The Bitterroot River Mainstem Project was started in 2017 and adopted by DEQ as the Bitterroot River Mainstem Nutruent Monitoring program 2019-2039.

The Sheep Creek Mine Project was started in 2024 and is ongoing.

The Sapphire Front Project was begun in 2018 and is ongoing. Sites on Eightmile Creek and Sleeping Child Creek were added in 2024 (not pictured on map)

A Community Project

Our Spring Semester 2022 Bitterroot College UM Environmental Science Class wanted to investigate leachate from stream sediments and gravel road materials to determine if these could be a source of non-point-source and point source lead (Pb) pollution to our Bitterroot River. Montana’s DEQ has identified lead in the lower basin Bitterroot River in their 2014 TMDL report and in the comments of that report, we found notes about possible lead pollution from the Curlew Mine located northwest of Victor, Montana. To our knowledge, nobody has tried to find a connection between the river and this old abandoned lead. So we gave it a shot.