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LOCAL SUPERFUND NEWS
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.

   
   


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