Silver Bow Creek/Butte Area
Superfund site
Berkeley Pit (center) and Yankee Doodle Tailings Pond (upper left) with terraced levels/access roadways. The city of Butte is at lower right.
Geography
CityButte
CountySilver Bow
StateMontana
Coordinates46°01′N 112°31′W / 46.02°N 112.51°W / 46.02; -112.51
Butte is located in the United States
Butte
Butte
Location in the United States
Butte is located in Montana
Butte
Butte
Location in Montana
Information
CERCLIS IDMTD980502777
ContaminantsArsenic, cadmium,
copper, zinc, lead
Progress
Proposed30 December 1982
Listed8 September 1983
List of Superfund sites

The Berkeley Pit is a former open pit copper mine in the western United States, located in Butte, Montana. It is one mile (1.6 km) long by one-half mile (800 m) wide, with an approximate depth of 1,780 feet (540 m). It is filled to a depth of about 900 feet (270 m) with water that is heavily acidic (2.5 pH level), about the acidity of Coca-Cola, lemon juice,[1] or gastric acid. As a result, the pit is laden with heavy metals and dangerous chemicals that leach from the rock, including copper, arsenic, cadmium, zinc, and sulfuric acid.[1]

The mine was opened in 1955 and operated by the Anaconda Copper Mining Company, and later by the Atlantic Richfield Company (ARCO), until its closure on Earth Day in 1982.[2] When the pit was closed, the water pumps in the nearby Kelley Mine, 3,800 ft (1,200 m) below the surface, were turned off, and groundwater from the surrounding aquifers began to slowly fill the Berkeley Pit, rising at about the rate of one foot (30 cm) per month.[1] Since its closure, the water level in the pit has risen to within 150 feet (46 m) of the natural water table.

The Berkeley Pit is currently one of the largest Superfund sites. The water, with dissolved oxygen, allows pyrite and sulfide minerals in the ore and wall rocks to decay, releasing acid. The acidic water in the pit carries a heavy load of dissolved heavy metals. A water treatment plant has been operating since October 2019.

The Berkeley Pit is a tourist attraction, with an adjacent gift shop. An admission fee is charged to go out on the viewing platform.

History

The Berkeley Pit in May 1984.

The underground Berkeley Mine was located on a prominent vein extending to the southeast from the main Anaconda vein system. When open pit mining operations began in July 1955, near the Berkeley Mine shaft, the older mine gave its name to the pit. The open-pit style of mining superseded underground operations because it was far more economical and much less dangerous than underground mining.

Within the first year of operation, the pit extracted 17,000 tons of ore per day at a grade of 0.75% copper. Ultimately, about 1,000,000,000 tons of material were mined from the Berkeley Pit. Copper was the principal metal produced, although other metals were also extracted, including silver and gold.[3]

Two communities and much of Butte's previously crowded east side were consumed by land purchases to expand the pit during the 1970s.[4] The Anaconda Company bought the homes, businesses and schools of the working-class communities of Meaderville, East Butte, and McQueen, east of the pit site. Many of these homes were either destroyed, buried, or moved to the southern end of Butte. Residents were compensated at market value for their acquired property.[citation needed]

Pollution, toxicity, and cleanup

Composite Fisheye View of the Berkeley Pit, April 2005
Perspective: Power line poles descending the walls of the pit. The poles are located slightly to the right of center in the above Composite Fisheye View, April 2005.

The Berkeley Pit is a part of the Silver Bow Creek/Butte Area Environmental Protection Agency Superfund site,[5] considered one of the largest in America,[6] and the pit itself was added to the federal Superfund site list in 1987. It is one of sixteen Superfund sites in Montana, and the final unrestored section of the Silver Bow Creek/Butte Area site.

