UPPER VALLEY VALUES:

STRAFFORD, Vt. (AP) -- More than two centuries after people began exploiting the resources buried in the hills of Vermont, a river of pollution that flowed from what was once one of the most important copper mines in the United States has been tamed, and life has returned to downstream waterways.

Two decades after the planning began for the cleanup of the Elizabeth Mine and 16 years after the beginning of on-the-ground work, the work -- paid for with about $90 million from the federal Superfund program -- is winding down, and the Environmental Protection Agency is getting ready to turn the site over to the state for long-term monitoring.

The work rerouted the Copperas Brook, and buried and sealed millions of tons of waste rock so rain and groundwater wouldn't travel through the concentrated waste and leach iron, copper, cadmium, cobalt and zinc into the West Branch of the Ompompanoosuc River.

"For the longest time, going upstream, (water quality) was good to excellent, hit Copperas Brook, and I think 'nuked' was the best term," said Ed Hathaway, the EPA manager who has been working on the Elizabeth Mine project for years.

"It's clearer now," said Stuart Rogers, chairman of the town board in downstream Thetford, who lives along the river and unofficially monitored the cleanup by the changing color of the water. "So a couple years ago it was noticeable because we got kingfishers -- you don't get kingfishers along the river unless it's clean water -- and herons."

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