The Butte Silver Bow Health Department has released the draft of the Health Studies Work Plan required by the Unilateral Administrative Order under the EPA Superfund program. This document includes a plan for both Superfund and Non-Superfund proposals to the…

Large volumes of mine waste from Butte and Anaconda washed down the Clark Fork River and were deposited in the Milltown Reservoir near Missoula, at the confluence of the Clark Fork and Blackfoot Rivers. More specifically, considerable volumes of mine…

Mine wastes washed down the Clark Fork River from Butte and Anaconda were spread throughout the floodplain, settling in deposits called “slickens.” Slickens can be easily observed throughout the Deer Lodge Valley today; typically, they are dry, sandy areas with…

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 simple answer is that the responsible party pays for the cleanup. If the responsible party no longer exists, cannot be determined, or is unable to fund the cleanup, Superfund Trust fund money is used to complete the cleanup. However,…

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…