1. Questions (Prior Knowledge Assessment):
Why is knowing what happened to our watershed important if we are planning to determine the health of our watershed?
Notes:
Allow brief discussion, reinforcing anything that is brought up that is included in upcoming lecture.
What Happened to our Watershed? An Environmental History of the Clark Fork
Lecture 2: What Happened to our Watershed?

2. How can a watershed change?
Natural processes, like floods, drought, volcanic eruptions, …
ANIMATION
Questions:
How can a watershed change?
Can you think of other natural impacts to an ecosystem? (Impacts are changes, that can be good or bad, small or large.)
How does a beaver dam impact the local ecosystem?
Notes:
(click) Discuss large-scale natural changes like volcanic eruptions, droughts, floods, forest fires, etc.
Discuss smaller natural changes like beavers, seasonal floods, local snowstorm, etc.
For example, a stream exists, then a beaver builds a dam. The water slows and sediment settles from the water to the bottom.
Other animals who live there have a change in their environment – consider the changes for fish, moose, insects, birds, etc.
Lecture 2: What Happened to our Watershed?

3. How else can a watershed change?
Human actions, like development, industry, civilization, …
ANIMATION
Question:
Can you think of examples of human impacts to an ecosystem?
Notes:
(click) Examples of human impacts to ecosystems include development – like cities, highways, etc. Impacts also include mining, logging, agriculture, dams, recreation (hunting, fishing) and industrial by-products, such as air pollution, water discharge, etc.
In the Rocky Mountain West and Central floodplain/riparian areas:
human development in floodplain and riparian areas has caused birds such as the Sandhill crane to be added to sensitive species lists due to declines in their population numbers.
Loss of suitable summer mating and rearing habitats due to development is the top factor responsible for the decline of many bird species.
Lecture 2: What Happened to our Watershed?

4. Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans, August, 2005.
Together?
Natural Processes + Human Actions = BIG Change
ANIMATION
June 1908 flood on the Clark Fork River at Milltown Dam
Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans, August, 2005.
Notes:
(click) Together, natural processes and human actions can cause big change.
Question:
What are some local examples of natural changes combining with human changes that caused a large impact in our watershed?
(click) Natural impact (1908 Flood) + Human impact (mining) = BIG impact (events of 1908 are an example of this).
The Clark Fork flood of 1908 at Milltown Dam was the largest flood in human records in the Clark Fork region. Combined with the human impacts of the time period, this flood created massive and lasting effects on our watershed.
This slide and its information may be the most important of the entire program as it lays the groundwork for what we will actually see on the fieldtrip, and is in fact the very reason why we work with students.
See Appendix I to Lesson 2, 1908 Flood, for more information (in progress).
Photos: Milltown Dam in Bonner during 1908 flood showing water rushing over dam and through the power station. The spillway was blasted away to relieve the pressure of water.
Lecture 2: What Happened to our Watershed?

5. How can we tell how a watershed has changed? History!
Slide 5
History!
ANIMATION
Question:
In addition to using history to learn about what happened in our watershed, what other reason do you think makes history important?
Notes:
(click) “Those who don’t know history are destined to repeat it.” Edmund Burke ( ). (Have students read this out loud for emphasis.)
The ability to look back and learn from our past mistakes is very important to insure the quality of our place for the future.
A good grasp of history creates a sense of place and context that can help us better and more easily understand difficult subjects such as geology, geography, biology, and water.
An elder Native American man said, “Without knowing your history, you cannot know who you are. Your history is your identity – it is who you are. Without understanding your history, your disappear.”
Without knowing where we have been, it is hard to understand and appreciate where we are now, and it is impossible to be able to determine the best path for our future. This is especially important as we look at the past, present and future of our watershed, the Upper Clark Fork.
“Those who don’t know history are destined to repeat it.”
Edmund Burke ( )
Lecture 2: What Happened to our Watershed?

