The Environmental Protection Agency next month plans to begin a road upgrade that will finally clear the way for the remediation of Basin’s abandoned mines, a national Superfund priority for more than a quarter-century.
Set to start in August, the work on Jack Creek Road, a little-used byway off Basin Creek Road connecting the Bullion and Crystal mines, involves the addition of stone retaining walls to increase structural support and enable the passage of large vehicles and heavy machinery.
“Road construction is expected to begin in the next month and continue into 2026,” Wil George, EPA Remedial Project Manager for the Basin mines, told The Monitor. “Reclamation activities are still expected to begin in the 2026 construction season.”
In addition to the clean up of mine waste and construction of a waste repository at the Crystal Mine, the EPA plans to build water treatment plants for both Crystal and Bullion, with the treated water to be discharged into Uncle Sam Gulch and Jill Creek, respectively.
“The EPA will be conducting geo-technical investigations this summer to help better guide the designs of the two water treatment plants,” said George, adding that the tests might not begin until September.
Basin’s mining history stretches back more than a century and a half, to Irish immigrant Michael O’Donnell finding, in the 1870s, what would later become the Katie and Hope mines. Two decades after the mines closed in the 1960s, the EPA and Montana Department of Environmental Quality found significant amounts of arsenic, cadmium, lead, zinc, and other hazardous substances.
The EPA placed the area on the Superfund National Priorities list in 1999 and finalized its remediation plan in 2015. The cleanup involves three phases: remove hazardous substances, treat the wastewater, and stabilize the sites to prevent further environmental damage.
The clean-up effort received $31 million in early 2023 as part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act. The EPA planned to start work last year before delaying due to the road’s poor condition. Some 10 miles north of Basin on Jack Mountain, the Bullion and Crystal mines are currently inaccessible due to the degraded state of Jack Creek Road.
Now, with design assistance from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the EPA is set to upgrade the road and allow remediation to begin. Clean-up work at Basin’s Crystal and Bullion mines could continue through 2032, according to George.
