Toxics in Silver Cliff


Silver Cliff was built on the shine of silver and the slag of the mine tailings. In one area in particular, a neighborhood referred to as "Slippery Creek," the ore ran deep, yielding up several fortunes to those who persevered. And the Millhouse family, in particular, persevered mightily.

Joshua Millhouse first arrived in the area in the 1850s. Working as a field hand, he built a homestead on the shore of Trout Reservoir, where Slippery Creek flows down from the mountains above. His son Pete was one of the first prospectors to find silver in the early 1900s. But it was his grandson, Gus, who built the MH Mining Company into the largest extractor in the region. In the process, Gus bought up much of the land in the Slippery Creek watershed, including Trout Pond, all the way down to the Wamasana River.
MH Mining has since fallen on hard times. Gus’s son, Jake, never took to the mining business. The ore became increasingly expensive to extract back in the early 1970s, and Jake sold off almost all of the company’s assets. With mine tailings scattered throughout the watershed, most of the Slippery Creek land hadn’t gone for much. But the cheap land had provided a home for many a family short on cash. The land around Trout Reservoir, however, was clear of tailings and this picture-perfect setting had attracted vacationers from throughout the region. Jake had kept the old homestead on the Reservoir for memory’s sake.

With the drop in silver prices providing the final blow, MH Mining close for good in 1979. Jake went on to invest in lands throughout the region, especially in the growing areas around Vermillion. It provided a solid living, almost as good as the one that silver had provided his dad. And Jake gave back to Silver Cliff, both as a civic leader and eventually as mayor.

The Millhouse roots were, indeed, deep in Silver Cliff. Lately, however, trouble has developed in the town. In 1987, the State Environmental Protection Agency started investigating the water quality in the Slippery Creek neighborhood. What they found did not look good. The old mine tailings left behind by MH Mining and other companies were leaching heavy metals into the ground and surface waters. Lead was of particular concern.

The waters and sediments in Slippery Creek had also tested high for lead and other heavy metals. The water in Trout Reservoir, so crystal clear that you could see the bottom up to 20 feet deep, tested as within safety standards, but the sediments were clearly contaminated. Moreover, these sediments had migrated through the lake down to the Wamasana River itself. The groundwater, while just within safety standards for lead, showed trace contaminants of cyanide, previously used to refine the silver from the ore. The dry beds of old cyanide leachate ponds have since been identified in several locations. The people who were affected by this contamination were comprised of three groups: the permanent residents, the migrant workers, and the vacationers around Trout Lake.

By the mid-1990s, the permanent residents of the Slippery Creek community had formed the Slippery Toxics Action Committee (STAC). The community consisted of 650 permanent families, mostly poor whites who worked the ranches and manual labor jobs in construction and other fields. In addition, from early spring to late fall, when the ranches needed more field hands, about 375 families also called Slippery Creek home. They mostly stuck to themselves, except for the kids at school during the school year. The vacationers, mostly more affluent whites, came to the Trout Reservoir area in the summer time, staying for a few days up to a few weeks. A few even stayed the entire summer.

Claiming that Silver Cliff was ignoring the hazards associated with Slippery Creek, STAC successfully lobbied the State Public Health Department to systematically test for health effects in the community. They lobbied to get the land surrounding the MH mining property designated as a brownfield, which would make development on the land difficult due to the risks of digging up and recirculating contaminants from the site.

Residents of the community complained of a number of ailments: gout problems, lead poisoning, lung disease, and heart disease. The state Public Health study showed a higher than normal incidence of heart and lung disease, as well as impairments to child development, but when compared to other poor residents of neighboring communities, the rates of disease and developmental delays were not significantly higher than these control groups.

With the release of the study, STAC members felt betrayed and abandoned. They organized the permanent residents to conduct a door-to-door assessment of who had what diseases. According to their president, the fiery and steely-eyed Megan Lee Jones, they felt that this work clearly indicated a community that was under toxic assault.

 

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