by Star Jameson, Hamilton
As our rivers and creeks flow way below their banks this year, I am concerned about water shortages for crops and cattle in the heat of the summer. I hear others discussing this as well. By professional management I assume we will come through with what we need and my agricultural neighbors will not suffer setbacks. In the meantime, I need to say that a mine similar to the proposed Sheep Creek Mine used 278 million gallons of water per year for its operations. I’m not a geologist, but when I consider that kind of drain on our watershed I know it’s a threat to the whole valley’s ground water supply.
Montana has always tried to develop its resources, sometimes to the extreme. Now we’re looking at a “rare earth” economy to possibly replace our coal economy. I’m okay with that… adjustment to economic realities is the name of this era we’re in. But I do not want 500-700 foot deep holes in the summits of our beautiful Bitterroot Mountains because of a mining model which has been proven to leak hundreds of gallons of toxic water into our fisheries. There are other options, some already established. The Berkeley Pit, for example, is being tapped for the rare minerals in its waters.
We Montanans have already let down our guard with our antiquated mining laws which hundreds (really!) of now-defunct corporations have taken advantage of. (There are 8000 abandoned mines in the state currently.) In at least five instances it is you and I who are paying for site cleanup because the corporations have conveniently gone bankrupt. Do ask the candidates you want to vote for what they will do about new mining legislation, and what do they think about Sheep Creek.
I came here fifty years ago for many of the same reasons folks are coming now. Clean water (threatened), open spaces (threatened), clean air (pray that July is fire-free), and neighbors that practice these same values. We need to put the pressure on the Forest Service, Fish, Wildlife and Parks, Bureau of Land Management and our local politicians. If we don’t, we stand to lose far more than we can imagine.
Tracy says
Our water tables and Stream levels will run low this years as they do every year primarily due to irrigation. This was not a lush green valley when Lewis and Clark came through. It was so bad had they not traded for horses with the Shoshone they would likely have starved to death. Irrigation is the only thing that made it habitable.