important part of
the remedy because they contribute approximately 60% of the pollutants
to the river. A Record of Decision (ROD) was signed in April
of 2004. The EPA conducted settlement discussions with ARCO and
the State of Montana in an effort to settle cleanup responsibilities
and costs associated with the remedy proposed in the ROD.
On February 7, 2008, a Consent Decree for the Clark Fork River
site was lodged with the Federal District Court in Montana. The
Consent Decree provides the structure for how ARCO will "cash
out" of its cleanup responsibilities by providing over $168
million to the State of Montana, which will perform the remedy
and restoration activities with EPA oversight.
Work is also underway at the Milltown portion of the site, where
contaminated sediments are being excavated and shipped by rail
to the BP-ARCO Waste Repository near Opportunity. The old Milltown
Dam powerhouse and associated facilities have already been removed
from the site, and, in March, a bypass channel around the remaining
dam structure was breached, allowing waters from the Blackfoot
and Clark Fork Rivers to flow freely past the dam for the first
time in over a century. The Missoula-based Clark Fork Coalition
hosts a webcam that shows ongoing work at the Milltown site at
http://www.clarkfork.org/Water-Watch/Milltown-Dam-Cam.html.
Silver Bow Creek/Butte
The boundary of the Silver Bow Creek/Butte Area site begins above
Butte, near the Continental Divide, and extends westward along
Silver Bow Creek to and including the Warm Springs Ponds treatment
area. The site covers about 26 miles of stream and streamside
habitat. Silver Bow Creek was used as a conduit for mining, smelting,
industrial and municipal wastes for more than a hundred years.
Vast mine tailings deposits are found along the creek. These
deposits contain elevated levels of metals and have been dispersed
over the entire flood plain. The site also includes the cities
of Butte and Walkerville, as well as the Berkeley Pit and the
interconnected mine workings.
It should go without saying that this site was heavily impacted
by the considerable mining and smelting activities that occurred
in the Butte area over more than a century. Ground water, surface
water and soils are contaminated with arsenic and other heavy
metals, including copper, zinc, cadmium and lead. The tailings
dispersed along Silver Bow Creek severely limit aquatic life
forms and have caused fish kills downstream. Potential health
threats include direct contact with and ingestion of contaminated
soil, surface water, ground water or inhaling contaminated air.
Reclamation efforts throughout the site have been underway for
20 years. In 1988, north of Butte in Walkerville, 300,000 cubic
yards of lead-contaminated soil from mine waste dumps was stabilized.
In 1990 and 1991, about 100,000 cubic yards of soil were either
capped or removed from the Butte Hill, and approximately 40,000
cubic yards from the old Colorado Smelter site were moved to
an on-site disposal area. Contaminated soils were also removed
from the Anselmo mine yard in 1992. Several additional waste
dumps in Walkerville were either removed or capped in 1994. In
1996, cement channels and sedimentation ponds were constructed
throughout the Butte Hill to address stormwater concerns.
Butte/Silver Bow County currently has a very successful Lead
Intervention and Abatement Program. The County's abatement program
removes both mining-related and non-mining related sources of
lead (such as lead-based paint and piping) from residential properties
where children live. The County has implemented the program since
1995 and there has been a significant drop in blood lead levels
in the community. For more information on this program, contact
the Butte-Silver Bow County Health Department.
Plans for the Granite Mountain Memorial Interpretive Area (GMMIA),
which includes Granite Mountain Memorial, the Mountain Con Mine
Yard, and surrounding historic mining areas, have been developed
over the past year, and work is scheduled to begin at this site
in 2008.
Silver Bow Creek itself has seen significant restoration over
the past several years. The stretch from Butte past Ramsay on
to Miles Crossing has been largely restored, and the results
of that restoration are easily visible. Tailings have been removed
and shipped to the BP-ARCO Waste Repository, and the floodplain
has been revegetated, creating an improved habitat for birds
and other wildlife and improving the water quality of the creek.
Restoration work continues on the remaining stretches of the
creek, from Durant Canyon down to the Warm Springs Ponds.
This article, while presenting a comprehensive account of reclamation
and restoration activities around the Upper Clark Fork Basin,
is unable to include full accounts of the many complex projects
and actions that have been completed and that are currently underway.
For more detailed information on these and other Superfund sites
around Montana, visit http://www.epa.gov/region8/superfund/mtsf.html,
and for regular news and updates about restoration activities
in the Clark Fork Basin, visit www.cfwep.org.
To send an e-mail
to any address below, just click on it.
Governor Brian A. Schweitzer
Office of the Governor
Montana State Capitol Bldg.
P.O. Box 200801
Helena, MT 59620-0801
Julie DalSoglio,
EPA
Region 8, Montana Office
10 W. 15th St., Suite 3200
Helena, MT 59626
1-406-457-5025
Letters to the Editors
Montana Standard
editor@mtstandard.com
25 W. Granite St.
Butte, MT 59701
Helena Independent Record
irstaff@helenair.com
PO.Box 4249
Helena, MT 59604
(Include address and daytime phone for verification.)
Missoula Independent
blake@missoulanews.com
115 S. Fourth St. W.
Missoula, MT 59801
Missoulian
opinion@missoulian.com
PO Box 8029
Missoula, MT 59807
(300 words or less.)
Silver State
Post
editor@silverstatepost.com P.O. Box 111
Deer Lodge, MT 59722
