R • I • V • E • R O • N T • H • E E • D • G • E by Ralph Glidden Old Mine Waste Threatens Yellowstone’s Soda Butte Creek

Editor’s note: Environmentally conscious mining and metallurgy are relatively new and have evolved from past practices that paid limited attention to environmen– tal impact. The lack of attention to potential environmental consequen– ces has allowed industrial operations to adversely impact the countryside, waterways, and air throughout the world. Each of these impacts is a failure and finding the proper solutions to such failures is a role for a practical failure analyst.

My personal awareness of environ– mental failures was piqued by the article “River on the Edge” in the September 2000 issue of Fly Fisherman. This article is an analysis of the actual and potential consequen– ces of an environmental oversight. The defunct McLaren Mine (waste site pictured above) near Cooke City, Mont., releases harmful Additionally, the author follows good levels of contaminated water into Soda Butte Creek. If the waste is not removed, a failure analysis practices by recom– severe spring runoff could wipe out the river’s entire ecosystem, as well as that of the Lamar mending a pathway to help minimize and Yellowstone Rivers in Yellowstone Park. the consequences of the failure.

My “in-the-box” thinking, which ne of Yellowstone National extinct hot-spring cone of travertine generally confines failure analysis to Park’s most popular fly- for which the stream is named. The metallic components and only on rare fishing rivers is threatened stream runs from 20 to 30 feet wide, occasions expands to include organic O by mine tailings that, if set free by a coursing its way through large gravel and ceramic materials, was severely heavy spring runoff, could poison and bars, riffles, and pools as it meanders stretched by reading “River On the Edge.” Both Fly Fisherman and Ralph kill the ecosystem that supports its down the sage-and-grass-covered Glidden, the author of “River On the trout. Five miles upstream from the valley to join the Lamar River. Edge,” were kind enough to grant us northeast entrance to Yellowstone permission to reprint the article in Park, Soda Butte Creek begins in At dusk in late July, with the sweet Practical Failure Analysis (PFA). snow-fed springs that join small, steep mingling aroma of sage and evergreen Hopefully, this article will challenge tributaries just east of Cooke City, flooding your senses, you cast a Blue your thinking and expand your views Mont. The stream meanders toward Dun to a pool near an undercut bank of what constitutes a failure analysis. Yellowstone Park through a mix of on a bend below the Soda Butte cone. Comments on this, and any other dense timber and open meadow, Suddenly a 16-inch native cutthroat content in PFA, are welcomed. sometimes hidden within dark silver- explodes on your fly and the quiet is Selected comments may be published in upcoming issues. green thickets. Not far into the Park, broken. Moments later, as you release Soda Butte Creek cuts its way through the spotted-black and amber-brown deep Ice Box Canyon before spilling beauty, you look up toward the onto the sagebrush flats and past the towering peaks and sheer vertical cliffs

Mac Louthan, editor Copyright © Fly Fisherman magazine. Reprinted with permission from Fly Fisherman, September 2000.

Practical Failure Analysis Volume 1(1) February 2001 25 River on the Edge – Yellowstone’s Soda Butte Creek (continued)

