Boston and Montana Consolidated Copper and Silver Mining Company
Encyclopedia
The Boston and Montana Consolidated Copper and Silver Mining Company (the "Boston and Montana" or "B&M") was a mining
, smelting, and refining
company which operated primarily in the state of Montana
in the United States
. It was established in 1887 and merged with the Amalgamated Copper Company
in 1901. The Amalgamated Copper Company changed its name to Anaconda Copper
in 1910, and became one of America's largest corporations. Historian Michael P. Malone has written, "Well financed and well managed, the Boston and Montana came to rank among the world's greatest copper companies."
and Leonard Lewisohn
were German Jews whose father had established in 1858 an American subsidiary, Lewisohn Brothers, which bought and sold bristles, feathers, hair, metals, and wood. In 1867, Adolph and Leonard emigrated to the United States and took over the company, focusing their attention on the trading of copper
, lead
, and zinc
. In 1879, the brothers were invited to purchase some mines in Arizona
, Montana, and Tennessee
. With $75,000, they organized the Montana Copper Company, the Tennessee Copper and Chemical Company, and the Miami Copper Company (in Arizona). In 1887, Adolph and Leonard bought Lewisohn Brothers from their father and turned it into an independent company.
The Boston and Montana was organized on July 22, 1887, by the merger of Lewisohn Brothers, the Montana Copper Company, and the mine holdings of C. X. Larrabee (owner of the highly productive and famous Larrabee and Mountain View mines). It quickly became the second-largest company in Montana (only the Anaconda Copper Company in Butte
was larger). It owned mines in Arizona, Michigan
, Montana, and Tennessee. For many years, it was managed by "Captain" Thomas Couch, a Cornish
immigrant and expert miner.
In Montana, the B&M relied heavily on copper mined from the Leonard and the Colusa mines, near Butte. The company owned a small smelter in Meaderville, a small town just east of Butte (now consumed by the Berkeley Pit
mine). Other productive mines (the Badger State, Comanche, Liquidator, Mountain View, Pennsylvania, Wandering Jew, and West Colusa) now added their ores to the stream needing smelting and refining. The Meaderville smelter was too small, and any smelter would need cheap power and lots of water. Leonard Lewisohn considered both Helena
and Great Falls
for his new smelter.
The balance was tipped in favor of Great Falls due to several factors. First was the existence of a railroad to Great Falls. James Jerome Hill, primary stockholder and president of the Great Northern Railway had established a subsidiary, the Montana Central Railway
, on January 25, 1886. Few railroads served Montana at that time. But Butte was a booming mining town that needed to get its metals to market, gold and silver had been discovered near Helena, and coal companies in Canada
were eager to get their fuel to Montana's smelters. Hill's close friend and business associate, Paris Gibson
, had founded the town of Great Falls on the Great Falls of the Missouri River in 1883, and was promoting it as a site for the development of cheap hydroelectricity
and heavy industry. Hill was building the Great Northern across the northern tier of Montana, and it made sense to build a north-south railroad through central Montana to connect Great Falls with Helena and Butte. Surveyors and engineers had begun grading a route between Helena and Great Falls in the winter of 1885-1886 (even before the company had been incorporated), and by the end of 1886 had surveyed a route from Helena to Butte. Construction on the Great Northern's line westward began in late 1886, and on October 16, 1887, the link between Devils Lake, North Dakota
; Fort Assinniboine
(near the present-day city of Havre
); and Great Falls was complete. Service to Helena began in November 1887, and Butte followed on November 10, 1888.
The second reason was Hill's own investment in the city of Great Falls. Hill organized the Great Falls Water Power & Townsite Company in 1887, with the goal of developing the town of Great Falls; providing it with power, sewage, and water; and attracting commerce and industry to the city. To attract industry to the new city, he offered low rates on the Montana Central Railway. In case cheap power, plenty of water, and low shipping rates were not enough of an inducement, Hill also gave Leonard Lewisohn 1,500 shares in the Great Falls Water Power & Townsite Company.
On September 12, 1889, the Boston and Montana signed an agreement with Great Falls Water Power & Townsite Company in which the power company agreed to build a dam that would supply the mining firm with at least 1,000 horsepower (or 0.75 MW) of power by September 1, 1890, and 5,000 horsepower (or 3.73 MW) of power by January 1, 1891. In exchange, Boston and Montana agreed to build a $300,000 copper smelter near the dam. Black Eagle Dam
began generating electricity in December 1890. Water was permitted to flow over the crest of the dam on January 6, 1891, and the dam was considered complete on March 15, 1891.
Ground was broken on the smelter in the spring of 1890. It was located on a bluff overlooking Black Eagle Dam next to the hamlet of Black Eagle, Montana
. The concentrator opened in March 1891; Brückner cylinders and reverberatory furnace
s in April 1892; converters
in August 1892; refining furnaces in January 1893; an electrolytic refinery
in February 1893; and blast furnace
s in April 1893. The cost of the original plant was $2 million, and by 1892 more than 1,000 workers were employed at the smelter.
Along with Anaconda Copper, the Butte and Boston Consolidated Mining Company, and the Montana Ore Purchasing Company, the Boston and Montana was the most powerful mining and refining concern in Montana in the early 1890s. In 1890, 50 percent of all copper mined in the U.S. came from Montana. In 1897, Anaconda Copper supplied 341500000 pounds (154,901,794.4 kg) of copper; Calumet and Hecla (in Michigan) supplied 88400000 pounds (40,097,565.5 kg) of copper; and the Boston and Montana 60000000 pounds (27,215,542.2 kg).
In 1899, Henry Huttleston Rogers, a business associate of John D. Rockefeller
, proposed the creation of a giant copper company through the consolidation of smaller firms. F. Augustus Heinze
, owner of Montana Ore, opposed these efforts. After losing several battles in Montana state courts, Rogers and his business associates incorporated in the state of New York
and attempted to obtain control of several Montana copper mining and smelting companies. Their goal was to establish diversity of jurisdiction
so that any future lawsuits would be heard by federal courts (which Rogers believed would be less considerate of Heinze's interests). Heinze's associates bought stock in the New York company, and then initiated a lawsuit (financed by Heinze) in which they claimed that the reincorporation had been done without shareholder consent. Rogers lost the suit, and was forced to re-reincorporate (a process which took several years). Rogers purchased Anaconda Copper in 1899, then established a new holding company (the Amalgamated Copper Company) to control Anaconda and the other firms Rogers coveted. By November 1900, Amalgamated had purchased the Colorado Smelter and Mining Company and the Washoe Copper Company, and had a controlling interest in the stock of the Parrott Silver and Copper Mining Company. The following year, Rogers obtained a majority stockholder position in the Boston and Montana and the Butte and Montana companies.
, president of the Daly Bank and Trust Co.
in Butte and former president of the Anaconda Company, convinced Heinze to sell out to Amalgamated. Heinze did so in 1906, accepting $10.5 million in compensation and agreeing to end more than 110 lawsuits which had tied up $70 to $100 million worth of Amalgamated property.
The B&M's site in Great Falls later became known for a record-setting smokestack. On April 7, 1908, construction began on the "Big Stack," a chimney for dispersal of fumes 506 feet (154.2 m) high, with an interior measurement of 78.5 feet (23.9 m) in diameter at the base and 50 feet (15.2 m) in diameter at the top. Built by the Alphonse Custodis Construction Co. of New York, it was completed on October 23, 1908, and was the tallest chimney in the world when finished.
The former Boston and Montana smelter in Great Falls closed in 1980.
In 2011, the old B&M smelter was listed by the United States Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA) as a Superfund
hazardous and toxic waste site. The EPA also said it would begin sampling for the riverbed above and below Black Eagle Dam, as well as residential areas in the town of Black Eagle, for heavy metals contamination. Historic records show that plant wastes were routinely dumped into the Missouri River below Black Eagle dam. The Montana Department of Environmental Quality estimated in 2002 that between 27500000 cubic yards (21,025,258.6 m³) and 31000000 cubic yards (23,701,200.6 m³) of waste were dumped into the river between 1892 and 1915. EPA samples indicated that the contamination could extend as far downstream as Fort Benton
, 34 miles (54.7 km) away. Toxins present in the water and riverbed, according to the EPA, include antimony
, arsenic
, cadmium
, chromium, cobalt
, copper
, iron, lead
, manganese
, mercury, nickel
, silver
, sodium
, and zinc.
Mining
Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the earth, from an ore body, vein or seam. The term also includes the removal of soil. Materials recovered by mining include base metals, precious metals, iron, uranium, coal, diamonds, limestone, oil shale, rock...
, smelting, and refining
Refinery
A refinery is a production facility composed of a group of chemical engineering unit processes and unit operations refining certain materials or converting raw material into products of value.-Types of refineries:Different types of refineries are as follows:...
company which operated primarily in the state of Montana
Montana
Montana is a state in the Western United States. The western third of Montana contains numerous mountain ranges. Smaller, "island ranges" are found in the central third of the state, for a total of 77 named ranges of the Rocky Mountains. This geographical fact is reflected in the state's name,...
in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. It was established in 1887 and merged with the Amalgamated Copper Company
Anaconda Copper
Anaconda Copper Mining Company was one of the largest trusts of the early 20th century. The Anaconda was purchased by Atlantic Richfield Company on January 12, 1977...
in 1901. The Amalgamated Copper Company changed its name to Anaconda Copper
Anaconda Copper
Anaconda Copper Mining Company was one of the largest trusts of the early 20th century. The Anaconda was purchased by Atlantic Richfield Company on January 12, 1977...
in 1910, and became one of America's largest corporations. Historian Michael P. Malone has written, "Well financed and well managed, the Boston and Montana came to rank among the world's greatest copper companies."
Corporate history
AdolphAdolph Lewisohn
Adolph Lewisohn was a German-Jewish immigrant born in Hamburg who became a New York City investment banker, mining magnate, and philanthropist. He is the namesake of the former School of Mines building on the Morningside Heights campus of Columbia University, as well as the former Lewisohn Stadium...
and Leonard Lewisohn
Leonard Lewisohn
Leonard Lewisohn was an American merchant and philanthropist.-Biography:He was born in Hamburg, Germany, to Jewish parents, Julie and Samuel Lewisohn...
were German Jews whose father had established in 1858 an American subsidiary, Lewisohn Brothers, which bought and sold bristles, feathers, hair, metals, and wood. In 1867, Adolph and Leonard emigrated to the United States and took over the company, focusing their attention on the trading of copper
Copper
Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu and atomic number 29. It is a ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. Pure copper is soft and malleable; an exposed surface has a reddish-orange tarnish...
, lead
Lead
Lead is a main-group element in the carbon group with the symbol Pb and atomic number 82. Lead is a soft, malleable poor metal. It is also counted as one of the heavy metals. Metallic lead has a bluish-white color after being freshly cut, but it soon tarnishes to a dull grayish color when exposed...
, and zinc
Zinc
Zinc , or spelter , is a metallic chemical element; it has the symbol Zn and atomic number 30. It is the first element in group 12 of the periodic table. Zinc is, in some respects, chemically similar to magnesium, because its ion is of similar size and its only common oxidation state is +2...
. In 1879, the brothers were invited to purchase some mines in Arizona
Arizona
Arizona ; is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. It is also part of the western United States and the mountain west. The capital and largest city is Phoenix...
, Montana, and Tennessee
Tennessee
Tennessee is a U.S. state located in the Southeastern United States. It has a population of 6,346,105, making it the nation's 17th-largest state by population, and covers , making it the 36th-largest by total land area...
. With $75,000, they organized the Montana Copper Company, the Tennessee Copper and Chemical Company, and the Miami Copper Company (in Arizona). In 1887, Adolph and Leonard bought Lewisohn Brothers from their father and turned it into an independent company.
Butte, Montana
Butte is a city in Montana and the county seat of Silver Bow County, United States. In 1977, the city and county governments consolidated to form the sole entity of Butte-Silver Bow. As of the 2010 census, Butte's population was 34,200...
was larger). It owned mines in Arizona, Michigan
Michigan
Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....
, Montana, and Tennessee. For many years, it was managed by "Captain" Thomas Couch, a Cornish
Cornish people
The Cornish are a people associated with Cornwall, a county and Duchy in the south-west of the United Kingdom that is seen in some respects as distinct from England, having more in common with the other Celtic parts of the United Kingdom such as Wales, as well as with other Celtic nations in Europe...
immigrant and expert miner.
In Montana, the B&M relied heavily on copper mined from the Leonard and the Colusa mines, near Butte. The company owned a small smelter in Meaderville, a small town just east of Butte (now consumed by the Berkeley Pit
Berkeley Pit
The Berkeley Pit is a former open pit copper mine located in Butte, Montana, United States. It is one mile long by half a mile wide with an approximate depth of . It is filled to a depth of about with water that is heavily acidic , about the acidity of cola or lemon juice...
mine). Other productive mines (the Badger State, Comanche, Liquidator, Mountain View, Pennsylvania, Wandering Jew, and West Colusa) now added their ores to the stream needing smelting and refining. The Meaderville smelter was too small, and any smelter would need cheap power and lots of water. Leonard Lewisohn considered both Helena
Helena, Montana
Helena is the capital city of the U.S. state of Montana and the county seat of Lewis and Clark County. The 2010 census put the population at 28,180. The local daily newspaper is the Independent Record. The Helena Brewers minor league baseball and Helena Bighorns minor league hockey team call the...
and Great Falls
Great Falls, Montana
Great Falls is a city in and the county seat of Cascade County, Montana, United States. The population was 58,505 at the 2010 census. It is the principal city of the Great Falls, Montana Metropolitan Statistical Area, which encompasses all of Cascade County...
for his new smelter.
The balance was tipped in favor of Great Falls due to several factors. First was the existence of a railroad to Great Falls. James Jerome Hill, primary stockholder and president of the Great Northern Railway had established a subsidiary, the Montana Central Railway
Montana Central Railway
The Montana Central Railway was a railway company which operated in the American state of Montana from 1886 to 1907. It was constructed by James Jerome Hill's St. Paul, Minneapolis & Manitoba Railway, and became part of the Great Northern Railway in 1889....
, on January 25, 1886. Few railroads served Montana at that time. But Butte was a booming mining town that needed to get its metals to market, gold and silver had been discovered near Helena, and coal companies in Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
were eager to get their fuel to Montana's smelters. Hill's close friend and business associate, Paris Gibson
Paris Gibson
Paris Gibson was an American entrepreneur and politician.Gibson was born in Brownfield, Maine. An 1851 graduate of Bowdoin College, he served as a member of the Montana State Senate and as a Democratic member of the United States Senate between 1901 and 1905.-Career:In 1853 he was elected to the...
