Larry Campbell, a retired mining geologist, kneeled on the banks of Sheep Creek, holding a plastic jar filled with a water sample.
“Well, we’re doing citizen-science,” he said.
Sheep Creek feeds the headwaters of the West Fork of the Bitterroot River. Near Conner, it meets the East Fork, forming the mainstem of the Bitterroot River, bisecting Ravalli County.
Sheep Creek is also where U.S. Critical Materials wants to drill 45 holes in a mining exploration for rare earth elements. In a written response to MTPR, CEO Scott Osterman said the area has been known for mineral-rich deposits for decades.
“What's changed is how much the world now depends on what's in that rock: rare earths and gallium,” he wrote.
These minerals are used in everything from electric cars and smartphones to medical technology and defense systems. Most of the world’s supply comes from China. There are only two rare earth mines operating in the U.S. right now, and the government is investing in domestic production.
“The purpose of exploration is to find out, responsibly, whether this one can be part of the answer,” Osterman wrote.
The company’s proposal is currently under environmental review by the U.S. Forest Service to see if it can bypass more intense assessments. State officials are also reviewing it under Montana mining laws.
But many local residents are worried. The proposed drill sites sit just a few miles above Painted Rocks Reservoir, a critical water supply for agriculture and wildlife.
Michael Howell is director of the Bitterroot River Health Check, a community water quality monitoring program. He said the project could threaten their way of life and the river.
“Every which way you can think of, that's why everyone in the Bitterroot has come out in opposition to this,” Howell said. “Hundreds and hundreds of people have shown up at two public meetings – 600, 700 – not a word in support of this.”
In late August, local leaders, including the chair of the Ravalli County Board of Commissioners, spoke against the project at a meeting in Hamilton.
“The Bitterroot River isn’t just any river. This is our river,” Heather Barber, director of the Bitterroot Water Partnership, told the crowd. “Whatever happens up there won't stay up there. The results will travel downstream to our communities, past tens of thousands of people, and the consequences will be felt by those of us who live here.”
Back at the edge of Sheep Creek in September, Howell and his team of Bitterroot River Health Check volunteers got their boots wet.
“They’re taking flow samples,” he said. “They're getting the temperature, how much dissolved oxygen is in the water, what the pH is.”
The water samples are sent to a state-approved lab where, if strict scientific requirements are met, the results are certified. They have been sampling here since 2024 over concerns about U.S. Critical Material’s approach to the water.
In their proposal, submitted to the Forest Service this summer, the company wrote water quality or groundwater monitoring would only be done if required by a state or federal agency. It was otherwise not necessary, according to the plan.
That worried Howell.
“It just seems unreasonable to us that anyone would proceed with something like that without establishing some baseline, so that you can, in the end, see what's happening,” he said. “Is it getting worse? Is it better?”
In an email to MTPR last week, Osterman said the company agrees. He said U.S. Critical Materials has hired an environmental firm to do water quality monitoring and will update their written plan.
“That's a fair concern. The language in the draft reflected what the permit requires at minimum, and it understated what we're actually doing,” he wrote. “Water is the number one concern in this valley. We share it, and we should have made that clear in the plan from the start.”
Osterman also said that the company is grateful for the independent monitoring efforts and would like to work with community groups. He also said U.S. Critical Materials believes the risk of the proposed exploration is “very low.”
“Establishing a cooperative and collaborative relationship with the community is vital to serve both parties' interests,” he said. “We would propose coincidental sampling in time and location as the project develops so that independent testing of the exact same samples can show transparently any results.”
Howell said he has always been open to engaging with them, all they need to do is call.
“This is our headwaters and it should be clean. It should stay clean,” he said.
Taking samples this fall, Larry Campbell, the retired mining exploration geologist, said the team’s independent monitoring holds the company to account.
“If in the future they blow it and pollute this creek, we'll have a baseline,” he said. “We'll be able to show scientifically that they caused the pollution, because right now you can't find water that's any more pristine than this right here.”
The Forest Service and the Montana Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) are reviewing the company’s proposal. The DEQ is currently accepting public comment to inform their next steps.
No matter what happens up Sheep Creek, the Bitterroot River Health Check plans to keep coming back to the banks, collecting samples.
“What motivates me is I think it would be hard to find a worse place for a mine,” Campbell said. “Just in itself, it is really very valuable, rare habitat and this habitat is much more rare than rare earths.”