that surround you and this gentle the cost of heightening the dikes million before the steep drop in the valley. The problems and pollution of around the settling pond.” price of gold). When CAMJAC’s plan modern life fade into the dwindling to process the tailings failed, the firm light, and all seems right with the In 1950, a McLaren inspection tried to contract with other mining world. Sadly, the reality that shatters memorandum from the same park companies to do so in exchange for this magical illusion lies but inches ranger noted that “mill tailings are royalties. At one point CAMJAC from your feet. Soda Butte Creek is a entering the creek through a large leased the tailings to a firm that was stream in peril, the victim of more breach of the earthen wall which than 65 years of serious mining surrounds pollution near its headwaters outside the main “Despite all the corrective measures, the site continues the park. settling to hurt and threaten the Soda Butte Creek ecosystem.” pool. The What Happened? tailings dam had been washed out by a rain- From 1933 to 1953, the McLaren going to truck the rock over Wyoming storm on June 23, 1950.” In 1953, the Gold Mining Company deposited Route 296 toward Cody to process McLaren Gold Mining Company’s from 150,000 to 370,000 cubic yards and dispose of it, but amid concerns last year of operation, the Anaconda of waste in the floodplain just below about the tailings washing down- Company reported on the mine and Soda Butte Creek’s headwaters. The stream into Yellowstone Park, the mill after it was offered to them for toxic tailings came from ore processed EPA stepped in and ordered remedial purchase: “Tailings pond overflow has by the nearby McLaren Mine, an action, requiring previous owner been a problem for the mine as the open-pit gold and copper mine Kennecott to stabilize the spoils. In pollution of Soda Butte Creek causes located near Cooke City and on the 1989, through an EPA Superfund trouble with park authorities. . . .” saddle between Fisher and Henderson emergency response action, the Anaconda declined the offer for mountains. existing Soda Butte channel and purchase and the mine shut down. tailings impoundment were renovated When the mine and mill were oper- to accommodate a 100-year flood. ational, tailings were pumped into a For the next 16 years the McLaren Modifications included riprap along settling pond through which Soda mill site and tailings remained idle, the stream’s banks to prevent flooding Butte Creek flowed. Even during continuing to pollute Soda Butte by Soda Butte Creek and breach of those years, mining reports suggest Creek unabated. In 1969 the Bear the tailings dam. that the highly toxic, sulfide-rich Creek Mining Company, a subsidiary tailings posed a serious environmental of Kennecott Copper Corporation, In March 1990, an evaluation of the problem. A 1937 mining company bought the property and rehabilitated work was prepared for the EPA. Based memorandum reveals the concern: the McLaren tailings deposit by on their findings, investigators “The present milling plant is situated diverting Soda Butte Creek to the concluded that the tailings dam is one mile east of Cooke City on Soda north edge of the tailings and covering only marginally stable under static Butte Creek, which drains into them with soil. They tore down the conditions, and is potentially unstable Yellowstone Park. . . . this drainage in mill buildings and reseeded the area. during dynamic events, such as heavy entering the Park introduces serious But subsequent water chemistry spring floods. In addition, surface complications.” The complications studies conducted by the U.S. erosion is scouring the face of the did not go unnoticed by Yellowstone Environmental Protection Agency tailings dam because reseeding efforts Park. A 1949 memorandum from a (EPA) showed no decreases in iron, have been only marginally successful. Yellowstone National Park ranger copper, or zinc levels in Soda Butte Discharge from surface runoff near says: “The main flow of Soda Butte Creek following the project. In 1982, the installed pipe drain can still be Creek is currently diverted under the CAMJAC, Inc., a small group of seen during spring runoff. McLaren tailings pond through a independent investors headquartered four-foot culvert. . . . The McLaren in Great Falls, Mont., bought the Although the tailings have been operation gains an advantage by tailings from Kennecott Copper and leveled and capped and the creek encouraging the loss of past years’ announced it would process them for relocated around the tailings, the old sediments during high water to avoid leftover ore (then valued at over $7 creek channels probably still con-

26 Volume 1(1) February 2001 Practical Failure Analysis The McLaren mine tailings site on Soda Butte Creek could wash into Yellowstone National Park just a few miles away. tribute flow to Soda Butte Creek by Mills and Sharpe (1968) indicated extending into Yellowstone Park directly through the tailings dam. that “invertebrate forms have been because they are elevated in water, Much of the mill site ore pile is reduced in species and numbers from sediment, and biota collected there.. situated on U.S. Forest Service prop- the pollutants.” In his paper, Tissue concentrations of copper erty, and deep gullies erode unpro- “A Polluted Flash Flood and Its found in invertebrates and fish were cessed ore materials containing high Consequences,” (Yellowstone Science, comparable to tissue levels found in concentrations of soluble metals and 2(1): 2-6, 1993), Dr. Grant Meyer fish from other areas known to be acid-producing pyrite. reported sediment containing copper highly toxic.” between 310 and 1,200 ppm and lead Dr. Andrew Marcus of Montana between 100 and 400 ppm extending The Damage State University continues to work an along Soda Butte Creek’s banks far ongoing research project that has Studies by government, university, into Yellowstone Park. These copper produced vital information docu- and private scientists reveal that the levels substantially exceed those menting the effects of pollution from McLaren tailings site is causing considered to be toxic to plants, and the McLaren tailings site. “Our re- serious water quality and habitat prob- the lead concentrations are near the search very clearly shows the impacts lems to Soda Butte Creek and Yellow- toxic threshold. stone National Park. Despite all the of past tailings releases,” Marcus says, Dr. Meyer warns that the tailings- corrective measures, the site continues adding that the extent of the damage dam failure and resulting sediment to hurt and threaten the Soda Butte to the Soda Butte Creek drainage contamination in the Soda Butte Creek ecosystem. extends well into Yellowstone Park. drainage illustrate the high potential Dr. Marcus says that within the Yellowstone National Park’s Bureau for future flood erosion, transport, grasslands community in the of Sport Fisheries Reports from the and dispersal of fine-grained toxic floodplain of Soda Butte Creek, there 1970s concluded that “sedimentation mine wastes. is decreased biodiversity and de- and heavy-metal residues from the In a 1999 paper, Dr. Del Nimmo creased biomass. “Clearly the tailings abandoned McLaren Gold Mine at and others concluded that “metals caused the problem,” he says. In the headwaters of Soda Butte Creek must be considered as part of the addition, Marcus found that the have caused this to be the most aquatic and riparian ecosystems aquatic population had been harmed polluted stream in the park.” Studies within and along Soda Butte Creek by the tailings.

Practical Failure Analysis Volume 1(1) February 2001 27 River on the Edge – Yellowstone’s Soda Butte Creek (continued)

He compared the macroinvertebrate announced the New World Agree- population of Soda Butte Creek below ment, which called for the mining LATEST the McLaren tailings to that of Pebble company to cease its efforts to develop DEVELOPMENTS Creek, which has never been mined the mine and to transfer its holdings and is inside Yellowstone Park. In in the district to the federal govern- Editor’s note: Following the Pebble Creek, researchers found 19 ment. In return, the company was paid decision to reprint “River on the different types of organisms. In Soda $65 million, with $22.5 million to be Edge” in Practical Failure Butte Creek below the tailings, they set aside in an escrow account to Analysis, the information below found only 6. underwrite reclamation of historic was released from the Office of mining pollution at the Henderson In addition to plant and insect Senator Max Baucus, 511 Hart and other area sites (which have been damage, Dr. Marcus’s researchers also Senate Office Building, Washing- mined since the late 1800s). found evidence of “bio-accumulation” ton, DC 20510; www.senate.gov/ in fish (elevated copper concen- Cleanup efforts have begun under ~baucus/. trations found in tissue), particularly the direction of the Forest Service, and in the liver and muscle tissue. it appears that a key remediation element will be building a central Nov. 20, 2000 The overwhelming body of repository that could be large enough scientific evidence proves that the to also hold some or all of the Amendment to the continuing release of acidic, heavy McLaren Mine tailings site waste Water Resources metal-contaminated water from the materials. The inclusion of McLaren Development Act McLaren tailings and mill site is tailings waste into a central repository Authorizes Army severely hurting Soda Butte Creek’s away from the Soda Butte Creek Corps to Clean Up ecosystem. This toxic release violates floodplain can provide a realistic state and federal water quality Soda Butte Creek environmental solution. standards and compromises water Mine Site quality within Yellowstone National Unfortunately, the central reposi- Park. Failure of the tailings dam tory answer is not clear and simple. Senator Max Baucus (D- would result in a substantial release The site most likely to be chosen for Mont.) recently ushered of contaminated material into Soda the New World Mine repository is through an amendment to Butte Creek. The environmental uphill and less than a mile from Soda the Water Resources Devel- effects of such a release would be Butte Creek. Conservationists fear opment Act (WRDA) that major. And it would extend down– that toxic leakage from the repository appropriates $5 million to stream, far into Yellowstone Park and could contaminate ground water the U.S. Army Corps of into the Lamar River, which flows flowing into Soda Butte Creek, Engineers to assist in into the Yellowstone River. annulling the benefits of removing the cleaning up three Montana wastes from the floodplain. The rivers polluted by hard-rock What Can Be Done Center for Science in Public Parti- mining tailings: Soda Butte cipation, a public interest technical Creek, near Cooke City, Over a decade ago another mining support group from Bozeman, Mont., Silver Creek near Marys- company made plans to extract ore has requested that the Forest Service ville, and the Elkhorn from nearby Henderson Mountain, include a bottom liner and a leachate Mountain drainage near which contains high concentrations of detection/collection system as part of Helena. The rivers have been acid-producing materials. Known as the repository design. contaminated with acidic the New World Mine, it would have wastes and precious metals created a tailings impoundment the In addition, the New World Mining including lead, mercury, size of 70 football fields, containing District Response and Restoration arsenic, and cadmium by 5.5 million tons of acidic mine wastes. cleanup process is governed by the defunct mining operations The mine proposal sparked strong complex intertwining of a legally in those areas. opposition across the nation, and in restrictive consent decree, EPA rules August 1996, President Clinton and regulations, and Forest Service

