A tiny Montana town’s long struggle to rid itself of toxic waste reaches the Supreme Court

These days, Opportunity is defined by its struggle to force powerful corporate and government interests to clean up the dangerous waste left behind.

For a century, this tiny town has breathed beneath the long shadow of a colossal chimney. In fact, a mining behemoth created Opportunity specifically to prove it was safe to live in the path of the dark plume of smoke that billowed from the company’s copper smelter.

The plant is long shuttered, but the big stack looms 585 feet tall, the largest free-standing masonry structure in the world. Studies long ago shattered the company’s safety claims by linking high levels of arsenic and lead to serious health threats.