6. “The Richest Hill on Earth”
Slide 6
ANIMATION
Questions:
Why was Butte called the Richest Hill on Earth? What made Butte The Richest Hill on Earth?
Notes:
(click) Copper! With the advent of electricity and its related technology (telephone, telegraph, etc.) that required copper, Butte was quickly established as the largest city between Minneapolis and San Francisco by the turn of the 20th century. Butte’s population was estimated at about 115,000 at its peak in 1910.
The mining operations took copper ore out of the ground and put it to use as the industrial revolution’s most high tech commodity: the transmission of electricity.
Butte and Anaconda were producing more copper than any one place on the planet, accounting for more than 1/3 of the United States supply of copper when demand was at its peak.
Positive impacts of Mining. Butte was not just the largest city in Montana. Mine profits brought money to Montana from investors worldwide, resulting in:
Great Architecture: Opulent mansions and some of the tallest, state-of-the-art buildings of the era (Finlen Hotel).
Cultural Diversity: The huge labor demands of the mines attracted workers from Ireland, Wales, England, Lebanon, Canada, Finland, Austria, Serbia, Italy, China, Syria, Croatia, Montenegro, Mexico, and all areas of the USA.
Prosperity: Butte’s miners and smeltermen were the highest-paid , blue-collar workers in the country.
Western Montana’s rural and urban communities (Anaconda, Butte, Deer Lodge and Missoula) enjoyed electrification decades before the rest of the US’s similar-sized communities. The first electrified railroads were also located in this area of Montana.
Photos (clockwise from top left): Downtown Butte, circa 1930’s; Butte, 1884; Uptown Butte bustling urban landscape and the electric trolley system (also in Anaconda and Missoula); Miners from all over the world; massive mansions of the wealthy mine owners and investors, such as this one built by Charles Clark, oldest son of William A. Clark , now known as Clark Chateau Museum .
Lecture 2: What Happened to our Watershed?

7. It is directly related to how copper was mined and processed.
Getting Copper
Social and economic impacts of mining were (and still are) very positive.
But, the environmental impacts of historic mining were devastating.
Why? 
ANIMATION
Notes:
(click) The social and economic impacts of mining were very positive.
(click) But, the environmental impacts were devastating.
(click) Why? (some discussion)
(click) Answer: It is directly related to how copper was mined and processed.
(click) Mining for copper does not mean that miners dig a hole looking for a ball of copper. Copper is embedded within rock and occurs in veins. Miners dig through rock that does not contain copper to get to the copper veins.
It is directly related to how copper was mined and processed.
Miners could not just dig holes looking for balls of copper.
Copper is embedded within rock and occurs in veins.
So how do we get copper?

8. Let’s do an activity! Getting Copper (cont’d) Notes:
Start Lesson 2: Activity 1 – Getting Copper (copper extraction demonstration using sugar cubes; see Appendix I).
Main point of activity is to impress upon students how much waste is produced in obtaining copper through mining.
Next slide debriefs the activity.

9. Getting Copper (cont’d) – The Copper Ore Process

10. Getting Copper: An Activity with Sugar Cubes
Slide 10
How much actual copper (pure copper) comes out of mined rock?
ANIMATION
Step 2: Milling
& Concentrating
Tailings are left
behind
Notes:
Debriefing of activity.
How much actual or pure copper is produced from mined rock?
(click) The first step in copper production, looking for copper ore, results in tons of waste rock. The sugar cubes that were not crushed represent this waste rock. In Montana, this waste rock often (not always) contains iron pyrite which can cause many problems; iron pyrite will be discussed in more detail soon.
So just from mining (moving lots of land/earth), a lot of waste rock is created (9 sugar cubes).
(click) The next thing that was done was to crush and concentrate the copper ore (crushing of 1 sugar cube). Question: Why do you think the ore needs to be crushed? This process results mostly in waste called tailings which also can cause many problems; tailings will also be discussed in more detail soon.
(click) The next step was to move sugar from ten grid squares of the second box to the Smelting box. This represents the amount of copper ore that is available from step 2.
(click) The last thing we did was to set aside one grid square of sugar from the third box to the fourth box. This represents the relative amount of copper that is yielded from the original 10 sugar cubes. This was all that was usable – compare that to how much waste was generated.
SS: Now, let’s review what harm this waste can cause.
Step 3:
Smelting
Produces
airborne
wastes
Step 1: Mining
Waste Rock is
left behind
Step 4:
Purified
copper
Lecture 2: What Happened to our Watershed?

11. How Do We Get Copper out of the Ground?
Slide 11
Step 1 in copper extraction: Mining
Taking rocks that contain copper ore out of the ground. Results in lots of waste rock.
ANIMATION
Notes:
There are three (3) general steps to extracting copper.
(click) Step 1 in copper extraction: Mining
Mining is the removal of rock and ore (mixture of rock, minerals and precious metals) from the land. In our case we are talking about copper ore. For every shovel of rock mined, just a tiny bit of copper is removed, and tons of waste rock is created – as you saw that only 1 sugar cube out of 10 was ore.
(click) Problems with waste rock:
(click) Waste rock contains pyrite (fool’s gold).
(click) When pyrite is exposed to the atmosphere, it reacts with oxygen and water to form sulfates.
(click) Sulfates cause water to become acidic (acid rock drainage; ARD).
Problems with waste rock:
Waste rock contains pyrite.
Exposed pyrite reacts with oxygen and water to form sulfuric acid.
Sulfuric acid causes water to become acidic (acid rock drainage; ARD).
Lecture 2: What Happened to our Watershed?