, had founded the town of Great Falls on the Great Falls of the Missouri River in 1883, and was promoting it as a site for the development of cheap hydroelectricity
Hydroelectricity
Hydroelectricity is the term referring to electricity generated by hydropower; the production of electrical power through the use of the gravitational force of falling or flowing water. It is the most widely used form of renewable energy...
and heavy industry. Hill was building the Great Northern across the northern tier of Montana, and it made sense to build a north-south railroad through central Montana to connect Great Falls with Helena and Butte. Surveyors and engineers had begun grading a route between Helena and Great Falls in the winter of 1885-1886 (even before the company had been incorporated), and by the end of 1886 had surveyed a route from Helena to Butte. Construction on the Great Northern's line westward began in late 1886, and on October 16, 1887, the link between Devils Lake, North Dakota
Devils Lake, North Dakota
As of the 2000 Census, there were 7,222 people, 3,127 households, and 1,773 families residing in the city. The population density was . There were 3,508 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the city was 89.23% White, 0.22% African American, 7.84% Native American, 0.28%...
; Fort Assinniboine
Fort Assinniboine
Fort Assinniboine, a fort in Montana and within the military Department of Dakota, was built in 1879, in the aftermath of the Great Sioux War of 1876-77 and the disastrous defeat of U.S. Army forces led by General Custer at the Battle of Little Big Horn on June 25, 1876. The fort is located in...
(near the present-day city of Havre
Havre, Montana
Havre is a city in, and the county seat of, Hill County, Montana, United States. It is said to be named after the city of Le Havre in France. The population was 9,621 at the 2000 census.-History:...
); and Great Falls was complete. Service to Helena began in November 1887, and Butte followed on November 10, 1888.
The second reason was Hill's own investment in the city of Great Falls. Hill organized the Great Falls Water Power & Townsite Company in 1887, with the goal of developing the town of Great Falls; providing it with power, sewage, and water; and attracting commerce and industry to the city. To attract industry to the new city, he offered low rates on the Montana Central Railway. In case cheap power, plenty of water, and low shipping rates were not enough of an inducement, Hill also gave Leonard Lewisohn 1,500 shares in the Great Falls Water Power & Townsite Company.
On September 12, 1889, the Boston and Montana signed an agreement with Great Falls Water Power & Townsite Company in which the power company agreed to build a dam that would supply the mining firm with at least 1,000 horsepower (or 0.75 MW) of power by September 1, 1890, and 5,000 horsepower (or 3.73 MW) of power by January 1, 1891. In exchange, Boston and Montana agreed to build a $300,000 copper smelter near the dam. Black Eagle Dam
Black Eagle Dam
Black Eagle Dam is a hydroelectric gravity weir dam located on the Missouri River in the city of Great Falls, Montana. The first dam on the site, built and opened in 1890, was a timber-and-rock crib dam. This structure was the first hydroelectric dam built in Montana and the first built on the...
began generating electricity in December 1890. Water was permitted to flow over the crest of the dam on January 6, 1891, and the dam was considered complete on March 15, 1891.
Ground was broken on the smelter in the spring of 1890. It was located on a bluff overlooking Black Eagle Dam next to the hamlet of Black Eagle, Montana
Black Eagle, Montana
Black Eagle is a census-designated place in Cascade County, Montana, United States. The population was 914 at the 2000 census. It is part of the 'Great Falls, Montana Metropolitan Statistical Area'.-Geography:...
. The concentrator opened in March 1891; Brückner cylinders and reverberatory furnace
Reverberatory furnace
A reverberatory furnace is a metallurgical or process furnace that isolates the material being processed from contact with the fuel, but not from contact with combustion gases...
s in April 1892; converters
Converting (metallurgy)
Converting is a term used to describe a number of metallurgical smelting processes. The most commercially important use of the term is in the treatment of molten metal sulfides to produce crude metal and slag, as in the case of copper and nickel converting. Another, now uncommon, use of the term...
in August 1892; refining furnaces in January 1893; an electrolytic refinery
Electrolysis
In chemistry and manufacturing, electrolysis is a method of using a direct electric current to drive an otherwise non-spontaneous chemical reaction...
in February 1893; and blast furnace
Blast furnace
A blast furnace is a type of metallurgical furnace used for smelting to produce industrial metals, generally iron.In a blast furnace, fuel and ore and flux are continuously supplied through the top of the furnace, while air is blown into the bottom of the chamber, so that the chemical reactions...
s in April 1893. The cost of the original plant was $2 million, and by 1892 more than 1,000 workers were employed at the smelter.
