At a scenic overlook on the top of the Butte Hill, Joe Griffin addresses a crowd. He stands in front of a tall fence that divides cleanup and contamination. Waste will be left here as a reminder of Butte’s past, even as more cleanup continues in the future.
"I mean, this fenceline is a really stark contrast, kind of like day and night," Griffin says.
Outside the fence are grassy hills and aspen. Plants were put in during cleanup of the area in the early 2000’s. Inside the fence shows the landscape without cleanup: an old mine yard full of barren mounds of yellow waste rock piled around tall steel headframes.
Griffin is a leader of the Citizens Technical Environmental Committee. It’s a group that educates the public on the community’s Superfund cleanup.
"When I first moved to Butte in 1990, all of that looked like this stuff in here, looked like the landscape we’re going to be traversing."
Griffin guides the tour through this preserved part of Butte’s mining history.
Superfund officials initially planned to clean this area, but local historic preservation groups pushed to keep it as is.
Griffin says the landscape shows the before and after of mining and cleanup.
"I’m sure some people think it’s ludicrous, right? But I guess as a geologist or whatever, I actually kind of find this landscape spectacular, personally."
The tour winds under the headframe of the Diamond copper mine and around mounds of waste rock that give off a subtle rotten egg smell. It culminates on an overlook of the Berkeley Pit and a vast mine waste dump below.
Tour member Bill Foley grew up in the neighborhood right next door.
"We used to sneak into the mine yard from time-to-time as kids you know. This is really cool, this view of the Pit. I’ve never seen this view before," Foley says.
The mine yard is not open to the public. Tours can be arranged through CTEC or the Clark Fork Watershed Education Program.
