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 South Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders North Carolina to the north and northeast, the Atlantic Ocean to the southeast, and Georgia (U.S. state), Georg ...

at above sea level. It is near the North Carolina border and the town of Clover, South Carolina. 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 Polymorphism (materials science), polymorph of andalusite and sillimanite, and the presence of kyani ...

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 agency of the United States government tasked with environmental protection matters. President Richard Nixon proposed the establishment of EPA on July 9, 1970; it began operation on De ...

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

well water A well is an excavation or structure created on the earth 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. The ...

are affected by

groundwater contamination Groundwater is the water present beneath Earth's surface in rock and soil pore spaces and in the fractures of rock formations. About 30 percent of all readily available fresh water in the world is groundwater. A unit of rock or an unconsolidat ...

from the former mine. The mountain was stripped of approximately due to the

mining Mining is the Resource extraction, extraction of valuable geological materials and minerals from the surface of the Earth. Mining is required to obtain most materials that cannot be grown through agriculture, agricultural processes, or feasib ...

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; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Mn and atomic number 25. It is a hard, brittle, silvery metal, often found in minerals in combination with iron. Manganese was first isolated in the 1770s. It is a transition m ...

) 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 (United States), county located in the southwestern region of the U.S. state of North Carolina, in the United States. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 1,115,482, making it th ...

, 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 Group is a Swedish-Swiss multinational electrical engineering corporation. Incorporated in Switzerland as ABB Ltd., and headquartered in Zurich, it is dual-listed on the Nasdaq Nordic exchange in Stockholm, Sweden, and the SIX Swiss Excha ...

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 harm. Pollution can take the form of any substance (solid, liquid, or gas) or energy (such as radioactivity, heat, sound, or light). Pollutants, the component ...

, 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 and coal mines. Acid rock drainage occurs naturally within some environments as part of the rock weatherin ...

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

Clover Clovers, also called trefoils, are plants of the genus ''Trifolium'' (), consisting of about 300 species of flowering plants in the legume family Fabaceae originating in Europe. The genus has a cosmopolitan distribution with the highest diversit ...

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