07/08/2026
Summer 2026 field trips: Citizens Technical Environmental Committee of Butte will host three exciting field presentations that will provide an insider’s view of the local Superfund cleanup.
July 16 – It’s been 10 years since an estimated 60,000 migrating snow geese took shelter from an early winter storm on acidic Lake Berkeley. Meet at the Berkeley Pit viewing stand (350 Shields Avenue) at 5 pm for a demonstration of the migratory waterfowl protection program including demonstrations of drones, lasers and canons. The bird biology and technology-based program is 99.8 % successful at hazing waterfowl safely off the Berkeley Pit Lake.
August 20 – While driving down Montana Street, have the signs advertising the Silver Bow Conservation Area made you curious? This is the Superfund remedy for contaminated stormwater runoff and groundwater. But the Superfund remedy is only the beginning of the story: Atlantic Richfield plans to incorporate those required measures into a city park that will include amenities such as trails, playgrounds and picnic areas. We will visit the former smelter – Butte Reduction Works – where Atlantic Richfield’s Josh Bryson will describe the plan to reroute Silver Bow Creek and add to the existing groundwater capture and treatment system. We will also visit the groundwater treatment system and a portion of Silver Bow Creek that was restored in 1997. Meet in the Visitors Center parking lot at 5 pm.
September 17 – We will meet at the Granite Mountain Memorial at 5 pm for a 1-mile walk to the historic Pilot Butte Mine and wooden headframe (2-miles roundtrip). In the early 2000s, this mine waste area was transferred out of the Montana Resources mine permit area and incorporated into the Butte Priority Soils Superfund boundary as a permanently preserved mining viewshed. It also includes the Granite Mountain Speculator Mine Memorial with its headframe, the place where the 1917 mine fire disaster started.