Along with Anaconda Copper, the Butte and Boston Consolidated Mining Company, and the Montana Ore Purchasing Company, the Boston and Montana was the most powerful mining and refining concern in Montana in the early 1890s. In 1890, 50 percent of all copper mined in the U.S. came from Montana. In 1897, Anaconda Copper supplied 341500000 pounds (154,901,794.4 kg) of copper; Calumet and Hecla (in Michigan) supplied 88400000 pounds (40,097,565.5 kg) of copper; and the Boston and Montana 60000000 pounds (27,215,542.2 kg).
In 1899, Henry Huttleston Rogers, a business associate of John D. Rockefeller
John D. Rockefeller
John Davison Rockefeller was an American oil industrialist, investor, and philanthropist. He was the founder of the Standard Oil Company, which dominated the oil industry and was the first great U.S. business trust. Rockefeller revolutionized the petroleum industry and defined the structure of...
, proposed the creation of a giant copper company through the consolidation of smaller firms. F. Augustus Heinze
F. Augustus Heinze
Fritz Augustus Heinze was one of the three "Copper Kings" of Butte, Montana, along with William Andrews Clark and Marcus Daly...
, owner of Montana Ore, opposed these efforts. After losing several battles in Montana state courts, Rogers and his business associates incorporated in the state of New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
and attempted to obtain control of several Montana copper mining and smelting companies. Their goal was to establish diversity of jurisdiction
Diversity jurisdiction
In the law of the United States, diversity jurisdiction is a form of subject-matter jurisdiction in civil procedure in which a United States district court has the power to hear a civil case where the persons that are parties are "diverse" in citizenship, which generally indicates that they are...
so that any future lawsuits would be heard by federal courts (which Rogers believed would be less considerate of Heinze's interests). Heinze's associates bought stock in the New York company, and then initiated a lawsuit (financed by Heinze) in which they claimed that the reincorporation had been done without shareholder consent. Rogers lost the suit, and was forced to re-reincorporate (a process which took several years). Rogers purchased Anaconda Copper in 1899, then established a new holding company (the Amalgamated Copper Company) to control Anaconda and the other firms Rogers coveted. By November 1900, Amalgamated had purchased the Colorado Smelter and Mining Company and the Washoe Copper Company, and had a controlling interest in the stock of the Parrott Silver and Copper Mining Company. The following year, Rogers obtained a majority stockholder position in the Boston and Montana and the Butte and Montana companies.
Post-consolidation
In 1903, the Amalgamated shut down its smelting operations in an attempt to force Heinze to shut down his mines. This would turn Heinze's miners, who idolized their young chief executive officer, against him. Unfortunately, Heinze kept his mining operations open. In 1904, he disobeyed a federal injunction and began mining an underground area whose ownership was in dispute. Heinze was fined $20,000, and held in contempt of court. John D. RyanJohn D. Ryan (mining)
John Dennis Ryan was an American industrialist and copper mining magnate. President of Anaconda Copper Mining Company and creator of Montana Power Company.-Biography:...
, president of the Daly Bank and Trust Co.
Marcus Daly
Marcus Daly redirects here, see also Marcus Daly Marcus Daly was an Irish-born American businessman known as one of the three "Copper Kings" of Butte, Montana, United States.- Early life:...
in Butte and former president of the Anaconda Company, convinced Heinze to sell out to Amalgamated. Heinze did so in 1906, accepting $10.5 million in compensation and agreeing to end more than 110 lawsuits which had tied up $70 to $100 million worth of Amalgamated property.
The B&M's site in Great Falls later became known for a record-setting smokestack. On April 7, 1908, construction began on the "Big Stack," a chimney for dispersal of fumes 506 feet (154.2 m) high, with an interior measurement of 78.5 feet (23.9 m) in diameter at the base and 50 feet (15.2 m) in diameter at the top. Built by the Alphonse Custodis Construction Co. of New York, it was completed on October 23, 1908, and was the tallest chimney in the world when finished.
The former Boston and Montana smelter in Great Falls closed in 1980.
In 2011, the old B&M smelter was listed by the United States Environmental Protection Agency
United States Environmental Protection Agency
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is an agency of the federal government of the United States charged with protecting human health and the environment, by writing and enforcing regulations based on laws passed by Congress...
(EPA) as a Superfund
Superfund
Superfund is the common name for the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 , a United States federal law designed to clean up sites contaminated with hazardous substances...
hazardous and toxic waste site. The EPA also said it would begin sampling for the riverbed above and below Black Eagle Dam, as well as residential areas in the town of Black Eagle, for heavy metals contamination. Historic records show that plant wastes were routinely dumped into the Missouri River below Black Eagle dam. The Montana Department of Environmental Quality estimated in 2002 that between 27500000 cubic yards (21,025,258.6 m³) and 31000000 cubic yards (23,701,200.6 m³) of waste were dumped into the river between 1892 and 1915. EPA samples indicated that the contamination could extend as far downstream as Fort Benton
Fort Benton, Montana
Fort Benton is a city in and the county seat of Chouteau County, Montana, United States. A portion of the city was designated as a National Historic Landmark District in 1961. Established a full generation beforethe U.S...
, 34 miles (54.7 km) away. Toxins present in the water and riverbed, according to the EPA, include antimony
Antimony
Antimony is a toxic chemical element with the symbol Sb and an atomic number of 51. A lustrous grey metalloid, it is found in nature mainly as the sulfide mineral stibnite...
, arsenic
Arsenic
Arsenic is a chemical element with the symbol As, atomic number 33 and relative atomic mass 74.92. Arsenic occurs in many minerals, usually in conjunction with sulfur and metals, and also as a pure elemental crystal. It was first documented by Albertus Magnus in 1250.Arsenic is a metalloid...
, cadmium
Cadmium
Cadmium is a chemical element with the symbol Cd and atomic number 48. This soft, bluish-white metal is chemically similar to the two other stable metals in group 12, zinc and mercury. Similar to zinc, it prefers oxidation state +2 in most of its compounds and similar to mercury it shows a low...
, chromium, cobalt
Cobalt
Cobalt is a chemical element with symbol Co and atomic number 27. It is found naturally only in chemically combined form. The free element, produced by reductive smelting, is a hard, lustrous, silver-gray metal....
, copper
Copper
Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu and atomic number 29. It is a ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. Pure copper is soft and malleable; an exposed surface has a reddish-orange tarnish...
, iron, lead
Lead
Lead is a main-group element in the carbon group with the symbol Pb and atomic number 82. Lead is a soft, malleable poor metal. It is also counted as one of the heavy metals. Metallic lead has a bluish-white color after being freshly cut, but it soon tarnishes to a dull grayish color when exposed...
, manganese
Manganese
Manganese is a chemical element, designated by the symbol Mn. It has the atomic number 25. It is found as a free element in nature , and in many minerals...
, mercury, nickel
Nickel
Nickel is a chemical element with the chemical symbol Ni and atomic number 28. It is a silvery-white lustrous metal with a slight golden tinge. Nickel belongs to the transition metals and is hard and ductile...
, silver
Silver
Silver is a metallic chemical element with the chemical symbol Ag and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it has the highest electrical conductivity of any element and the highest thermal conductivity of any metal...
, sodium
Sodium
Sodium is a chemical element with the symbol Na and atomic number 11. It is a soft, silvery-white, highly reactive metal and is a member of the alkali metals; its only stable isotope is 23Na. It is an abundant element that exists in numerous minerals, most commonly as sodium chloride...
, and zinc.