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Atlantic Monthly describes how "one of the most polluted cities in America" - Butte, Montana - "learns to capitalize on its contamination." The story depicts "waste heaps laced with lead and arsenic" and "tainted waters" as legacies of the mining business that has been flourishing in Butte for decades. The reporter looks at a Butte-based engineering company, Mountain States Energy, which "saw its chance in the national discomfort with repositories as a permanent solution for toxic waste." The investigation reveals that, under the former city mayor's guidance, the company has "managed to assume control over research grants for a wide range of advanced cleanup technologies," and has opened "the possibility that an entirely new industry might come to life on these polluted grounds."

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