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Agreement reached in Anaconda Superfund cleanup

Fireweed is among the first flowers to bloom in the year after a forest fire, as demonstrated here at Hope Lake in the Anaconda-Pintler Wilderness of Western Montana. (Rich Landers / The Spokesman-Review)
Associated Press
Fireweed is among the first flowers to bloom in the year after a forest fire, as demonstrated here at Hope Lake in the Anaconda-Pintler Wilderness of Western Montana. (Rich Landers / The Spokesman-Review)

BUTTE – The Environmental Protection Agency says an agreement has been reached over the cleanup of a century’s worth of smelting waste in the southwestern Montana town of Anaconda.

The agreement among the EPA, the Atlantic Richfield Co., the state of Montana and Anaconda-Deer Lodge County came Saturday after negotiations last week. The EPA had given the parties until Tuesday to reach an agreement in principle or would have imposed a cleanup order.

The Montana Standard reports the details are not public because of a federal judge’s gag order.

Anaconda’s environmental damage was caused by copper smelting that sent arsenic, lead, copper and other metals into the air until 1980.

EPA regional administrator Doug Benevento has said he wants Anaconda to have a signed consent decree by the end of the year.