Anaconda and Butte, Montana

Site Overview

Site Description

The Anaconda-Butte area contains a number of Superfund cleanup sites, including the Old Works Smelter site; a 4,000-acre dry tailings bed; and Silver Bow Creek, which runs the total length of a valley between Butte and Anaconda and is filled with mine tailings.

Organization Requesting Assistance

Cities of Butte and Anaconda

Beginning Date of Assistance

Fall 1996

Summary of TOSC Assistance

Several risk and technical workshops have been held for citizens concerned about the effects of mining and smelting waste in this region and the redevelopment of contaminated sites. TOSC has assisted with a number of redevelopment projects as part of revegetation and tailings cleanup activities, including the Anaconda Old Works Golf Course and the Gardens/Greenway Superfund sites. The Old Works Golf Course was built as a cap to help contain contamination from the Old Works Smelter site and has thus far been very popular and economically sustainable. TOSC has provided information, educational workshops, training, technical assistance, and site visitations for the community involved at this site. The Gardens/Greenway project is working to clean up tailings that were historically disposed into Silver Bow Creek. These tailings have migrated over 125 miles downstream (from Butte to Missoula), impacting the creek. TOSC aided in the investigation of a tailings cleanup technique which brings bio-solids from metropolitan areas to possibly use at this site. The intentions of this project are to construct a greenway, which will span the distance between Butte and Anaconda along the creek, and to construct the Butte Gardens Amusement Park, which will be located in uptown Butte on top of a brownfields site. These projects are excellent examples of what a community can accomplish with cleanup activities that benefit local communities, local development needs, and the environment, while enhancing economic sustainability.

NOTE: The EPA TOSC and TOSNAC programs have ended. Communities seeking technical assistance should contact:

- Belinda Young in EPA Region 7’s office (for help in Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, or Iowa) at 913-551-7463 and Young.Belinda@epa.gov;

- Briana Bill in EPA Region 5’s office (for help in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio) at 312-353-6646 and Bill.Briana@epa.gov; or

- Karen Martin at EPA Headquarters at 703-603-9925, Martin.Karenl@epa.gov; or

- EPA personnel identified at the bottom of the TOSC Information Contacts below: