Butte, Montana is no longer a town. It’s a dead zone.
"Standard Oil formed the Amalgamated Copper Mining Company. Not long after, the company changed its name to Anaconda Mining Company. The company engaged in questionable business practices, and at one point they even resorted to gunning down strikers in the Anaconda Road Massacre…[In the] 1950s, the Anaconda company switched its focus from the costly and dangerous practice of underground mining to open pit and strip mining. This marked the beginning of the end for the boom times in Butte." wikipedia
"Thousands of homes were destroyed to build the Berkeley Pit, which opened in 1955. At the time, it was the largest truck-operated open pit copper mine in the United States. Other strip mines were built in the area, a few of which are still operational. In 1982… the water pumps at the bottom of the pit were shut down, which resulted in heavily acidic water [pH 2.5] filling up the pit." wikipedia
"The Pit received national attention as a poster child of environmental damage when a flock of migrating snow geese chose to land and rest on the Pit’s toxic waters in November of 1995. They drank the highly acidic water and close to 350 died." ButteAmerica
"The water in the underground mines and Berkeley Pit is highly acidic and high in concentrations of arsenic, copper, cadmium, cobalt, iron, manganese, zinc, and sulfate, plus other inorganic constituents." MBMG
"As of April 6, 2005, the Pit’s water level was 5,251.43 feet above sea level. The water level climbed about 3.65 feet since the last issue of PitWatch in Fall 2004. Since June 1996, when PitWatch was first published, the water has risen about 123.15 feet." PitWatch
The EPA built a facility on the south shore of the pit to both remove the copper and add lime to the water, making a sludge that can then be dumped back into the pit. This U.S. $18 million facility is removing metals from 2 million gallons of water per day flowing from Horseshoe Bend.
Copper is recovered from the water and smelted elsewhere. The operation of this extraction facility requires ten tons of lime per day and generates a sludge contaminated with iron that is dumped back into the pit water. The copper in the water is swapped for iron in the water. In other words, the EPA cleanup is making the pit more toxic. It’s a "terminal sink."
Eventually, the water level will rise to the so-called critical level of 5,410 feet above sea level. One source forecast that this would happen in 2021, a more recent one claimed it would happen in 2018.
The water level has 158 more feet to rise before it reaches the critical level. Since the Pitwatch organization started keeping track in 1996, the water has risen about 123 feet.
what happens at 5410 feet? what’s so critical about it?
Yes, I was also wondering what happens to the pond with the high water level. Does it spill into and flood the nearby city, or spill over and wash into the nearest river????????? Someone ?
Once the pit is full it will continue to fill and in fact begin to overflow. The plant that was built is supposed to somehow control this and it will be activated with the extra overflow water at that time.
Without the treatment plant, at a certain point the water level will be higher than the surrounding town. See the relative elevations here:
http://www.pitwatch.org/watching.htm
How deep is the pit, what is the critical point in water elevation, what disaster measures are we looking at if the elevation of the water is past?
Thank you
Everett
so..whats going to happens when the water level reaches critical? What happens to us? just looking at the pictures of Berkeley pit gives me the chills.
Wiley N
from montana.
Hey, they have it all planed out, it will never over flow. It is closely watched and it is in the first stages of pumping. If you have any questions refer to http://www.pitwatch.org
It is a decent idea.