Henry's Knob is a mountain and

Superfund Superfund is a United States federal environmental remediation program established by the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 (CERCLA). The program is administered by the United States Environmental Pro ...

Alternative Site in York County

South Carolina )''Animis opibusque parati'' ( for, , Latin, Prepared in mind and resources, links=no) , anthem = " Carolina";" South Carolina On My Mind" , Former = Province of South Carolina , seat = Columbia , LargestCity = Charleston , LargestMetro = ...

at above sea level. It is near the North Carolina border and the town of

Clover, South Carolina Clover is a town in York County, South Carolina, United States. It is located in the greater Charlotte metropolitan area. As of 2020, the population was at 6,671 within the town limits. Clover is twinned with the Northern Irish town of Larne on C ...

. The mountain was the site of an open-pit

kyanite Kyanite is a typically blue aluminosilicate mineral, found in aluminium-rich metamorphic pegmatites and sedimentary rock. It is the high pressure polymorph of andalusite and sillimanite, and the presence of kyanite in metamorphic rocks gener ...

mine, which was under operation from 1947 to 1970. At the time of its discovery, the deposit of kyanite on the mountain was the world's largest

United States Environmental Protection Agency The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is an independent executive agency of the United States federal government tasked with environmental protection matters. President Richard Nixon proposed the establishment of EPA on July 9, 1970; it be ...

(EPA) testing has determined that approximately 450 residences in the vicinity relying on

well water A well is an excavation or structure created in the ground by digging, driving, or drilling to access liquid resources, usually water. The oldest and most common kind of well is a water well, to access groundwater in underground aquifers. ...

are affected by groundwater contamination from the former mine. The mountain was stripped of approximately due to the

mining Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the Earth, usually from an ore body, lode, vein, seam, reef, or placer deposit. The exploitation of these deposits for raw material is based on the economic via ...

operations. Today, the site is overgrown, with many pits and waste ponds still evident. While some efforts have been made to repopulate the site with vegetation, little cleanup of the dangerous minerals (including

Manganese Manganese is a chemical element with the symbol Mn and atomic number 25. It is a hard, brittle, silvery metal, often found in minerals in combination with iron. Manganese is a transition metal with a multifaceted array of industrial alloy use ...

) has been done.

History

Henry's Knob name derives from the Henry family, early settlers of York County who originally owned the mountain and surrounding land. In 1765 William Henry was granted on the south side of the Little Mountain, as Henry's Knob was then called, and four years later he was granted another . At this time northern York County was still part of

Mecklenburg County, North Carolina Mecklenburg County is a county located in the southwestern region of the state of North Carolina, in the United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 1,115,482, making it the second-most populous county in North Carolina (after Wak ...

, and was not ceded to

until 1772. In the 19th century the portion of the original Henry estate including the mountain was inherited by a female Henry descendant and was eventually sold out of the family prior to the Civil War. A company named Commercial Ores mined the Henry's Knob site during the 1950s and 60s.

Combustion Engineering Combustion Engineering (C-E) was a multi-national American-based engineering firm that developed nuclear steam supply power systems in the United States. Originally headquartered in New York City, C-E moved its corporate offices to Stamford, Connec ...

acquired Commercial Ores in 1965 and then sold it in 1971. The mountain has been transferred between several property owners since then.

ABB ABB Ltd. is a Swedish- Swiss multinational corporation headquartered in Zürich, Switzerland. The company was formed in 1988 when Sweden's Allmänna Svenska Elektriska Aktiebolaget (ASEA) and Switzerland's Brown, Boveri & Cie merged to crea ...

acquired Combustion Engineering in 1990, long after mining ceased. The EPA identified ABB as the "successor of interest" and a potentially responsible party. The agency asked ABB to conduct an investigation of the Henry's Knob site and surrounding area to identify

pollution Pollution is the introduction of contaminants into the natural environment that cause adverse change. Pollution can take the form of any substance (solid, liquid, or gas) or energy (such as radioactivity, heat, sound, or light). Pollutants, the ...

, including the nature and extent of

acid mine drainage Acid mine drainage, acid and metalliferous drainage (AMD), or acid rock drainage (ARD) is the outflow of acidic water from metal mines or coal mines. Acid rock drainage occurs naturally within some environments as part of the rock weathering ...

that has entered the environment as a result of previous mining activities. The investigation work plan is on file at the

Clover Clover or trefoil are common names for plants of the genus ''Trifolium'' (from Latin ''tres'' 'three' + ''folium'' 'leaf'), consisting of about 300 species of flowering plants in the legume or pea family Fabaceae originating in Europe. The genus ...

Public Library, along with other documents pertaining to the site.

References

*http://www.henrysknobenvironmentalforum.com/faq

External links

EPA Region 4 Superfund Site

Henry's Knob Environmental Investigation Resource
{{Mountains of South Carolina Mountains of South Carolina Landforms of York County, South Carolina Environment of South Carolina Inselbergs of Piedmont (United States) Superfund sites in South Carolina