The
Berkeley Pit in Butte, Montana started as an open pit copper mine in 1955, and was closed in 1982. At that time,
groundwater pumping ceased and the pit started to flood, leading to what is now one of the largest
Superfund sites. The water body was considered uninhabitable, with
high concentrations of copper, cadmium, arsenic, aluminum, manganese and zinc and of pH of 2.5 (
as acidic as a lemon), but
in 1995, a small clump of green slime was noticed floating on the water's surface. Since then,
the algae blooms have been studied as a possible method of remediation for the toxic waters. That same year,
a migratory flock of snow geese landed in the pit lake. Stormy weather kept the flock on the lake, and when the weather cleared, 342 birds were dead.
A Migratory Bird Protection Plan was then put in place, to prevent such occurrences from happening again. In the spring of 1996, a surprising discovery was made:
yeast, which shouldn't grown in those pH levels, was surviving, and absorbing eighty-seven percent of the metals in the water. Furthermore,
Andrea and
Donald Stierle, professors who have been studying the pit lake since 1995, have found 70 compounds that might be medically useful.
[more inside]
posted by filthy light thief
on Dec 6, 2011 -
36 comments
