HELENA — Environmental regulators have put a halt to a Montana business association’s sale of sandwich bags of mining waste advertised as a “Bag O’Slag.”
Environmental Protection Agency officials overseeing the Superfund cleanup of pollution from decades of smelter operations in Anaconda came across the potentially toxic tchotchkes for sale by the city’s chamber of commerce. The slag contains small amounts of arsenic and lead.
Mary Johnston, the chamber’s executive director, said Monday the EPA asked them to stop selling the black slag in a re-sealable bag and gave them some alternatives.
Anaconda’s golf course, which has slag in its sand traps, offers slag and a golf ball in a sealed container as a souvenir.
Johnston says the chamber sold up to 40 bags a summer for $2 apiece.