Balancing Community Interests: The Legacy of a Copper Mine

In 1793, as local legend has it, a trickle of tea-colored runoff on late-winter snow caught the attention of two men collecting maple sap from a wooded Vermont hillside. Their guess that the brown-tinged water signaled mineral deposits below was borne out, and in 1809 a copper mine opened on the site along a stream that became known as Copperas Brook. Since then, the story of the Elizabeth Mine has been intertwined with the history and culture of Strafford and Thetford Vermont, the surrounding region and the nation. After a series of closings and openings, the mine finally ceased operating in 1958. The site is now privately owned.

Over the past two decades, growing concerns over the impact of the old mine on the Ompompanoosuc River led to a series of studies. Of particular concern was the acidic, metal-laden runoff from wastes or "tailings" left behind when ore was mined and processed on the site.

While many wanted the site to be cleaned up, community members expressed a number of concerns and questions. If the former mine became a Superfund site - making it eligible for federal clean up finds - how would that affect current property owners and the community? Would the clean up threaten local historic resources? How would clean-up-related truck traffic affect residents around the site? For more than a year, representatives of the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources met regularly with community representatives to discuss these and other concerns.

In May 2001, with the support of the representatives on the Elizabeth Mine Community Advisory Group, the EPA designated the former mine as a national Superfund site. Community members are continuing to work with representatives from federal and state agencies to develop clean-up alternatives that address environmental, historic preservation and other community concerns.

The sites described on this page were designed to serve as a resource for public education and documentation and to provide an open forum for this ongoing process.

- Newton School Site: Students and teachers at the Newton Middle School in Strafford are producing a series of reports on the historic, cultural and scientific aspects of the proposed cleanup. The reports are gathered together in their web site, Cleaning Up the Elizabeth Mine.

- Community Site: The Community Advisory Group, which represents a cross section of the community's interests and concerns, is reviewing a number of documents prepared by the EPA regarding the environmental impact of the mine, its historical significance and cleanup alternatives. The Community Advisory Group's public meeting schedule and summaries of its past meetings and a link to the EPA site that includes site-related documents are included on the web site, Documents and Meeting Schedule of the Elizabeth Mine Community Advisory Group.

These sites have been produced with support from the Center for Environmental Health Sciences at Dartmouth.