ScholarWorks at University of Montana

Silver Bow Creek: 100 years as a copper mine -- Can it be restored?

Silver Bow Creek, devastated by a hundred years of mining and ore processing, was devoid of all but the most metal and acid tolerant life forms. But the first Earth Day in 1970 marked the inception of an environmental awareness that even infected the Anaconda Copper Mining Company. From the Companies early work to reduce metals discharging from the mine in the 1970s, through the Superfund cleanup era that extends to the present and beyond, the concentration of copper in the Creek has been reduced by over four orders of magnitude. Is that enough progress to meet Superfund’s legal and enforceable measure of “clean enough” —Montana’s water quality standards? I will present the history of the cleanup and explore the practicable limits of meeting water quality standards. Finding practicable limits to restoring Silver Bow Creek’s ecosystem is a complex endeavor that goes beyond Superfund and begs the question, “why is restoration taking so long?”