Well Water Near the Basin Mining Area, Jefferson County

Institutional controls: some Basin-area parcels can't get a new well permit

As part of the Basin Mining Area cleanup, EPA has put institutional controls in place across parts of the site specifically to prohibit residential use and prevent installation of new drinking-water wells, in order to protect the remedy and prevent exposure to soil and groundwater contaminated with arsenic, cadmium, lead, zinc, silver, and copper. These controls are tailored to the size, location, and complexity of each affected area rather than applied uniformly across the entire 77-square-mile site boundary -- which means a parcel's specific location relative to a documented mine site, tailings area, or contaminated drainage matters far more than simply being 'somewhere in the Basin area.'

If you're evaluating a parcel anywhere in the Basin, Cataract Creek, or upper Boulder River drainages, ask EPA Region 8 or Montana DEQ directly whether the specific parcel falls within an area covered by an institutional control restricting new well installation or groundwater use -- don't assume a lack of restriction just because a neighboring or nearby parcel has an existing well. Where a control applies, it can mean a vacant lot in that area simply cannot get approval to drill a new drinking-water well, which is a materially different situation from ordinary Montana well permitting.

Basin's municipal water system vs. private wells in the surrounding drainages

The town of Basin itself is served by the Basin County Water & Sewer District, a public water system (PWSID MT0000014) drawing from three wells completed in alluvial sand, gravel, boulder, and loam deposits along the Boulder River and Basin Creek. That means most in-town residential properties in Basin already rely on a monitored municipal supply rather than an individual private well -- a materially different situation from a rural parcel outside the water district's service area, which would need its own well.

For land outside the town's water-district boundary -- which describes most of the surrounding Cataract Creek and upper Boulder River drainage where the historic mine sites are concentrated -- a private well is the realistic water source, which is exactly where the institutional-control question above matters most. Ask whether a specific rural parcel is inside or outside the Basin water district's service boundary as an early screening question, separate from the institutional-control check.

Testing and verification before you buy

• Ask EPA Region 8 or Montana DEQ whether the specific parcel (not just 'the Basin area' generally) falls within a mapped institutional-control boundary restricting new wells or groundwater use.
• If the parcel already has an existing well, test it for arsenic, cadmium, lead, zinc, and copper regardless of the parcel's institutional-control status -- these are the metals documented in site contamination, and a well predating current controls was not necessarily tested against today's standards.
• Confirm whether a parcel in or near Basin sits inside the Basin County Water & Sewer District's service boundary, which would mean municipal water is available as an alternative to a private well.
• Cleanup at the site is ongoing and multi-decade (Doe Run Resources continues groundwater and surface-water monitoring and remediation under EPA oversight) -- ask about the current status and schedule for any operable unit covering the specific parcel, since institutional controls and monitoring requirements can change as cleanup progresses.