Silver Bow Creek

The Restoration of Silver Bow Creek:
Tracking A History of Use, Abuse and
Reuse
Presented By:
Montana Natural Resource Damage Program
American Indian Historic Use
• Historic use by Salish, Kootenai and
Flathead tribes for seasonal hunting and
fishing;
• Passage route for Nez Perce and
Blackfeet tribes;
• Chippewa and Cree occupation of mining
camp during late 1880s/early 1900s;
• Today, 33 tribal affiliations make up the
American Indian population in Butte.
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Pay Gold!
Placer Mining Begins on Silver Bow
Creek, circa 1860s
• Barker & Party are generally credited with
staking the first claim on Silver Bow Creek in
1864;
• Underground quartz mining for silver had
supplanted the gold placer operations as the
major method by the mid 1870s;
• First mills erected on Silver Bow Creek to
treat primarily gold and silver ores in 186869.
“The Silver Bow”
“…Just below the
butte the creek
made a wide bend
to the north and
along the center of
the valley led an
Indian trail. “It
looks like a silver
bow,” said one of
the party…”A
silver bow it is,”
said “Seven-Up
Pete” Slater, “and
that is what we
will call this creek
and district.”
Oct. 21, 1906, The
Anaconda Standard
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An Industrial Sewer
• By the turn of the 20th century, there were at least
a dozen concentrators, smelters and precipitation
plants on Silver Bow Creek;
• William A. Clark’s Colorado Smelter and Butte
Reduction Works were the largest;
•The City of Butte also had begun discharge of its
sewage to the creek during the 1870s;
•Two of the common nicknames by residents:
“Copper Creek” and “Shit Creek,” both for obvious
reasons.
The 1908 Flood
• Largest flood on record hit the Clark Fork in
1908;
•Flood carried millions of cubic yards of
contaminated tailings and mining wastes
downstream, most stopping at the Milltown Dam
in Bonner;
•This single flood is the pathway by which most
mining wastes were spread throughout the Clark
Fork Basin
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A Legacy of Contamination
• First lawsuit filed against Anaconda for waterborne environmental damages in 1903, with many
more to follow;
• Smelting in Anaconda begins in 1880s; the “big
stack” up and running by 1902;
• First of the Warm Springs Ponds constructed in
the teens to minimize widespread floodplain
contamination of the Upper Clark Fork;
• ARCO buys ACM in 1977; shuts down Washoe
Smelter in 1980;
• Cleanup and investigations begin; State files
natural resource damage lawsuit in 1983.
Cleaning Up Silver Bow Creek
• State and ARCO settle a portion of the
lawsuit in 1999; $85 million allocated for
Silver Bow Creek cleanup;
• 1999 Clean up of Silver Bow Creek
begins; 23 miles of contaminated tailings
in the floodplain, nearly 6 million cubic
yards;
• 60% of project is complete at a cost of
over $50M (includes remediation and
restoration); Tentative completion is in
2011.
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Major Milestones






Removal of Colorado Tailings-Lower Area
One in 1999;
Completion of first reach of Silver Bow
Creek (5 miles) in 2005;
Completion of groundwater collection
and treatment system for contaminated
Butte shallow groundwater in 2005;
Removal of Ramsay Flats tailings in 200506.
$9.8 million awarded so far to Greenway
restoration project (2000-2005).
DEQ and its contractors have both been
awarded for their outstanding efforts
Pre-Remedy Silver Bow Creek
100+ years after the initial
impact
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Tailings Removal
Stream De-Watering
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Stream Reconstruction
Revegetation
Borrow Material
Seeding
Organic Amendment
(Compost Addition)
Planting
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Before
During Construction
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Four Years After
More Post-Construction
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Post-Construction Continued…
Everyone is getting into it!
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Unfortunately…nothing’s
perfect.
What’s left…
Miles Crossing
Subarea 4: Near
Warm Springs
Ponds &
Opportunity
Ponds
Subarea 3: Durant
Canyon
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What’s left (continued)…
Restoration
(Greenway trail
system)
Reduce Nutrient
Pollution (Sewage
Discharge)
Weed Control
Questions?
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