[h=1]Brimming Berkeley Pit nears critical level after bird deaths[/h] MATT VOLZ, Associated Press Published 7:43 a.m. MT Jan. 23, 2017 | Updated 6:08 p.m. MT Jan. 23, 2017
BUTTE ? It was an unusual and unfortunate confluence of events: A larger-than-normal number of geese was making a later-than-normal migration over Montana when a snowstorm blew in at the wrong time and sent them soaring to the wrong place.
The throngs of white birds splashed down in a 50 billion-gallon toxic stew in a former copper mine that is part of the nation?s largest Superfund site. At least 3,000 died.
Residents of this mining city say the snow goose deaths this fall were a wake-up call that raises broader questions about the site. They worry federal regulators won?t ready to prevent the heavily acidic, metal-laden water from contaminating other waterways and Butte?s groundwater as the pit nears capacity.
...
The Anaconda Copper Co. mined thousands of miles of tunnels under Butte over a century, finding gold, silver, lead, zinc, manganese and especially copper, and earning the city of 30,000 the nickname ?The Richest Hill on Earth.? The old mine shafts started flooding when mining there ended in 1982, sending tainted water into the Berkeley Pit. It?s been slowly filling ever since....