12. Understanding acid rock drainage (ARD)
Slide 12
Pyrite + water + air = rust + sulfuric acid
ANIMATION
Pyrite (“fools gold”)
Acid rock stream
Notes:
Acid rock drainage is important so we need to make sure everyone understands it well.
(click) When exposed to the atmosphere, pyrite (iron sulfide) reacts with oxygen and water to form sulfuric acid. This reaction results in acid rock drainage which means that the water that drains from areas with exposed pyrite has a low pH (it is acidic). Acidic water can cause tissue damage and interfere with body functions in aquatic plants and animals.
In addition, acidic water is capable of dissolving metals and minerals present in the ores (copper, zinc, lead, arsenic). The dissolved metals and minerals are toxic to fish and macroinvertebrates in streams and rivers.
Moreover, when pyrite mixes with air and water to produce sulfuric acid, iron is left to settle out producing an orange-rust color – a sure sign of acid rock drainage. This is why the Berkeley Pit water appears rust-colored.
(click) Therefore, in addition to the physical movement of land and the damages caused by that, mining (the 1st step in copper extraction) can cause intense land and water disturbance because of ARD.
Mining (1st step) causes intense land and water disturbance because of acid rock drainage (discharge of acidic water).
Lecture 2: What Happened to our Watershed?

13. Step 2: Milling & processing
How Do We Get Copper out of the Ground?
Slide 13
Step 2: Milling & processing
To concentrate valuable metals, copper ore is milled and processed (crushed & concentrated with chemicals), resulting in a waste called tailings.
ANIMATION
Notes:
Step 2 in copper extraction: Milling and processing
(click) Milling and processing is the next step in extracting copper from ore. During this step, copper ore, the rock that contains copper, goes to the stamp mills where it is crushed into powder to increase surface area. Chemicals are then added to concentrate the copper. The fine-grained, sandy waste that is leftover is called tailings, because it is the tail-end of this process.
(click) Problems with tailings:
(click) Since tailings are crushed pyrite, ARD also occurs with tailings.
(click) Because tailings are fine-grained wastes, they are easily carried off and dissolved by water.
Major contaminants that occur in tailings include: arsenic, copper, lead and zinc.
Problems with tailings:
Since tailings are crushed pyrite, acid rock drainage also occurs with tailings.
Tailings are fine-grained wastes so they are easily carried off and dissolved by water.
Major contaminants of tailings: Arsenic, copper, lead and zinc.
Lecture 2: What Happened to our Watershed?

14. Step 3: Smelting How Do We Get Copper out of the Ground?
Slide 14
Step 3: Smelting
Intense fire and strong chemicals are used to separate the copper from the crushed ore. Large amounts of airborne contaminants are produced.
ANIMATION
Notes:
Step 3 of copper extraction: Smelting
(click) Smelting is the third and final step in extracting copper from ore. During smelting, the copper concentrate from milling and processing is roasted/burned into pure copper. Airborne byproducts result from this roasting.
(click) Problems with airborne byproducts:
(click) Arsenic and sulfur fumes, which are contained within these byproducts, are spread over large areas (where ever winds blow).
(click) Sulfuric fumes greatly affect public health (bloody noses, vomiting, sometimes, death). Butte death rates were higher than in New York and Chicago when the smelters where fully active.
(click) Also, contaminants eventually fall onto land and in water.
FYI: The Anaconda Smelter: In 1902, the Anaconda Stack released 60,000 pounds of arsenic dioxide per day into the air and 300,000 pounds of sulfur dioxide. It was shut down in The smelting process needs lots of water. A smelter was built in Anaconda instead of Butte because there was more water and timber in Anaconda.
Problems with airborne contaminants:
Arsenic and sulfur fumes are spread over large areas.
Sulfuric fumes greatly affect public health (bloody noses, vomiting, sometimes, death).
Contaminants eventually fall onto land and in water.
Lecture 2: What Happened to our Watershed?

