copyright pmunday 20091 historical preservation, environmental cleanup, and the restoration economy...
TRANSCRIPT
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Historical Preservation, Environmental Cleanup, and
the Restoration Economy
Pat Munday, PhD
Professor of Science & Technology Studies
http://ecorover.blogspot.com
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America’s Largest Superfund Site
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Federal Legislation
• 1935: Historic Sites Act
• 1960: National Historic Landmarks
• 1966: Historic Preservation Act
• 1970: Environmental Protection Agency
• 1980: Superfund; National Priorities List
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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
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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
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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”
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Berkeley Pit viewing stand display
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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
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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
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“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
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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
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The author thanks the National Science Foundation for supporting this work (Award ID 0646731).