The mine is located about ten miles south of Cottage Grove. EPA has documents thousands of cubic yards of tailings and soil that’s been contaminated by mercury and arsenic. Some of it has been carried by streams and rivers into the Cottage Grove reservoir where things have gotten so bad that health officials say it’s a good idea not to each the fish there.

The Black Butte Mine was in operation for almost 80-years, starting in the 1890′s until it closed around 1970. An article in the Eugene Register-Guard says that during peak times, it could produce 100 tons of ore daily.

After the mine closed, it was sold to investors who wanted to log the land. It’s been a timber operation since about 1975.

The EPA got involved in 2007 after state officials asked the agency to do some clean up work at the site. EPA found a 300,000 cubic yard pile of tailings, more tailings spread through Furnace Creek, and high concentrations of mercury and arsenic in stream beds downstream from the site.

Oregon’s Health Department says women who could become pregnant, children under age 6, and people with kidney and liver problems shouldn’t eat fish from the Cottage Grove reservoir. Everyone else shouldn’t eat the fish more than twice a month.