Northeast Route 2001

A short visit to the pit revealed how a huge lake of toxic chemicals is forming.  We got off the bus on Wednesday evening in Butte to a very cold and windy parking lot.  We walked through a neat tunnel into the overlook for the Berkeley Pit.  It was very cold, so we didn’t stay long.  We looked over the edge and were amazed at how deep it really was.  The mountains and cliffs across the Pit were so large and beautiful!  We learned that the water is a waste product from the olden mining days in Butte.  It is very toxic and can’t be placed anywhere but in that pit, and there it will stay until there is a way to treat the water so it could be used again.  There are ducks that land on the water, and die because of the toxins, but we learned that there are bugs in it now that are able to live.   This is good news because we might be able to study them and learn the necessary things to treat the water.  It was too cold to watch toxins form any more, so we left.