by Eddie Olwell, Stevensville
US Critical Materials, the company seeking to develop a rare earth mine in Bitterroot River Headwaters, claims to be opening an office in the Bitterroot this month. They also plan to submit a streamlined version of their Exploration Plan to the Bitterroot National Forest. They’ll be landing in our Valley touting charming tales of “the economy and the economic value” their proposed mine will bring to our communities. My question for them is far from, ‘how many jobs will you provide?’. I’m asking, “Can our local economies sustain any additional risks to the water that supports them?”
I’ve been outfitting fishing trips on the Bitterroot River for nearly 30 years; I’ve served the community through Board leadership with the Bitterroot Water Partnership and Bitterroot Trout Unlimited and Ski Patrol at Lost Trail; I’ve learned and loved this place and its people across 50 years. With a deep understanding for the Bitterroot’s dependence on clean water, it’s dumbfounding and incredibly alarming to hear US Critical Materials (USCM) present their headwaters mine as an economic value that could ever possibly outweigh, or be worth risking, the $190 million worth of downstream, clean-water dependent industries: agriculture, tourism and recreation, and fishing.
Rare earth mining operations are known for leaving highly polluted waters in their wake – acids, sediment, and other dangerous chemicals. Given this mine’s proposed location in the headwaters, we can expect that any pollution at this site will flow through Painted Rocks Reservoir, the West Fork, and the entire Bitterroot River. I know my answer, but I encourage you to ask yourself: are the 40 or so odd jobs that USCM predicts to provide in this mine operation worth risking the livelihoods of the thousands of families and friends who rely on clean, flowing water from the Bitterroot?
Clean, cold water from the West Fork supports our Bitterroot ways of life. A $68 million dollar fishing economy, a $79 million dollar tourism economy, and more than 1,000 farms generating $40 million would all be put at risk with a mine in the headwaters.A healthy river supports industries and jobs that are already here, and sustainable over the long term – as long as the water they rely on isn’t damaged by a polluting mine. There are better ways to add 40 jobs to the Bitterroot without jeopardizing the thousands that depend on a clean, flowing River.
Forty jobs at ~$80,000 salary a year – as USCM has suggested in public comment – totals less than $4 million annually for something that has the potential to damage an economy worth hundreds of millions, not to mention what would happen to the value of our homes.
In my decades as a fishing outfitter, my crew and I have hosted thousands of residents and tourists – and I can tell you their buck doesn’t stop with us. Economic studies from the Institute of Tourism and Recreation at University of Montana show fuel, accommodations, restaurants and bars, auto rental, small local businesses, and real estate as just a few of the many that benefit from tourist and angler expenditures. There is an added indirect value as these small businesses and employees spend their earnings on goods and services locally.
Dozens of businesses, hundreds of people, live on jobs that are made possible by a clean River, a Blue-Ribbon fishery, and a beautiful tourism destination. All these jobs – and more – will be put at risk by a mine in the headwaters of the River. The potential losses to our economy seem to be a high price to pay for 40 new jobs.
People from across the Valley, local officials included, have urged a cautious approach in questioning and permitting this mine proposal. That reflects an understanding shaped by experience, that the impacts of mining last generations, long after the initial and promised and isolated economic benefits have faded. The Bitterroot Valley has a clean water economy that works. Protecting what exists over the promises of what could be is not anti-development, its common sense.
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