the helium acts amendments of 1960 (public law 86–777) empowered the u.s. bureau of mines to arrange for five private plants to recover helium from natural gas. the bureau also built a pipeline from bushton, kansas, to connect those plants with the government's partially depleted cliffside gas field, near amarillo, texas. the crude helium (50 percent to 80 percent helium) was injected and stored in the cliffside gas field until needed, when it then was further purified.