In 1995, a flock of migrating geese landed in the pit and died. A total of 342 carcasses were recovered.[7] ARCO, the custodian of the pit, denied that the toxic water caused the death of the geese, attributing the deaths to an acute aspergillosis infection that may have been caused by a grain fungus, as substantiated by Colorado State University necropsy findings.[7] These findings were disputed by the State of Montana on the basis of its own lab tests.[7] Necropsies showed their insides were lined with burns and festering sores from exposure to high concentrations of copper, cadmium, and arsenic.[1] Levels of copper are high enough that Montana Resources has mined copper directly from the water.[8]

On November 28, 2016, several thousand snow geese died after a large flock landed in the pit's water to avoid a snowstorm.[9] Immediately after the event, officials made efforts to scare birds away and prevent more from landing in the area. An official report issued in 2017 by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service found that the 3,000 to 4,000 snow geese that died at the pit were killed by exposure to sulfuric acid and heavy metals.[10]

Atlantic Richfield and Montana Resources have installed Phoenix Wailers, a type of sonic bird scarer, to keep birds from loitering in the pit.[11][12] Studies have shown that the Wailers have been effective in limiting bird deaths in most cases,[13] but they have not worked as well when faced with a large number of birds. Staff also use firearms to scare away birds during spring migration seasons.[14]

A treatment plant was completed in 2019 and began treating the water in the pit before it would contaminate local groundwater.[15] The plant cost $19 million and was designed to treat ten million gallons of water per day.[16]

Important dates

Geography

The mine is at 46°00′56″N 112°30′37″W / 46.01556°N 112.51028°W / 46.01556; -112.51028, at an altitude of 4,698 feet (1432 m) above mean sea level.

Geology

The Butte mining district is characterized by the Late Cretaceous Boulder batholith which metamorphosed surrounding rocks during the Laramide orogeny. Ore formation occurred with the intrusion of the Butte quartz monzonite pluton.[21] Mining of sulfide minerals began in the district in 1864. Placer deposits were mined out by 1867. Silver vein lodes were then the most productive until copper was discovered in 1881. Open-pit mining started in 1955. Copper has historically been the main metal produced, though lead, zinc, manganese, silver and gold have been produced at various times.[21]

Organisms in the water

A protozoan species, Euglena mutabilis, was found to reside in the pit by Andrea A. Stierle and Donald B. Stierle, and the protozoans have been found to have adapted to the harsh conditions of the water.[22][1] Intense competition for the limited resources caused these species to evolve the production of highly toxic compounds to improve survivability; natural products such as berkeleydione, berkeleytrione,[23] and berkelic acid[24] have been isolated from these organisms which show selective activity against cancer cell lines. Some of these species ingest metals and are being investigated as an alternative means of cleaning the water.[1]

