La Plata project

MSI is monitoring water quality in watersheds surrounding the La Plata Project, which aims to explore our mineral rich region and uncover copper occurrences in the La Plata Mountains. The streams we will be focusing on for this project will be the La Plata River and the East Mancos River.

To learn more about the La Plata Project specifcally, click here.

Sampling events

1st event and volunteer training: June 17th, 2025

2nd event: August 4th-August 8th, 2025

3rd event: October 27th-31st, 2025

If interested in getting involved, please email Haley at haley@mountainstudies.org

Why is MSI involved?

MSI has been approached by Metallic Minerals and concerned community members to understand the environmental impacts of this exploration process by monitoring the water quality surrounding this area before any exploration happens, during, and after. One of the core values that was highlighted was getting community members involved with their local watersheds, which is why we have added this project to our list of citizen science projects.

How can you get involved?

Volunteers can get involved by learning the methodology for the water quality samples we will be taking and signing up for one of our sampling events. We have five different sites associated with this project which can be viewed on the map below. Four of them reside on the La Plata River and one on the East Mancos. To view our sites, refer to the map below.