No Sheep Creek Mine

by George Corn, Hamilton

They get the mine and the public gets the shaft.   

The public is right to be alarmed over the destruction and degradation that Sheep Creek Mine will wreak on the Bitterroot River. The mine sits in the upper center of a large drainage a few miles above Painted Rocks Reservoir which empties into the West Fork of the Bitterroot. If the mine goes in, the “laws” won’t protect the West Fork or the Bitterroot River from degradation and destruction. The dead hand of the past, the General Mining Law of 1872, still applies to hard-rock mines like Sheep Creek. The date is not a misprint. This grossly outdated law prioritizes mining over all other uses, no matter how environmentally fragile or important the surrounding ecosystem might be. Thanks to this antiquated law, the West, and Montana in particular, have been left with a legacy of polluted rivers and destroyed watersheds.     

The Canadian corporation developing the mine is taking advantage of that antiquated law while singing that old song and dance of western mine promoters that always includes the line of “this time we’ll do it different.” We know better. The saying “they got the gold and we got the shaft” has never become outdated. Boom and bust is the way it works in all too many cases. When the market drops or the mine’s exhausted, the corporation declares bankruptcy, mine operation shuts down but nature doesn’t. Water pours and drips downhill combining with acidic mine waste as it drains into rivulets, then streams, then rivers. As the history of Western mining has repeatedly shown, the posted bond never comes close to cleaning up the polluted river.   

This has cost us, the public, millions, and probably billions, of tax dollars to clean up our public lands and waters. Here’s a Montana example: In one ten-year period the Federal Government spent almost $480 million trying to clean up abandoned hard rock mining sites.  

These clean-up costs for poisoned, polluted rivers don’t account for any of the financial losses to the fishing, tourism and amenity economy, much less the intangible, but very real loss, of the joy of fishing, floating, swimming, wading, or just sitting beside a healthy river. 

Supposedly stronger laws and the so-called “modern” mines started since 1980 haven’t made a darn bit of difference.

“They get the gold and we get the shaft” always happens. The public knows it. That’s why the public is overwhelmingly opposed to the Sheep Creek mine. They know the mine, if built, will inevitably pollute the West Fork and then the main Bitterroot. They know there is no way to stop the pollution if the mine gets built.  

What’s more, the public is well aware that rare earth minerals, essential to our economy and national defense, can be readily obtained, and much quicker by simply processing existing mining waste. We know we don’t have to sacrifice one of our few remaining pristine river systems to obtain these minerals. The stupidity of allowing that to happen is outrageous.      

But it need not happen to the Bitterroot River. There is a long history of various Ravalli County “communities” working together to keep the Bitterroot a healthy river. 

This collaborative work began years ago when water rights’ holders (irrigators), the fishing and conservation community (local, state and national), as well as the general public realized they needed to work together to preserve the Bitterroot as a healthy river. This work included securing appropriations to raise the level of Painted Rocks Reservoir and Lake Como Dam which secured more water for the river in late summer. It also required hiring a river master to oversee irrigation. Prior to this, the Bitterroot was practically dry in August by the time it reached the Stevensville Bridge. In short, all the groups worked together to keep the Bitterroot healthy. These efforts took decades. Among local groups involved in these and ongoing efforts to protect the Bitterroot River are the Bitterroot Water Partnership, Bitterroot Trout Unlimited, Ravalli County Fish and Wildlife, Bitterroot River Protection Association, Friends of the Bitterroot and the Clark Fork Coalition.  

Thanks in large part to Montana’s unique stream access law, the Bitterroot River has another broad and deep community of supporters who irrigate, fish and float. But you don’t have to do any of these activities to enjoy our Bitterroot River. Many enjoy it by simply being near it or in it, walking beside it, taking the kids out for an afternoon on one of the “Bitterroot beaches”, and tubing in the summer. We, the public, have access due to our many Fishing Access Sites (FAS), the river parks in Darby, Hamilton and Stevensville, as well as the many informal access sites along Highway 93. Those of us in this “group” of folks are equally opposed to the mine. 

It’s important to remember that an aroused Bitterroot public has, and can again, defeat an ill-conceived mine proposal that posed a dire threat to the health of the valley. That proposed mine would have polluted a large swath of the valley with the deadly form of vermiculite that killed and incapacitated so many in Libby. That fight started in the late 1980’s when a mining company staked a claim on a vermiculite ore body east of Corvalls, roughly SW of Skalkaho mountain at the head of St. Clair Creek. The ore was to be trucked through Corvallis, beside the Corvallis Elementary School, to a railroad siding in Victor. Nearing final approval, a resolute public demanded a meaningful review by the Forest Service. This resulted in the discovery of an overlooked mineral that appeared to be similar to the deadly vermiculite in Libby. This “find” required the Forest Service to demand the company perform a Supplemental Impact Statement which included the newly found material. Rather than comply, the company left town and the project folded under a justified cloud of suspicion that it knew all along about the deadly nature of the ore body.

If the mine had gone in, thousands of folks in the valley would be dealing with the same serious health issues as the unfortunate folks in the Libby area. The  economic harm to the County would have been incalculable. For one example, there would likely be no Stock Farm Resort since due to the mine’s location, katabatic winds would have exposed the Stock Farm area to chronic dusting of this deadly toxic material. 

Here’s the point, despite the odds, we’ve done it once, we can do it again: No Sheep Creek Mine.