Butala Construction Co. keeps polluting lands with lead, arsenic, and creosote.

Summary (TLDR): This article study examines the corporate misconduct of Butala Construction Co. at the Smeltertown Site in Chaffee County, Colorado.

Despite clear federal restrictions intended to protect the public from historical toxic waste (including lead, arsenic, and creosote) the company subdivided contaminated land for residential homebuilding use and also conducting unauthorized mining operations which risked unearthing hazardous materials.

We invite you to read further to understand how the prioritization of corporate profit over public safety illustrates the systemic failures of our current economic model and the profound human cost of corporate greed.

Table of Contents

• The Profit Motive vs. Public Health
• Neoliberal Capitalism and the Erosion of Accountability
• Timeline of Allegations
• The Economic Fallout and Wealth Disparity

The Profit Motive vs. Public Health

In the shadow of Salida, Colorado, lies the Smeltertown Site, a 70-acre monument to industrial negligence. For decades, the soil and water were saturated with the offal of lead-zinc smelting and creosote wood-treating operations.

By 1995, the EPA had identified unacceptable risks to human health, specifically citing the danger of elevated blood lead levels in children and the toxicity of arsenic.

Under the logic of neoliberal capitalism, land is not a resource to be protected but a commodity to be exploited. In 2000, a restrictive covenant was recorded to prohibit residential development on this toxic ground.

Yet, driven by the relentless pursuit of profit, Butala Construction Co. allegedly bypassed these safeguards. Between 2012 and 2016, the company subdivided the land into the “Vista Del Rio” development and sold parcels to families who built homes on a foundation of industrial waste, oblivious to the public health hazards beneath their feet.

Neoliberal Capitalism and the Erosion of Accountability

The essence of corporate accountability is often buried under layers of administrative settlements and “no-admission” clauses. Butala’s actions represent a chilling disregard for corporate ethics. While the company operated a sand and gravel mine on the site, they conducted unauthorized excavations in “Mining Restricted Areas” as recently as 2021.

These operations removed approximately 25,000 cubic yards of material, unearthing “black material” (likely creosote) that had been sealed away for public safety.

This is the standard operating procedure of corporate greed: ignore the rules, harvest the wealth, and leave the cleanup to the taxpayers or the next generation. Their total failure to notify authorities of the subdivision or the unauthorized mining for years reflects a systemic belief that corporate entities are above the law, or at least beyond its immediate reach.

Timeline of Allegations

The following timeline details the progression of events and corporate misconduct at the Smeltertown Site:

The Economic Fallout and Wealth Disparity

The economic fallout of such misconduct is rarely felt by the corporate board. Instead, it is the residents of Vista Del Rio who face the potential collapse of their property values and the haunting uncertainty of long-term health effects.

This creates a brutal wealth disparity: the fuck ass corporation extracts the value of the land twice (once through mining and once through residential sales) while the local community inherits the corporate pollution.

Doesn’t hardly seem like a fair deal, does it?

True corporate social responsibility would have required transparency and adherence to the law. Instead, the pursuit of “growth” at any cost has left a legacy of contamination that now requires a new “Remedial Investigation Addendum” to determine if the site is even safe for the people living there

More information on this site can be found by visiting the EPA’s link on this superfund site: https://cumulis.epa.gov/supercpad/cursites/csitinfo.cfm?id=0801085

You can also see the above PDF about this story by visiting this link also from the EPA’s website: https://yosemite.epa.gov/oa/rhc/epaadmin.nsf/Filings/BE49452AFBE83E7A85258AD8003C7EE3/$File/CERCLA-08-2024-0002%20Smeltertown%20Butala%20RIAFFS%20ASAOC.pdf