Montana city formerly the most polluted in the country turning a corner

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  • Опубліковано 12 лют 2024
  • ABC News's Kayna Whitworth reports from Anaconda, Montana, where a decadeslong environmental cleanup is finally bearing fruit, though residents in a neighboring town say the cleanup has a ways to go.
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КОМЕНТАРІ • 85

  • @JB-np5xi
    @JB-np5xi 5 місяців тому +18

    Before I retired, I worked for Montana DEQ and with Charlie Colman, Great guy. Anaconda was one of my superfund sites. Standing at the bottom of the stack and looking up.....

  • @emersonstaley3538
    @emersonstaley3538 4 місяці тому +4

    I’m tired of corporations screwing over communities. It’s time to hold companies accountable

  • @tadolph82
    @tadolph82 5 місяців тому +21

    Charge the polluters. Not the government! Even if those companies don’t exist anymore… there is for sure generational wealth directly attributable to that pollution…

    • @6by6by6
      @6by6by6 4 місяці тому +1

      Every American has benefited from the mining of those minerals , they literally help build this country. How much do you want your family to pay ?

  • @stickynorth
    @stickynorth 5 місяців тому +10

    Butte deserves better! It's a spectacular community in a wonderful state!

  • @emersonstaley3538
    @emersonstaley3538 4 місяці тому +2

    My only problem with this news story is that there was no one interviewed from the companies that polluted the area in the first place

  • @shaf60
    @shaf60 5 місяців тому +11

    The world is still in jeopardy . 🌍EARTH FIRST🌍

  • @austinwald2731
    @austinwald2731 5 місяців тому +9

    If Montanans were serious about getting treated fairly in the aftermath of the mountain tops being cut off to electrify this country, they would have needed to implement fair taxes. Instead, Montana has done the opposite and cut taxes for the top earning brackets nearly every term since 2001. Montanans that vote in Republicans that have gutted progressive tax brackets have no right to complain about the devastation and poisoning of the land unfettered capitalism has rendered. Governor Gianforte isn't even trying to hide it, justifying the last cutting of taxes for the top 1%, as "A way to attract wealthy out of state investors". Yeah investors who pay no taxes and have no responsibility not to leave a giant pit of literal poison right next to a major city. It's not like that could ever happen right?

    • @missano3856
      @missano3856 4 місяці тому

      I doubt there will ever be much more hard rock mining in Montana. Stillwater is about as good as they get but Landusky left a real bad taste. Don't badmouth Gianforte too much, he hasn't gone nuts on abortion and he didn't try to eff up weed legalization. I voted for Cooney but then I realized I was glad when Gianforte won cuz it meant my gym and yoga studio would stay open so I thank him for that.

    • @austinwald2731
      @austinwald2731 4 місяці тому

      If you like big corporations coming and destroying Montana and paying no taxes, vote for Gianforskin.
      @@missano3856

    • @rockycock7631
      @rockycock7631 Місяць тому

      Butte is a blue city

    • @johnjones2463
      @johnjones2463 29 днів тому +1

      Several years of Democrat Governors since 2001 in Montana.

    • @austinwald2731
      @austinwald2731 29 днів тому

      @@johnjones2463 And which ones had the power to change anything without any pushback from the Republican majority? Do you think Governors are responsible for introducing and passing legislation? Or even have the power to? You think Steve Bullock, or any Governor, had/have the power to impose a higher and more progressive income tax bracket? If you are of that opinion I suggest you do some basic research into has state legislation works.

  • @JB-np5xi
    @JB-np5xi 5 місяців тому +8

    ARCO (Atlantic Richfield Co) pays for the cleanup. The fed and state oversee remediation.

  • @user-kv2bp5eh9q
    @user-kv2bp5eh9q 5 місяців тому +27

    Pollution is modern day pejorative buzzword. Back when the Anaconda Gold & Silver company was renamed as a copper mining company it was barely even a concept. The cumulative impact of a century of tunnel mining & charcoal pit smelting is beyond calculation--even before open pit mining and smelter furnaces. Huge forests were cut down and railway lines laid down to carry lumber to the smelting pits. The health impacts were noticeably huge even in the 19th c.
    The residual heavy metals in the local water supply created local legends about the erratic behavior of Butte residents (often violent, abusive, criminal) memorialized in numerous "Butte stories" which I heard in my 8 year residence in Missoula. (Wallace Idaho, another mining town has a similar reputation.) The now-dismantled Milltown dam upstream from Missoula trapped so many toxic sediments from the mines that surrounding groundwater still poisons garden harvests. This is the tip of an iceberg of pollution that spread thru the surrounding atmosphere and downstream water all over the Northwest. Don't expect a project this big to finish up in just a few quick decades.

