Copyright PMunday 20091 Historic Preservation & Environmental Cleanup: A Dynamic Tension Pat Munday,...

copyright PMunday 2009 1

Historic Preservation & Environmental Cleanup:

A Dynamic Tension

Pat Munday, PhD

Professor of Science & Technology Studies

[email protected]

http://ecorover.blogspot.com

mailto:[email protected]

http://ecorover.blogspot.com/


America’s Largest Superfund Site


Federal Legislation

• 1935: Historic Sites Act

• 1960: National Historic Landmarks

• 1966: Historic Preservation Act

• 1970: Environmental Protection Agency

• 1980: Superfund; National Priorities List


Key Local Events• 1955: transition from underground to open pit mining

– Loss of neighborhoods; plan to move uptown– 1976: residents refused plan for pit expansion

• 1962: Butte uptown as National Historic Landmark (expanded 1972; 2006)

• 1963: “World Museum of Mining”• 1977: ACM-Arco merger (Arco as Responsible Party)• 1980: Anaconda smelter closed


Key Local Events• 1983: Berkeley Pit closed; Montana sued Arco for

Natural Resource Damages• 1984: Wanted: Butte houses, will move…• 1985: Butte Historic Preservation Office;

historic zoning • 1989: Citizens Technical Environmental Committee• 1994: Butte Citizens for Preservation & Revitalization• 2006: Butte Restoration Alliance


Butte as Postindustrial City

Mining Culture as identity• Mythic struggle

– Dangerous occupation– Union vs. the company

End of mining construction of new identity• Historic preservation of structures, landscape• Cleanup of hazardous waste (arsenic, heavy

Mx)• Pragmatic: “Restoration Economy”


Berkeley Pit viewing stand display

copyright PMunday 2009 9G

reat

Fal

ls T

ribun

e fil

e ph

oto


Preservation vs. Cleanup?

• Historical preservation at Superfund sites– Local cultural significance (Quinn 1988, 1992)– Archaeological & historic information (Quivik

2000, 2001; White, 2003)– “Myth of permanence vs. myth of transience”

in American history (Schwarzer 1994)

• Remarkably little controversy in Butte


Historic preservation and environmental protection

• Gallows frames: sense of place; identity politics; paid in blood & sacrifice

• Granite Mtn landscape: technological sublime; monument; pragmatic compromise

• Black Slag Canyon: interesting historical feature; pragmatic compromise


“All History is Local”

Historic preservation, environmental cleanup, restoration economy: acts of political resistance

• Butte as quasi-company town (Anaconda Copper Mining Company, or “ACM”)

• Strong labor movement• Mistrust of ACM/Arco• Sense of place encompassing both

industrial history and environmental health


Conclusion

Pragmatic approach to balancing cleanup with preservation• Preserve individual structures with high symbolic value• Preserve landscape features if minimal compromise with

environmental & human health• Cleanup = jobs; preservation = symbolic benefitsSeveral key activists instrumental in both cleanup &

preservation• “Make Arco pay” (“polluter pays” principle of Superfund)• Arco: preservation/adaptive reuse cheaper than cleanup Challenge: artifacts do not speak for themselves;

interpretation often lacking or narrow


The author thanks the National Science Foundation for supporting this work (Award ID 0646731).

Copyright PMunday 20091 Historic Preservation & Environmental Cleanup: A Dynamic Tension Pat Munday,...

Documents

Transcript of Copyright PMunday 20091 Historic Preservation & Environmental Cleanup: A Dynamic Tension Pat Munday,...