Environmental

A Montana property owner near the Clark Fork River should be aware that the Clark Fork is part of the nation's largest Superfund cleanup due to:

AAgricultural irrigation runoff only

BOver a century of copper mining and smelting upstream that deposited heavy metals throughout the river system✓ Correct

CFederal dam construction that disturbed natural sediments

DIndustrial logging that increased sedimentation

Explanation

The Clark Fork River in Montana is part of one of the nation's largest Superfund sites, with heavy metal contamination (copper, arsenic, zinc) from over a century of mining and smelting operations in the Butte-Anaconda area.

People Also Study

Key Terms to Know

Zoning

Local government regulations that control land use by dividing areas into zones specifying permitted uses, building sizes, and densities.

Variance

Official permission to use land in a way that does not conform to the applicable zoning ordinance, granted by a zoning board when strict enforcement would cause undue hardship.

Eminent Domain

The power of government to take private property for public use, with the requirement to pay the owner just compensation.

Adverse Possession

A doctrine by which a person can gain legal title to another's land by openly, continuously, and adversely occupying it for a statutory period.