    • @BarnaliD
      @BarnaliD 5 місяців тому +2

      Thank you. This is why I like reading comments, for more info and insight. .

    • @ScrewyDriverTheMan
      @ScrewyDriverTheMan 5 місяців тому

      That all says nothing, since the only real reason why this was cleaned up and managed to get back to a clean place is because the US exported this type of job outside the country to places like China, Eurasia and Africa, where the same pollution and environmental disasters are allowed to continue as they don't have the same oversight that the EPA does in the US. It's hypocrisy at its best, since now the US just simply imports goods from elsewhere while it pretends that these places within the US are clean to live in

  • @fritzsmith3296
    @fritzsmith3296 5 місяців тому +5

    "Arco save that stack, touch not a single brick.
    Signify the livihood that made Anaconda tick.
    Still let it stand there stark against the sky.
    Like a somewhat obscene gesture catching every eye."
    Written by a union rep early 1960's.

  • @frankmacleod2565
    @frankmacleod2565 5 місяців тому +2

    I bet the locals there are pissed!! Lots of people in that part of the country hate government intervention. Who are we to come to their land and clean up the carcinogens left behind by multinational mining corporations?

  • @pepperonish
    @pepperonish 4 місяці тому +2

    The stack is wild to see when you're driving and don't know what it is.

  • @AustinandBuddy
    @AustinandBuddy 5 місяців тому +2

    Such bullshit that Butte has been ignored for this long

  • @adammaturin1277
    @adammaturin1277 5 місяців тому +6

    Sounds like a great place to move to! Im on my way! 🙄

    • @jermainec2462
      @jermainec2462 5 місяців тому +2

      😂😂

    • @coffee-co8gk
      @coffee-co8gk 5 місяців тому

      ​@jermainec2462 sarcasm. Seriously 9 months of winter. It's cold!

    • @jermainec2462
      @jermainec2462 5 місяців тому +1

      @@coffee-co8gk shiddd it sounds Terrible thats too much winter 😆

  • @user-ku6oc9hp5u
    @user-ku6oc9hp5u 5 місяців тому

    Where is the postcard showing Model T on the rim of the stack?

  • @GH-oi2jf
    @GH-oi2jf 4 місяці тому

    I saw it about 40 years ago. I'm glad it's being cleaned up.

  • @betterl8thannvr
    @betterl8thannvr 5 місяців тому

    Anaconda had pretty far reaching impact. Just outside of Skykomish, WA there was a superfund site from a processor who was processing mine waste from Anaconda. ARCO still has monitoring wells for heavy metals there to this day.

  • @ededdynova
    @ededdynova 4 місяці тому

    It's disgusting that all these massive companies that made billions from mine arnt made/forced to clear up the mess they've made, changing names then bankrupting the old company. leaving superfund govement to foot the bill. where is the polution moved too? soil etc....have they just moved the proplem else where ?

  • @jefferyjeffery1707
    @jefferyjeffery1707 4 місяці тому +1

    The headwaters of the Columbia River....is NOT in the Butte, Montana Region. But up in British Columbia. Canada!!

    • @johnchristie9904
      @johnchristie9904 4 місяці тому +1

      Those creeks in Butte flow into the Columbia

    • @jefferyjeffery1707
      @jefferyjeffery1707 4 місяці тому

      @@johnchristie9904 Yep.....

    • @rockycock7631
      @rockycock7631 Місяць тому

      ​@jefferyjeffery1707 it's part of The Columbia watershed

  • @robertlawrence1041
    @robertlawrence1041 5 місяців тому +1

    10:02 Focuse on community engagement, is definitely not what is most important is a town contaminated by companies following government regulations. The money spent to clean this up is not even the governments money. The money entrusted to them shall first and foremost used to clean up past messes and prevent them from happening again by proper regulation of industry. Every one responsible for creating and enforcing regulations should think (if I dropped a favorite food right there would I still eat it). If the thinking not to stop any pollution or reduce existing human pollution to the point of unpolluted then they are bad at their job regulating the human generated pollution to the least edible for a lifetime of exposure.

  • @BarnaliD
    @BarnaliD 5 місяців тому

    Interesting topic. Thanks ABC.

  • @biffpocoroba890
    @biffpocoroba890 3 місяці тому

    They kept the mines open in Butte. Might still be open. Priorities.

  • @missano3856
    @missano3856 5 місяців тому +1

    Is it Libby or Butte?

    • @zanelance-hardman4826
      @zanelance-hardman4826 4 місяці тому

      It’s neither. It’s anaconda MT.

