Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/19pdf/17-1498_8mjp.pdf
Page Number: 8

4 

ATLANTIC RICHFIELD CO. v. CHRISTIAN 

Opinion of the Court 

Montana Standard (Aug. 8, 2018).  From 1912 to 1973, An-
aconda Company payrolls totaled over $2.5 billion, compen-
sating around three-quarters of Montana’s work force.

Bust  followed  boom.  By  the  1970s,  the  falling  price  of
copper, an ongoing energy crisis, and the nationalization of 
Anaconda’s copper mines in Chile and Mexico squeezed An-
aconda.  But  what  others  saw  as  an  ailing  relic,  Atlantic
Richfield saw as a turnaround opportunity, purchasing the
Anaconda Company for the discount price of $700 million. 
Unfortunately, Atlantic Richfield was unable to revive An-
aconda’s  fortunes.  By  1980  Atlantic  Richfield  had  closed 
the facility for good, and by 1984 Fortune had dubbed the 
purchase one of the “Decade’s Worst Mergers.”  Fisher, The 
Decade’s Worst Mergers, Fortune, Apr. 30, 1984, p. 262. 

Atlantic  Richfield’s  troubles  were  just  beginning.    After 
Congress  passed  the  Superfund  statute  in  1980,  Atlantic
Richfield faced strict and retroactive liability for the many
tons of arsenic and lead that Anaconda had spewed across 
the  area  over  the  previous  century.  In  1983,  EPA  desig-
nated  an  area  of  more  than  300  square  miles  around  the 
smelters as one of the inaugural Superfund sites.  48 Fed. 
Reg.  40667.  In  the  35  years  since,  EPA  has  managed  an
extensive cleanup at the site, working with Atlantic Rich-
field to remediate more than 800 residential and commer-
cial  properties;  remove  10  million  cubic  yards  of  tailings,
mine waste, and contaminated soil; cap in place 500 million 
cubic yards of waste over 5,000 acres; and reclaim 12,500
acres of land.  EPA, Superfund Priority “Anaconda” 9 (Apr. 
2018), https://semspub.epa.gov/work/08/100003986.pdf.  To 
date, Atlantic Richfield estimates that it has spent roughly
$450 million implementing EPA’s orders. 

More work remains.  As of 2015, EPA’s plan anticipated 
cleanup of more than 1,000 additional residential yards, re-
vegetation  of  7,000  acres  of  uplands,  removal  of  several 
waste areas, and closure of contaminated stream banks and 
railroad  beds.  Brief  for  United  States  as  Amicus  Curiae