For decades, the meeting point of the Clark Fork and Blackfoot rivers in western Montana lay behind a dam that held back more than water. Sediment carried downstream from copper mining around Butte had accumulated in the reservoir, leaving a legacy of contamination that reached beyond the river itself. Flooding and ice jams could stir the material up again, while arsenic from the mining waste affected nearby drinking water wells. By the time plans to remove the dam gained support, the problem had been building for almost a century. Its eventual removal changed the landscape at the confluence, allowing the rivers to reconnect and opening a new chapter in the area's restoration.
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