    • @missano3856
      @missano3856 4 місяці тому

      @zanelance-hardman4826 Yeah, smelting is still dirty business but back then...wow. The Clark's Fork river has been part way rehabilitated tho.

  • @LearnHowToWipeYaArse
    @LearnHowToWipeYaArse 5 місяців тому +1

    Uncle ted was right

  • @user-to2gh7sg3l
    @user-to2gh7sg3l 5 місяців тому +1

    I like instead of having a name like "Golden Sunshine" or "Lucky Streak" mine like the others. Anaconda is named after a gigantic man eating snake, much more fitting for a mining company.

  • @dorianleclair7390
    @dorianleclair7390 4 місяці тому

    Butte needs to be a super fund site if it is not already.

  • @Heal_Hound
    @Heal_Hound 5 місяців тому +1

    Who is the guy hosting this news segment?

    • @TNT_FPV
      @TNT_FPV 5 місяців тому +2

      ignoranus

    • @pauldickman4379
      @pauldickman4379 5 місяців тому +1

      oh no, woman have short hair, little boy feel threatened, must insult!

  • @thekidfromcleveland3944
    @thekidfromcleveland3944 4 місяці тому

    *laughs in 1970s Cleveland*

  • @MagusMik
    @MagusMik 5 місяців тому

    This story is kind of fucked, that city was revitalized and now has a new economy developing. Meanwhile Butte and however many other cities like it are left behind with negative growth. These projects need to be sped up and spread to breath life back into these old towns.

    • @barbck
      @barbck 5 місяців тому

      I live in Butte and are growing wonderdully!

  • @eleanormattice3598
    @eleanormattice3598 5 місяців тому +2

    The taxpayer has to pay for clean-up after all the profits the mining company made. Mining needs to be HEAVILY regulated during the process of mining and for decades afterwards.

  • @ScrewyDriverTheMan
    @ScrewyDriverTheMan 5 місяців тому +2

    What about the Acid rain?

  • @BJ-kn2te
    @BJ-kn2te 5 місяців тому

    With the same if not worse kind of environmental destruction happening in Alaska even as I write this here, I’m thinking damn America that’s a hypocritical blow to our intelligence.

  • @nowapobron
    @nowapobron 4 місяці тому

    Me no you

  • @6by6by6
    @6by6by6 4 місяці тому

    The biggest takeaway I have from this story is the seemingly complete lack of any major generational heath issues attributed to the pollution. Lifetime residents seemingly healthy and thriving, raising their own children in the very environment they grew up in.. It’s never a short or economically cheap process to reverse 50yrs of pollution..

  • @Wicked6975
    @Wicked6975 5 місяців тому

    “Developers are moving in”. Of course. One scourge replaces another but with a Jack Nicklaus GC, miles of rooftops, Starbucks, Five Below’s, and fast food joints. Locals will be priced out and move to Butte.

  • @edsmith2562
    @edsmith2562 5 місяців тому +1

    You folks don't have an editor? Poorly edited piece.

  • @AzureFlameGod1986
    @AzureFlameGod1986 5 місяців тому +12

    All I can say is vote for Biden if you want any chance for more change for better.

    • @user-ku6oc9hp5u
      @user-ku6oc9hp5u 5 місяців тому +1

      for sure

    • @vsznry
      @vsznry 5 місяців тому +5

      at least just not a religious nationalist who belittles science & defunds the EPA. Remembe, we wanted Bernie.

    • @AzureFlameGod1986
      @AzureFlameGod1986 5 місяців тому

      @@user-ku6oc9hp5u Yeah! For Real! ❄️

    • @AzureFlameGod1986
      @AzureFlameGod1986 5 місяців тому +2

      @@vsznry I wanted Bernie too. He too is an honest man!

    • @jackbehal3327
      @jackbehal3327 5 місяців тому +1

      check out RFK jr, strongest environmental record of any candidate, worth looking into if you are feeling openminded! cheers.

  • @ScrewyDriverTheMan
    @ScrewyDriverTheMan 5 місяців тому

    LONG LEGGED HANNAH FROM BUTTE MONTANA?
    lmao

  • @alexeilindes7507
    @alexeilindes7507 5 місяців тому +3

    Lets gets some buses of migrants in there

  • @russrask
    @russrask 5 місяців тому +1

    Worst pony tail i've ever seen

  • @marymorris6897
    @marymorris6897 5 місяців тому +1

    In 1960, my father drove us to an area in Tennessee where there had been copper mining. There was nothing green anywhere. It was desolate of life. That area has also been cleaned up, I believe. I'm glad I got to see what air pollution can do. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copperhill,_Tennessee