Originally published on March 8, 2011, in the Great Falls Tribune
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by Karl Puckett
The federal Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday put the former copper smelter and refinery property in Black Eagle on the federal Superfund list, citing the threat of remaining pollution to public health and the environment.
The 427-acre site contains heavy metals contamination from historic smelting and refining activities, according to the EPA. Operations began in 1893 and ceased in 1980.
Residential soils in Black Eagle and the Missouri River also will be investigated for potential cleanup, the EPA announced.
"I'm very happy it's been listed," said Alicia Thompson, health officer and executive director of the Cascade City-County Health Department. "Now we can take the next step and really do this next level of testing and make sure Black Eagle residents are protected."
The decision, which will be published in the Federal Register on Thursday, makes cleanup of the high-profile property along the Missouri River a high priority nationally. It also authorizes EPA and the state Department of Environmental Quality to initiate cleanup and seek reimbursement from property owner Atlantic Richfield Co.
Moreover, the listing enables the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, a federal public health agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, to complete a health assessment, according to the EPA.
Dan Strausbaugh, a Montana-based representative of the agency, said the public health evaluations are routine.
"It's a comprehensive public health evaluation of contamination associated with the site and potential for human exposures," he said.
Superfund is the federal government's program to clean up uncontrolled hazardous waste sites. It was created to reduce risks posed by sites, and return them beneficial use.
Recreation is a likely future use of Smelter Hill.
Adding the former smelter/refinery site to the list, which was proposed a year ago, makes it eligible for federal funding to support "extensive investigation and a comprehensive, long-term cleanup," the EPA said in a statement.
Atlantic Richfield, which opposed the Superfund listing, has conducted its own cleanup, but that plan was not approved by government regulators.
Over the years, wastes from the plant were placed in a landfill on site or dumped directly into the Missouri River below Black Eagle dam raceway. Testing in 2004 found contamination as far away as Fort Benton, which is 34 miles downstream.
The 506-foot-tall The Big Stack, which operated before pollution control technology was required by law, also blew contamination onto lawns in Black Eagle, according to the EPA.
"The listing of this site enables all agencies involved to identify and clean up contaminated areas, in conjunction with ongoing local public projects," said Julie DalSoglio, the director of the EPA's Montana office.
The Montana Department of Transportation is planning a major reconstruction of Smelter Avenue, which will require coordination with the EPA on cleanup activities.
EPA officials' primary concern is elevated levels of arsenic, lead and cadmium in residential soils in Black Eagle, which is across the Missouri River from Great Falls.
In 2007, soil sampling discovered levels above what is found naturally in the environment of lead or arsenic — or both — over a 78-acre area west and northwest of the refinery site. That area includes 375 residences. Additional testing in 2008 confirmed the elevated levels of heavy metals.
The Black Eagle Civic Club supports having 100 percent of the properties in that area tested "for their own good," said Frank Tuss, a club board member.
"If there's something wrong, they will fix it and put it back as good or better than it was before," he said.
EPA officials previously said the contamination does not pose an immediate health threat requiring a "time critical" removal.
The main target for lead toxicity in human is the nervous system, and exposure can reduce I.Q. in adults and children.
Breathing high levels of arsenic can cause a sore throat and irritate lungs. Exposure to lower levels can cause nausea and vomiting, and abnormal heart rhythm.
The levels of containments in the soil is a particular concern because gardening is popular in the area.
The Anaconda Copper Mining Co. Smelter and Refinery is the third Superfund cleanup area in Cascade County and the 16th in Montana.
The other two Superfund cleanups under way in Cascade County involve inactive mines near Neihart and Monarch.
Boston and Montana Consolidated Copper and Silver Mining Co. opened the Black Eagle smelter, which treated ore from Butte. In 1910, Anaconda Copper Mining Co. bought the plant.
A refinery, which was constructed later, continued to operate until the 1980s.
The site was one of 10 hazardous waste sites nationwide added to the Superfund list Tuesday.
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