Charge the polluters. Not the government! Even if those companies don’t exist anymore… there is for sure generational wealth directly attributable to that pollution…

Before I retired, I worked for Montana DEQ and with Charlie Colman, Great guy. Anaconda was one of my superfund sites. Standing at the bottom of the stack and looking up.....

I’m tired of corporations screwing over communities. It’s time to hold companies accountable

The world is still in jeopardy . 🌍EARTH FIRST🌍

Butte deserves better! It's a spectacular community in a wonderful state!

If Montanans were serious about getting treated fairly in the aftermath of the mountain tops being cut off to electrify this country, they would have needed to implement fair taxes. Instead, Montana has done the opposite and cut taxes for the top earning brackets nearly every term since 2001. Montanans that vote in Republicans that have gutted progressive tax brackets have no right to complain about the devastation and poisoning of the land unfettered capitalism has rendered. Governor Gianforte isn't even trying to hide it, justifying the last cutting of taxes for the top 1%, as "A way to attract wealthy out of state investors". Yeah investors who pay no taxes and have no responsibility not to leave a giant pit of literal poison right next to a major city. It's not like that could ever happen right?

Pollution is modern day pejorative buzzword. Back when the Anaconda Gold & Silver company was renamed as a copper mining company it was barely even a concept. The cumulative impact of a century of tunnel mining & charcoal pit smelting is beyond calculation--even before open pit mining and smelter furnaces. Huge forests were cut down and railway lines laid down to carry lumber to the smelting pits. The health impacts were noticeably huge even in the 19th c. The residual heavy metals in the local water supply created local legends about the erratic behavior of Butte residents (often violent, abusive, criminal) memorialized in numerous "Butte stories" which I heard in my 8 year residence in Missoula. (Wallace Idaho, another mining town has a similar reputation.) The now-dismantled Milltown dam upstream from Missoula trapped so many toxic sediments from the mines that surrounding groundwater still poisons garden harvests. This is the tip of an iceberg of pollution that spread thru the surrounding atmosphere and downstream water all over the Northwest. Don't expect a project this big to finish up in just a few quick decades.

ARCO (Atlantic Richfield Co) pays for the cleanup. The fed and state oversee remediation.

My only problem with this news story is that there was no one interviewed from the companies that polluted the area in the first place

"Arco save that stack, touch not a single brick. Signify the livihood that made Anaconda tick. Still let it stand there stark against the sky. Like a somewhat obscene gesture catching every eye." Written by a union rep early 1960's.

Such bullshit that Butte has been ignored for this long

I bet the locals there are pissed!! Lots of people in that part of the country hate government intervention. Who are we to come to their land and clean up the carcinogens left behind by multinational mining corporations?

The stack is wild to see when you're driving and don't know what it is.

Sounds like a great place to move to! Im on my way! 🙄

There were smelters all over the area! Great Falls even had one! The one in East Helena ran into the 1980s !

I saw it about 40 years ago. I'm glad it's being cleaned up.

The headwaters of the Columbia River....is NOT in the Butte, Montana Region. But up in British Columbia. Canada!!

It's disgusting that all these massive companies that made billions from mine arnt made/forced to clear up the mess they've made, changing names then bankrupting the old company. leaving superfund govement to foot the bill. where is the polution moved too? soil etc....have they just moved the proplem else where ?

Uncle ted was right

Where is the postcard showing Model T on the rim of the stack?

10:02 Focuse on community engagement, is definitely not what is most important is a town contaminated by companies following government regulations. The money spent to clean this up is not even the governments money. The money entrusted to them shall first and foremost used to clean up past messes and prevent them from happening again by proper regulation of industry. Every one responsible for creating and enforcing regulations should think (if I dropped a favorite food right there would I still eat it). If the thinking not to stop any pollution or reduce existing human pollution to the point of unpolluted then they are bad at their job regulating the human generated pollution to the least edible for a lifetime of exposure.

Anaconda had pretty far reaching impact. Just outside of Skykomish, WA there was a superfund site from a processor who was processing mine waste from Anaconda. ARCO still has monitoring wells for heavy metals there to this day.

They kept the mines open in Butte. Might still be open. Priorities.

Is it Libby or Butte?

I like instead of having a name like "Golden Sunshine" or "Lucky Streak" mine like the others. Anaconda is named after a gigantic man eating snake, much more fitting for a mining company.

The taxpayer has to pay for clean-up after all the profits the mining company made. Mining needs to be HEAVILY regulated during the process of mining and for decades afterwards.

Make sure you vote for the guy that wants to end epa's regulatory ability (sarcasm intended)

Interesting topic. Thanks ABC.

With the same if not worse kind of environmental destruction happening in Alaska even as I write this here, I’m thinking damn America that’s a hypocritical blow to our intelligence.

What about the Acid rain?

Butte needs to be a super fund site if it is not already.

*laughs in 1970s Cleveland*

This story is kind of fucked, that city was revitalized and now has a new economy developing. Meanwhile Butte and however many other cities like it are left behind with negative growth. These projects need to be sped up and spread to breath life back into these old towns.

Me no you

Who is the guy hosting this news segment?

All I can say is vote for Biden if you want any chance for more change for better.

You folks don't have an editor? Poorly edited piece.

The biggest takeaway I have from this story is the seemingly complete lack of any major generational heath issues attributed to the pollution. Lifetime residents seemingly healthy and thriving, raising their own children in the very environment they grew up in.. It’s never a short or economically cheap process to reverse 50yrs of pollution..

“Developers are moving in”. Of course. One scourge replaces another but with a Jack Nicklaus GC, miles of rooftops, Starbucks, Five Below’s, and fast food joints. Locals will be priced out and move to Butte.

Lets gets some buses of migrants in there

In 1960, my father drove us to an area in Tennessee where there had been copper mining. There was nothing green anywhere. It was desolate of life. That area has also been cleaned up, I believe. I'm glad I got to see what air pollution can do. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copperhill,_Tennessee

LONG LEGGED HANNAH FROM BUTTE MONTANA? lmao

Worst pony tail i've ever seen