15. Extracting and Processing Copper: A Review
Slide 15 1
Mining 2
Milling & Processing
Smelting 3
ANIMATION
Notes:
Extracting and Processing Copper: A Review
(click) Step 1: Mining
Results in waste rock some of which can cause acid rock drainage which can affect the pH or acidity of water.
(click) Step 2: Milling and Processing
Results in tailings which are crushed pyrite and chemical contaminants. Tailings also cause acid rock drainage, and are dissolved much quicker in water than waste rock.
(click) Step 3: Smelting
Results in airborne contaminants that include arsenic and sulfuric fumes. These contaminants eventually fall onto the land and into the waters.
Waste Rock
Tailings
Arsenic & Sulfur Fumes
Lecture 2: What Happened to our Watershed?

16. Mining: Environmental impacts (cont’d)
Slide 16
In the Clark Fork watershed, mining, milling & processing, and smelting resulted in release of contaminants into our air and water.
ANIMATION
Notes:
(click) In the Clark Fork watershed, all these activities – mining, milling & processing, and smelting – have resulted in the release of contaminants into our environment.
Question:
Do you recall what the major contaminants are?
(click) Arsenic and lead (click) pose serious human health threats, like those just mentioned.
(click) Copper and zinc (click) harm plants and animals, both on land and in the water.
Major contaminants:
Arsenic and Lead
pose serious human health threats
Copper and Zinc
harm plants and animals in water & on land
Lecture 2: What Happened to our Watershed?

17. The 1908 Flood
ANIMATION
Largest flood on record hit the Clark Fork watershed in 1908.
Notes:
Back to the 1908 flood and the environmental impacts of that flood.
(click) The largest flood on record hit the Clark Fork watershed in 1908.
(click) This flood carried millions of cubic yards of contaminated mining wastes downstream. Many of these wastes were spread out in areas where the water slowed down (flood plains, flatlands). A lot more of these wastes were caught and stopped at the Milltown Dam in Bonner.
(click) This single flood is the pathway by which much of the mining wastes were spread throughout the Clark Fork watershed.
Photos: flood at Milltown Dam; Large area covered with tailings at Ramsay Flats, late 1990’s. About 1/3 of all tailings carried off ended up here because here two streams come together. The tailings deposited here reached about 12 feet in thickness.
Flood carried millions of cubic yards of contaminated mining wastes downstream, much of it stopping at the Milltown Dam in Bonner.
This single flood is the pathway by which most mining wastes were spread throughout the Clark Fork watershed.
Lecture 2: What Happened to our Watershed?

18. How have the environmental effects of the 1908 flood impacted us TODAY?
Slide 18
ANIMATION
A Superfund site is a contami-nated area that is required by law to be cleaned up to remove risks to human health & the environment.
The EPA oversees and manages these sites.
Question:
How have the effects of the 1908 flood impacted us today?
Notes:
From 1908 to 1980, there was no concerted effort to clean up the contamination that resulted from mining.
Then in 1980, the Superfund environmental cleanup law was passed. (click) As a result, the entire upper Clark Fork River from Butte to Milltown was linked together as the nation’s largest complex of Superfund sites.
What is a Superfund Site?
(click) A federal Superfund site (there are also state Superfund sites) is a contaminated area that is required by law to be cleaned up to remove risks to human health and the environment.
The EPA oversees and manages the federal Superfund sites.
Photo: Map of the Clark Fork Basin Superfund Area from Butte to Milltown Dam.
Photo Legend: Yellow = Butte, Silver Bow Creek, Warm Springs and Berkeley Pit Superfund sites; Green = Anaconda Smelter and Old Works Superfund sites; Orange = Upper Clark Fork River and Milltown Dam Superfund sites.
Lecture 2: What Happened to our Watershed?

19. How have the environmental effects of the 1908 flood impacted us TODAY
How have the environmental effects of the 1908 flood impacted us TODAY? (cont’d)
ANIMATION
Before cleanup
During cleanup
Notes:
Here is an example of how we are trying to fix some of the environmental impacts that resulted from mining and the 1908 flood.
We are removing the contaminated wastes and replanting the vegetation that was destroyed.
(click) Silver Bow Creek before clean-up, or remediation.
(click) Silver Bow Creek during clean-up, or remediation.
(click) Silver Bow Creek after clean-up, or restoration.
Remediation and restoration where just mentioned. These are the two levels of “fixing” that occur on contaminated areas. (next slide)
Photos: Silver Bow Creek before remediation in Silver Bow Creek during remediation. Silver Bow Creek after restoration in 2003.
Silver Bow Creek between Butte and Rocker.
After cleanup
Lecture 2: What Happened to our Watershed?

