A number of thousand snow geese might have died after touchdown in a former open-pit copper mine in Montana that's now stuffed with extremely acidic water.
A Nov. 28 snowstorm pressured the migrating geese to take refuge within the Berkeley Pit, a 900-foot-deep pit lake of heavy metals and different harmful chemical substances that's now a federal cleanup web site in Butte, Mont.
The positioning has seen a horror like this earlier than: In 1995, 342 geese landed on the pit, drank its water, and suffered deadly burns to their tracheae and different inner organs.
Butte as soon as had a extra glamorous status — “The Richest Hill on Earth.”
How did it change into house to one of many nation’s most notorious Superfund websites, a spot nonetheless able to killing 1000's of birds lengthy after it ceased operations as a mine?
On the time the Berkeley Pit started working in 1955 beneath the possession of the well-known Anaconda Co., copper costs have been at their highest because the finish of World Battle II. They spiked once more in 1974, in the course of the Vietnam Battle, and the mine ultimately produced as much as 1 billion tons of copper ore and waste rock. However costs steeply declined after that, main the directors of the mine to cease operations in 1982.
Slowly, the 1,780-foot pit started filling with groundwater. The water reacted with sulfides and metals within the soil, regularly making a physique of water that was much less like a lake than it was a vat of toxic stew.
One of many chief considerations is that the pit water stage will ultimately attain the extent of the pure water desk. The previous mine may then pollute close by Silver Bow Creek and the headwaters of the Clark Fork River. Projections present that would occur by about 2020.
The federal Environmental Safety Company, which has been managing the cleanup as a federal Superfund web site since 1983, is making plenty of progress in eradicating waste from the positioning, says Joe Vranka, the EPA’s supervisor of Montana Superfund websites.
However EPA officers are permitting the basin to fill to a vital stage earlier than requiring Montana Sources and Atlantic Richfield Co., the present managers of the mine web site, to start pumping and treating the water to forestall contamination of close by waters, Vranka mentioned.
Till that time, the poisonous lake stays open to any snow geese and different birds that may land there — precisely what occurred in 1995 and once more during the last week.
After the 1995 incident, mine managers put in place methods to haze birds that try to land close to the mine, together with utilizing spotlights, shotgun and rifle noises and digital gadgets that emit predator noises to scare birds away.
These efforts largely appeared to work in recent times, with solely 14 snow geese reported killed from 2010 to 2014.
However final month the system failed, mentioned Janet Ellis, senior director of coverage for Montana Audubon. An unusually massive variety of geese have been migrating south at a a lot later time than regular, they usually have been additionally attempting to beat a south-moving storm.
“They ended up being much more rushed, on the similar time attempting to make extra miles shortly, so that they landed on the Berkeley Pit,” Ellis mentioned.
The same old deterrents weren’t sufficient, she mentioned.
“One of many challenges is that noise shouldn't be the perfect deterrent for wildlife. Completely different animals react otherwise, they usually can get used to it,” Ellis mentioned.
One other problem, she mentioned, is that birds are interested in water the place different birds are, and on this case, the variety of birds that landed on the pit may have fully overwhelmed the deterrence system.
Mark Thompson, environmental affairs supervisor for Montana Sources, mentioned staff tried urgently to drive the birds away and are persevering with to maintain birds from touchdown on the pit.
The EPA may problem Montana Sources and Atlantic Richfield Co. fines if it deems the businesses weren't in compliance with the hazing program.
Snow geese are protected beneath the Migratory Chook Treaty Act, which says the birds can’t be killed apart from with a allow from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Twitter: @AgrawalNina
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UPDATES:
4:55 p.m.: Up to date all through with extra background info.
12:20 p.m.: This text was up to date with info from the Montana Audubon Society and particulars about migratory chicken treaty protections.
This text was initially revealed at 11:25 a.m.
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