BUTTE – Nearly a year after at least 3,000 snow geese died in the toxic waters of a former open pit copper mine, the Environmental Protection Agency says it hasn’t decided yet whether to fine the companies responsible for the site.
But EPA project manager Nikia Greene told the Montana Standard that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which has jurisdiction over migratory birds, won’t fine Montana Resources and BP-owned Atlantic Richfield Company over the bird deaths at the Berkeley Pit in Butte.
A Fish and Wildlife spokeswoman, Jennifer Strickland, declined to comment as did Montana’s U.S. Attorney’s Office, which handles enforcement for the agency.
The geese died after a late migration combined with a sudden storm forced them to seek refuge in the pit, part of the nation’s largest Superfund site.