Forget the mines; we must protect our best and precious Cabinet Mountain Wilderness

Letter to the Editor,

Without the hard work from past Montanans to protect our best ground, we would be The Big Nothing instead of the Treasure State. All that good work deserves respect.

Reasons are not good enough to destroy Northwest Montana’s Cabinet Mountain Wilderness for two copper mines. Living in an area of few jobs cannot justify destroying our best ground.

Lincoln and Sanders counties must protect, not destroy, their pristine high-mountain jewels. The value of our state’s most special public lands protected extends far beyond any reason to harm them.

For 25 years, water-quality experts have told me digging tunnels will pollute valley waterways with a toxic brew. Three-fourths of the U.S. is having water troubles and Montana talks of poisoning its waters.

Our EPA must stop these mines from becoming reality. For more than 130 years, the monster Butte and Anaconda mines dumped their worst toxic waste directly into the Clark Fork River making it awful, even more awful came the dams.

The river was the world’s worst polluted from mine toxins.

I remember the thick gray goo with white dead fish floating on top of it. The mining industry has had enough of the Clark Fork. Montana, retire the river!

The 1872 Mining Law and Wilderness Act signed by President Ulysses S. Grant must be changed for “the now times.”

The antiquated statute wants to create jobs where they can’t be.

Montana thrives on protect not destroy.

— L.J. LaBelle

Thompson Falls