East Helena Lead Smelter, Montana

One of the last operating lead smelters in the country, the East Helena Plant was shut down in April 2001. The 141-acre plant, which opened in 1888, produced around 750 tons of lead bullion per day, as well as the marketable by-product sulfuric acid. The plant employed around 260 people, and is owned by the American Smelting and Refining Company (ASARCO). The facility had been rated as the fourth worst polluter in the USA, according to the Toxic Release Inventory. The site is slowly being remediated. Asarco has at least 20 former plants undergoing superfund remediation. The American Chemet company has operated a plant at the edge of the site since 1947, making zinc oxide and copper oxides, and continues to operate.