Save the Scenic Santa Ritas

Fighting to protect the Santa Rita and Patagonia Mountains from the devastating impacts of mining.

Two Southern Arizona Plants Proposed for Endangered Species Act Protection

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Dec. 5th, 2019

TUCSON, Ariz.— In response to a petition and lawsuit from the Center for Biological Diversity, two southern Arizona plants were proposed for Endangered Species Act protection today.

Bartram’s stonecrop and beardless chinchweed are two of a dozen imperiled animals and plants threatened by the proposed Rosemont Copper Mine near Tucson, which would impact more than 145,000 acres of wildlife habitat.

Bartram’s stonecrop – image courtesy of Center for Biological Diversity

Beardless chinchweed, a type of sunflower, would be protected as endangered with 10,604 acres of critical habitat. Bartram’s stonecrop would be protected as threatened.

Read full press release from the Center For Biological Diversity…

Rosemont suspends well-repair program east of Sahuarita

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Well owners east of Sahuarita who have had their maintenance and repair bills picked up by Rosemont copper mine for the past decade will have to go it alone, at least for now.

Mine owner HudBay Minerals said in a letter dated Nov. 26 it is suspending its agreement as of Dec. 31, because “we no longer have the Forest Service approvals required to begin mining activities on the federal lands.”

The Rosemont Residential Water Well Protection Plan went into effect Dec. 1, 2009, between Rosemont Copper Co. and 313 families on 144 residential wells in Sahuarita Heights. The agreement remained intact when HudBay bought the mine site in 2014.

Read full article in the Green Valley News…

Hudbay’s Motion for Reconsideration Denied

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On Friday, 25 October, Judge James Soto’s issued his response to Hudbay’s motion for reconsideration. He only took 1 ½ pages to deny it. He briefly summarized the law on the subject and made several statements including:

  • “motions for reconsideration should be granted only in rare circumstances,” 
  • “nor may a motion for reconsideration repeat any argument previously made in support of or in opposition to a motion,” and
  • “mere disagreement with a previous order is an insufficient basis for reconsideration.”

His conclusion: “The Court has reviewed the record in this case. The Court finds no basis to reconsider its decision. Accordingly, IT IS ORDERED that Rosemont’s motion for reconsideration is …denied.”
 
He also denied Rosemont/Hudbay’s request for oral argument by saying, “Because the briefing (that is, what was presented in writing and verbally in court) is adequate and oral argument will not help in resolving this matter, oral argument is denied.”

Judge Soto’s decision was not really a surprise, but we are pleased to see it. It seemed as if Rosemont/Hudbay was just using the request for reconsideration as a stalling tactic. But, now the 60-day clock  starts ticking; i.e., Rosemont/Hudbay have 60 days to file an appeal with the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals of Judge Soto’s 31 July decision. They will very likely do that. It is our understanding that the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals is very backlogged and, thus, this case will not be heard for at least 18 months. Our legal beagle guys and gals are keeping a close eye on everything.  

For more info, see the latest news article in the Arizona Daily Star:

https://tucson.com/news/local/judge-won-t-reconsider-his-ruling-stopping-the-rosemont-mine/article_f57a0ac1-58a2-50a6-b3b8-d3ee6cff978b.html
 

Hudbay continues to scale back at Rosemont site

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Things continue to be quiet at the Rosemont site, and it would appear that Hudbay continues to scale back operations. Compare the below images…the first taken late August, and the second taken in October. As you can see, the large stacks of water pipes that were on site in August have since been removed.

Storage yard at Rosemont, August 2019
Storage yard at Rosemont, Oct. 2019

Hudbay asks Judge to Junk Ruling

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You may have seen the recent article Judge is asked to junk ruling that halted Rosemont work in the Sept. 5th edition of the Arizona Daily Star and wondered WHAT IS THIS ALL ABOUT?

Well, it’s all a bit complicated, but the bottom line is that Hudbay is perhaps trying to exhaust all possible remedies before filing a full appeal, which they can still do within 60 days after the judge’s decision comes back on their recent “Motion to Alter or Amend.”

Here are a few more details on Rosemont’s “Motion to Alter or Amend” filing:

On Friday, August 30th, attorneys for Hudbay/Rosemont submitted what is legally known as a “Motion to Alter or Amend” the Tucson federal court’s Judgment that was issued on August 2nd. This Judgment formally implemented the court’s July 31st Order, which had ruled that the Forest Service’s Record of Decision and Final EIS violated numerous aspects of federal public land, mining, and environmental law. The court’s decision and Judgment “vacated,” which means set aside/invalidated, the ROD and FEIS, such that they no longer can be used by the Forest Service or any other federal agency in support of approving the Rosemont project operations. 

Hudbay/Rosemont’s August 30th motion asks the court to amend its decision so that the FEIS should still be in force, and argued that the court exceeded its jurisdiction in vacating the ROD and FEIS. 

Attorneys for SSSR and the other conservation group plaintiffs, along with attorneys for the three Tribes, have reviewed Hudbay/Rosemont’s motion and have found that it is without merit and should be denied by the court. SSSR’ and the Tribes’ responses to Hudbay/Rosemont’s motion were initially due to be filed September 13, but the court granted SSSR/Tribes’ motion to extend that deadline, and now the responses are due on September 27th. Notably, in its order setting the new response deadline, the court ruled that Hudbay/Rosemont will not be allowed to file a reply to SSSR/Tribes’ responses.

There is no time limit for Judge Soto to rule on the new motion, but it will be some time after SSSR/Tribes file their responses on September 27th.

So, we cannot predict with certainty what Judge Soto will decide, but our attorneys are confident that, as we noted above, Hudbay/Rosemont’s motion is without merit.

We’ll know for sure only when Judge Soto makes his decision, sometime after September 27th.

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Selected Lens on the Land Photographs

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Partial view of the proposed mine site, looking west, by Cheryl Rogos
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