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Abstract |
In the late 1890s, silver, lead and zinc deposits were discovered along the headwaters of the Blackfoot River, northeast of Missoula, Mont. Settlers began mining the metals in earnest, and eventually the mines became known as the Upper Blackfoot Mining Complex (UBMC). Many of the mines were operated long enough to supply metals for World War II weaponry, but after the war the mines were abandoned, and by the 1960s, their orange-tainted runoff began to concern both passersby and state officials. In 1991, the state contacted the current owners of several of those mines-including the Mike Horse and the Anaconda-to negotiate a voluntary cleanup. The American Smelting and Refining Co. (ASARCO) and the Atlantic Richfield Co. (ARCO) agreed to remediate the sites' metal-enriched, moderately to severely acidic drainage, which was discharging into the upper Blackfoot River. As part of effort to reclaim the Mike Horse and Anaconda mines, engineers with McCulley, Frick and Gilman Inc. (MFG), Boulder, Colo., developed an integrated, passive wetland treatment system that will take several years to reach full treatment capacity in the high-elevation environment, but will last for decades. (Constructed and restored wetlands have also been part of the remediation of other UBMC mines, such as the Carbonate and Paymaster mines.) The Mike Horse and Anaconda system, designed to meet National Pollutant Discharge Elimination Systems (NPDES) restrictions, concentrates primarily on zinc and iron and, to a lesser extent, on copper, lead and other metals. |
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