EPA offers the following definition of Operable Unit: During cleanup, a site can be divided into a number of distinct areas depending on the complexity of the problems associated with the site. These areas called operable units may address geographic…

Near the town of Opportunity, this area long served as a tailings dump for the Anaconda smelters. Processed mine waste (tailings) from the smelters was mixed with water (slurried) and pumped to the site. The Waste Repository has not truly…

In September 1983, the EPA placed the area associated with the historic Anaconda Smelter, just east of the town of Anaconda, on the Superfund National Priorities List (NPL). Consulting with the State of Montana and coordinating with Atlantic Richfield, or…

The Upper Clark Fork Basin, which stretches 120 miles from Butte to Missoula, was heavily impacted by mine wastes washed down Silver Bow Creek and the Clark Fork River from Butte and Anaconda, settling throughout the floodplain and backing up…

History From the discovery of gold on Silver Bow Creek west of Butte in the 1860s, the Clark Fork River and surrounding ecosystems of western Montana have been heavily impacted by mining and smelting. With the discovery of gold and…

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