HELENA, Mont. — Butte’s Berkeley Pit is infamously known for its toxicity, but it’s also the site of vital minerals and rare earth elements.

The Berkeley Pit in Butte, Montana, has been a source of environmental concern for decades, as its waters—highly acidic and teeming with toxins—have seeped into the surrounding area. But today ...

The area surrounding the Berkeley Pit — a man-made lake of toxic water in Butte that would likely kill a human or animal that drank from it — is teeming with life.

In this March 2013 photograph, the still water of the Berkeley Pit reflects the northeast bank and the water treatment plant built above it. A man described by police as mentally disturbed jumped ...

Some two decades, one doctorate, and 400 pages later, Leech has produced his answer. It’s called “The City that Ate Itself: Butte, Montana and Its Expanding Berkeley Pit.” ...