28 Volume 1(1) February 2001 Practical Failure Analysis policy. This combined process Environmental Quality, and our guidance has slated the McLaren political representatives, asking that Contacts tailings site for possible cleanup only they seek a definite funding and Sherm Sollid, Forest Coordinator after all other district property has action commitment to clean up the Gallatin National Forest been remediated (perhaps eight years McLaren mine tailings. P.O. Box 130 Bozeman, MT 59771 in the future), and only if available They need to know that while the funds are left over from the preceding 406/587-6709 ongoing damage to Soda Butte Creek e-mail: Sollid_Sherm/ overall restoration project. is significant, failure of the poorly [email protected] constructed tailings dam would be Marvin O. Jenson, Assistant Whether it is part of the ongoing catastrophic, smothering fish reclamation or a standalone project, Superintendent spawning grounds and damaging the Yellowstone National Park the McLaren tailings site must be per- Soda Butte and Lamar ecosystems in Mammoth, WY 82190 manently cleaned up, and the sooner Yellowstone Park far into the future. 307/344-2002 the better. Whether this is achieved e-mail: [email protected] You can contribute to the McLaren by moving the waste to a central Jim Harris, EPA Project Coordinator location or by another remedy, the tailings site cleanup effort by contact- ing the Park County Environmental 301 S. Park; Drawer 10096 ultimate solution must be safe and Helena, MT 59626 long-lasting. Sixty-five years of pollu- Council, P.O. Box 164, Livingston, 406/441-1150 ext. 260 tion is enough. The McLaren has MT 59047, 406/222-0723. e-mail: [email protected] worked its poison into the Soda Butte John Koerth, Project Coordinator drainage for over half the time that Montana Department of Yellowstone has been a national park. Ralph Glidden and his wife Sue have Environmental Quality owned and operated the historic Cooke We must contact the Gallatin Mine Waste Cleanup Bureau City Store for 25 years. Ralph was a P.O. Box 200901 National Forest, Yellowstone National leading opponent of the New World Helena, MT 59620 Park, the Environmental Protection Mine. 406/444-4956 Agency, the Montana Department of e-mail: [email protected]

C • A • L • L F • O • R P • A • P • E • R • S Practical Failure Analysis – The Periodical

Practical Failure Analysis provides • Cross-functional case histories R. Louthan, Jr., Materials Technology information and tools that assist • New equipment/processes and new Section, Savannah River Technology failure analysis professionals in deter- applications for existing equipment Center, Westinghouse Savannah mining the cause of failures and • Education/training River Company, Aiken, SC 29808; tel: eliminating failures in the future. This 803/725-5772; e-mail: mcintyre. • Lab reports peer-reviewed publication is of [email protected]. interest to both the experienced and • Forensics More information on Practical less experienced failure analysis prac- • Field evaluation and sampling Failure Analysis may also be requested titioner with a focus on shared interest • Reviews of classic failures from William Fillner, manager, across the industries. All types of relevant editorial periodical publications development, Contents of this new periodical contributions are welcome. Pro- ASM International, Materials Park, include: spective authors are encouraged to OH 44073-0002; tel: 440/338-5151, • Failure analysis/prevention tech- request editorial guidelines from and ext. 5526; fax: 440/338-8542; e-mail: niques, test to prevent failures submit manuscripts to Dr. McIntyre [email protected].

Practical Failure Analysis Volume 1(1) February 2001 29