A superfund site in Montana sold bags of hazardous waste as souvenirs

On Monday morning (November 18), the oversight body of the US environment agency sent a letter bursting with the prose of stifled alarm: It had recently become aware that “a certain unapproved use of slag is taking place in Anaconda, Montana.” The slag, a toxic waste product from decades of mining and copper smelting in Anaconda, was being sold as a souvenir. This particular 300-square-mile plot overlaps with and surrounds the town of Anaconda, also known as the Smelter City. “Nearly 100 years of smelting activities resulted in widespread contamination of the area,” wrote the office of the inspector general of the US Environmental Protection Agency, in its Monday letter to the EPA regional administrator responsible for the area.