BUTTE — Below the center of Butte flows water tainted with poisons drawn from a mass of mining and smelting waste that has been a pollution problem for more than a century.
The deadly bright-blue plume “is the most contaminated mine water in the state of Montana,” says hydrogeologist Joe Griffin.
No one argues that point. But a raging dispute centers on what to do about it — and about the mass of tailings from the Parrot mine and smelter that is feeding the deadly brew of metals-laced water.
The polluted groundwater is moving toward Silver Bow Creek, and critics of the Environmental Protection Agency’s long-standing decision to leave the tailings in the middle of the city as “waste in place” say it could eventually endanger the recently completed cleanup of the lower part of the creek, which cost $147 million.
That EPA decision has been roundly criticized as being based on a flawed scientific model — and also for its intrinsic capitulation to the idea that Butte will never be able remove the taint of mine pollution.
Nobody is saying the Parrot pollution is a human health concern – but Silver Bow Creek’s recovery is key to Butte’s desire to move on from the environmental damage caused by its mining legacy.
In an interview, EPA’s manager for the Butte Hill portion of the Superfund cleanup acknowledged the inaccuracy of the agency’s earlier study on the speed the groundwater is moving. The manager, Nikia Greene, also said he is open to looking at data if the state can show evidence that removing the waste could clean water flowing through the site within the next century.
“I’ve never seen that data that tells me it’ll clean up before 100 years,’ Greene said. “Show me data that says this will clean up groundwater faster and I will look at that.”
Meanwhile, public pressure to remove the tailings is gaining steam. U.S. Sen. Jon Tester last month sent a letter to EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy urging that the tailings be removed. He received a reply that did not mention the tailings.
Gov. Steve Bullock favors removal of the tailings, as do Butte-Silver Bow County Executive Matt Vincent and State Sen. Jon Sesso, who serves as the county’s planning director and Superfund coordinator.
Atlantic Richfield Company, which became a responsible party for Butte mining damage after it purchased The Anaconda Copper Company in 1977, says it’s already paid the state $74 million to settle lawsuits, including money for removing the tailings.
The State Natural Resources Damage Council has formulated a preliminary plan to remove the tailings for an estimated $30 million, but says ARCO must come up with another $10 million.
In the meantime, EPA, the state, Butte-Silver Bow and ARCO are enmeshed in negotiations. Like opponents maneuvering on a giant chessboard of mine waste and money, they are approaching an endgame – a final consent decree that would determine what get s cleaned up, who does it and who pays for it. The negotiations, private by federal court order, have left the biggest stakeholders – the people of Butte – on the outside wondering what will happen next.
EPA and Montana Department of Environmental Quality have been locked in a dispute over the Parrot tailings for years – since at least 2004, says Griffin, who was formerly MDEQ’s manager for the Butte hill.
Now, EPA says a drain system in place is adequate, and Silver Bow Creek, under normal conditions, meets standards for aquatic life. But several scientists for the state say that EPA is overlooking scientific fact, and the system won’t be adequate “in perpetuity,” which is how long EPA says the groundwater must be monitored, pumped and treated.
The EPA says the plume of pollutants is not moving, even though it acknowledges the groundwater is moving faster than it originally gauged. Griffin says the EPA is “irresponsible” to suggest the plume is not moving, adding there is no evidence to support that claim. A state Bureau of Mining and Geology study in 2012 concluded that in 30 years, the plume has traveled approximately 80 percent of the way to the Blacktail Creek, a tributary of Silver Bow Creek.
By drinking-water standards, a 2010 Bureau study showed that the Parrot plume contamination was off the charts. Arsenic was more than 10 times the drinking water standard at the center of the plume. Cadmium was 800 times the drinking water standard. Copper was more than 7,500 times the drinking water standard. Lead was six times the drinking water standard, and zinc was nearly 100 times the drinking water standard.
Community advocates are adding their voices to those of state and local politicians in urging a cleanup.
“It’s the future of our community,” Project Green board president Northey Trethway told the Standard. “We have to do something. We don’t have forever to make things right.”