Photos

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Edwin Dobb. "New Life in a Death Trap". Discover, 2000.
  2. ^ "Anaconda to abandon Butte mine". Lewiston Morning Tribune. (Idaho). Associated Press. April 24, 1982. p. 4A.
  3. ^ "Berkeley Pit History". Colorado State University, Department of Biology. Archived from the original on 2009-04-28. Retrieved 2009-02-21.
  4. ^ Thornton, Tracy (March 13, 2016). "McQueen photographs evoke bittersweet memories". Montana Standard. Retrieved 2020-07-07.
  5. ^ "NASA - Berkeley Pit: Butte, Montana". www.nasa.gov. Retrieved October 9, 2009.
  6. ^ Robbins, Jim (June 25, 2018). "Let the Stream Run Through It". New York Times. Retrieved November 18, 2018.
  7. ^ a b c Adams, Duncan (December 11, 1995). "Did toxic stew cook the goose?". High Country News. Retrieved November 18, 2018.
  8. ^ "Montana Resources mines the water". PitWatch.org. July 5, 2009. Archived from the original on 2022-06-26. Retrieved November 18, 2018.
  9. ^ "Thousands of snow geese die in Montana after landing on contaminated water". The Guardian. Associated Press. November 18, 2018. Retrieved 7 December 2016.
  10. ^ Dunlap, Susan (April 18, 2017). "Metals, acid in Berkeley Pit water killed geese, report confirms". Montana Standard. Retrieved November 18, 2018.
  11. ^ Guarino, Ben (December 7, 2016). "Thousands of Montana snow geese die after landing in toxic, acidic mine pit". The Washington Post. Retrieved November 18, 2018.
  12. ^ "Migratory birds shooed away by drone, fireworks, lasers". The Spokesman-Review. Associated Press. September 16, 2017. Retrieved November 18, 2018.
  13. ^ Daley, Jason (December 8, 2016). "Thousands of Snow Geese Die at Abandoned Pit Mine". Smithsonian.com. Retrieved November 18, 2018.
  14. ^ Saks, Nora. "Most Montana Superfund Work Continues Despite Stay-At-Home Directive". Montana Public Radio. Retrieved 2020-08-10.
  15. ^ Saks, Nora. "Butte Reaches Superfund Milestone, Releasing Berkeley Pit Water Into Silver Bow Creek". Montana Public Radio. Retrieved 2020-08-10.
  16. ^ Emeigh, John (7 August 2019). "Berkeley Pit water treatment plant is almost operational". kpax.com. KPAX-TV. Retrieved 13 July 2020.
  17. ^ United States Environmental Protection Agency. (1994). EPA Superfund Record of Decision: Silver Bow Creek/Butte Area. Retrieved from https://semspub.epa.gov/work/08/1164465.pdf
  18. ^ a b c d Gammons, C.H., & Duaime, T.E. (2020). The Berkeley Pit and surrounding mine waters of Butte. Geology of Montana--Special Topics: Montana Bureau of Mines and Geology Special Publication, 122. Retrieved from https://mbmg.mtech.edu/pdf/geologyvolume/GammonsDuaimeMineWatersFinal.pdf
  19. ^ United States Environmental Protection Agency (2002, March 25). United States and Montana Reach Agreement with Mining Companies to Clean Up Berkeley Pit. [Press release] https://www.epa.gov/archive/epapages/newsroom_archive/newsreleases/746732fc9e0255f185256b88005adc40.html
  20. ^ U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Montana Department of Environmental Quality. (2002). Explanation of Significant Differences: Butte Mining Flooding Operable Unit Silver Bow Creek/Butte Area NPL Site. https://semspub.epa.gov/work/08/1140014.pdf
  21. ^ a b Edwin W. Tooker (1990). Gold in the Butte District, Montana in USGS Bulletin 1857 Gold in Copper Porphyry Copper Systems. United States Government Printing Office. p. E17-E27.
  22. ^ Gugliotta, Guy (2007-08-21). "Researchers Hope Creatures From Black Lagoon Can Help Fight Cancer". Wired. ISSN 1059-1028. Retrieved 2020-07-07.
  23. ^ Stierle, DB; Stierle, AA; Hobbs, JD; Stokken, J; Clardy, J (2004). "Berkeleydione and Berkeleytrione, New Bioactive Metabolites from an Acid Mine Organism". Organic Letters. 6 (6): 1049–1052. doi:10.1021/ol049852k. PMID 15012097.
  24. ^ Stierle, AA; Stierle, DB; Kelly, K (2006). "Berkelic Acid, A Novel Spiroketal with Selective Anticancer Activity from an Acid Mine Waste Fungal Extremophile". The Journal of Organic Chemistry. 71 (14): 5357–5360. doi:10.1021/jo060018d. PMID 16808526.

Further reading

  • McClave, M. A. (1973). Control and distribution of supergene enrichment in the Berkeley Pit. in Guidebook. Butte District, Montana: Butte Field Meeting of Society of Economic Geologists. pp. K–1–K–4.
  • Shovers, B.; Fiege, M.; Martin, D.; Quivik, F. (1991). Butte and Anaconda revisited. Special Pub. 99. Montana: Montana Bureau of Mines and Geology.
  • Weed, W. H. (1912). Geology and ore deposits of the Butte District. Professional Paper 74. Montana: U.S. Geological Survey.

External links

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