20. Remediation and Restoration
Remediation (root word is remedy):
Remediation (root word is remedy): cleaning up impacted areas to a certain legal standard to protect human health and the environment.
ANIMATION
Question:
What is remediation and restoration?
Notes:
(click) Look at the root word of remediation – remedy.
(click) Remediation (also known as reclamation) is cleaning up impacted areas to a certain legal standard to protect human health and the environment. Remediation is required by law. The EPA and the Montana Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) are federal and state agencies, respectively, that develop and enforce legal standards for contamination and clean up.
(click) Look at the root word of restoration – restore.
(click) Restoration is cleanup of an area to a baseline condition, or to a condition that is similar to the pre-mining condition. Restoration is sometimes mandated by lawsuit, as in the case of the Clark Fork River. Restoration is above and beyond most state and federal cleanup laws. The Clark Fork restoration projects are funded from a lawsuit settlement between the State of Montana and ARCO. The Natural Resource Damage Program (NRDP) is the state agency responsible for overseeing the Clark Fork’s restoration. This makes sense since, as their name describes – Natural Resource Damage Program – they are responsible for monitoring and managing damage to natural resources (like forests, water, land – anything made by nature).
Clean Room Analogy: Remediation would be more like tidying up your room by throwing stuff in the closet and under the bed so that it looks nice. Restoration would be equivalent to actually vacuuming, dusting, putting your laundry away, etc.
Restoration (root word is restore):
Restoration (root word is restore): returning impacted ecosystems to a healthy baseline, or pre-mining, condition.
Remediation
Restoration
Lecture 2: What Happened to our Watershed?

21. Remediation Before After ANIMATION Notes:
Here is an example of what remediation alone looks like.
(click) This is the Buffalo Dump tailings pile in Butte before remediation.
(click) Here is the Buffalo Dump site after remediation.
The tailings have been removed, but the land was not returned to a fully-functioning, natural system. For example, vegetation is mono-culture (low diversity).
So with remediation, the problem of contaminated materials (tailings) being around to possibly get into the water system has been fixed. But the area was not returned to its natural condition.
Photo Top Left: Buffalo Dump tailings pile, Butte, before remediation.
Photo Lower Right: Buffalo Dump after remediation in 2006.
After
Lecture 2: What Happened to our Watershed?

22. Restoration After Before ANIMATION
Notes:
Here is an example of what restoration looks like.
Compare the remediation at Buffalo Dump to what is being done at Milltown Dam.
(click) Here is a picture of Milltown Dam when it was intact, before restoration. It was decided that the Milltown Dam needed to be removed because of all the problems they had there with tailings contamination, which resulted from the 1908 flood.
It was then decided that the area should be restored. (click) Here is an artist’s idea of what the area should look like after restoration.
Photos: First: Milltown Dam site when dam was still in place; Second: An artist’s rendering, looking upstream towards the Clark Fork-Blackfoot confluence, of what the area should look like post-restoration.
Before
Artwork courtesy of Clark Fork Coalition
Lecture 2: What Happened to our Watershed?

23. Since 2000, around $68 million have been spent on 90 restoration grants & injured areas
ANIMATION
Notes:
The remediation at Milltown Dam will cost ~$100 million (removal of spillway, removal of 2.5 million cubic yards of contaminated sediments).
The restoration at Milltown Dam will cost about an additional $12 million (removal of powerhouse, removal of additional contaminated sediments, habitat restoration).
(click) If the many other costs are added, it is estimated that the project total in the end will be over $1 billion over a 35 year period.
SS: As a community, we all need to think about what we would like to see. Is remediation enough or do we also want restoration? Remember, Superfund only pays for remediation so the money to pay for restoration has to come from somewhere else. Is it worth it? That is a very important question we each need to think about. Perhaps it will depend on the specific area in question. (Time permitting, allow some discussion.) Another thing to think about: considering all the time, effort and costs, can we afford to ever make these mistakes again?
Over $1,000,000,000!
Artwork courtesy of Clark Fork Coalition
Lecture 2: What Happened to our Watershed?

24. Remember: To study our watershed, we must know what happened here  HISTORY
ANIMATION
Closure:
SS: Now you can see how important it is to understand the history of our watershed in order to better understand how to study our watershed. Now we know what to look for – mining impacts! During the next two lessons, lessons 3 and 4, we will see what it takes to measure watershed health.
Questions?
Lecture 2: What Happened to our Watershed?