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Media Release: Lawsuit Filed to Protect Arizona’s Waters, Wildlife From Proposed Rosemont Mine

March 27, 2019 By santaritas 2 Comments

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

PDF version can be downloaded here

Lawsuit Filed to Protect Arizona’s Waters, Wildlife From Proposed Rosemont Mine

TUCSON, Ariz.— Together, four conservation groups filed a lawsuit in federal district court today to overturn a key permit for the controversial proposed Rosemont Copper Mine in southern Arizona. The lawsuit challenges the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ issuance of a Clean Water Act permit for the mine, which would threaten critical water resources and wildlife habitat.

“In spite of reports from multiple government agencies that the proposed Rosemont Mine does not comply with federal law, the Army Corps of Engineers has chosen to grant the federal Clean Water Act 404 permit,” said Gayle Hartmann, president of Save the Scenic Santa Ritas. “Because of this, we have no choice but to seek justice in federal court in support of our community, our health and our environment. We will move forward and present our case, reiterating the extensive damage this project will do to our water resources and our beautiful Santa Rita Mountains.”

Earlier this month the Corps reversed course from a 2016 determination and issued the final permit needed to start construction of the vast open-pit copper mine. Hudbay Minerals, Rosemont’s Canadian owner, wants to blast a mile-wide, half-mile-deep open pit in the Santa Rita Mountains and pile toxic mine tailings and waste rock hundreds of feet high in the Davidson Canyon-Cienega Creek watershed, which replenishes Tucson’s groundwater basin, a source for roughly 20 percent of Tucson’s drinking water.

More than 5,000 acres would be destroyed by the mine, including nearly 4,000 acres of public land that would be covered by the mine’s waste dumps, open pit, processing plant and infrastructure. The pit and waste dumps would remain as a permanent scar and environmental hazard on public land.

“The proposed Rosemont Mine would be a blight on the Santa Ritas and do serious harm to Outstanding Arizona Waters such as Davidson Canyon and Cienega Creek,” said Sandy Bahr, chapter director for Sierra Club’s Grand Canyon (Arizona) Chapter. “The Corps has not considered the degree or scope of the impacts to wildlife, cultural resources, and other protected public lands in its decision, and it has not done its job to ensure that this project is in the public’s interest.”

The Rosemont Mine would drain the regional aquifer that supports dozens of springs and streams in the area that are home to endangered fish, frogs, snakes, birds and plants. It would also destroy thousands of acres of federally protected jaguar critical habitat and sever a critically important wildlife corridor essential to the recovery of the northern jaguar population that spans the U.S.-Mexico border.

“The Corps’ outrageous flip-flop on the Rosemont Clean Water Act permit is politics at its worst and cannot be justified by science or law,” said Randy Serraglio, a conservation advocate at the Center for Biological Diversity. “This decision to betray southern Arizona and greenlight this disaster won’t stand. We’ll fight for Tucson’s water security and the jaguars, ocelots and other wildlife that call the Santa Ritas home.”

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has weighed in against the Rosemont proposal numerous times over a period of several years, saying that the project would violate water-quality standards and was not in the public interest. In July 2016 the Corps’ own scientists determined that the permit should be denied, yet the Trump administration reversed course and issued the permit anyway.

“There is no better example of the failure of our government to provide effective protections from the harms of mining than the proposed Rosemont Mine,” said Roger Featherstone, director of the Arizona Mining Reform Coalition. “This project is bad for communities, devastating to wildlife, and should not be allowed to proceed.”

The groups are represented by the Western Mining Action Project, a public-interest law firm specializing in litigation on mining issues in the western states, and Marc Fink and Allison Melton of the Center for Biological Diversity.

Save the Scenic Santa Ritas is a nonprofit organization working to protect the Santa Rita Mountains from environmental degradation caused by mining and mineral exploration activities.

The Center for Biological Diversity is a national, nonprofit conservation organization with more than 1.4 million members and online activists dedicated to the protection of endangered species and wild places.

Founded in 1892, the Sierra Club is a national nonprofit environmental organization with approximately 2.7 million members and supporters, including more than 60,000 in Arizona. Sierra Club’s mission is “to explore, enjoy, and protect the wild places of the earth; to practice and promote the responsible use of the earth’s ecosystems and resources; and to educate and enlist humanity to protect and restore the quality of the natural and human environment.

The Arizona Mining Reform Coalition represents 16 local, regional, and national organizations working in Arizona to improve state and federal laws, rules, and regulations governing hard rock mining to protect communities and the environment. We work to hold mining operations to the highest environmental and social standards to provide for the long term environmental, cultural, and economic health of Arizona.

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Media Release: US Army Corps of Engineers Approves Water Permit for Rosemont Mine

March 8, 2019 By santaritas 2 Comments

Opponents expected to file federal lawsuit challenging decision

(TUCSON, Ariz) The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers today overturned an earlier agency recommendation to deny a Clean Water Act permit for the proposed Rosemont Copper Mine and instead approved the last remaining permit needed to construct the massive open-pit copper mine in the Santa Rita Mountains on the Coronado National Forest southeast of Tucson.

Army Corps Brigadier General D. Peter Helmlinger rejected a July 2016 recommendation by the Corp’s Los Angeles district to deny the Sec. 404 Clean Water Act permit for Toronto-based Hudbay Minerals Inc.’s $1.9 billion Rosemont mine.

The permit authorizes Hudbay to dump millions of tons of potentially toxic mine wastes on more the 2,500 acres of Coronado National Forest. The waste rock and mine tailings will obliterate desert washes and streams that provide significant recharge to the ground water supplies relied upon by residents of the Tucson metropolitan area.

“We are extremely disappointed that the Corps of Engineers apparently rejected the recommendation from their own District Engineers and years of technical analysis by the Corps, EPA, and many other agencies and entities,” said David Steele, spokesperson for Save the Scenic Santa Ritas. “Make no mistake about it – the pr spin and regulatory gymnastics that occurred to get to this decision do not change the fact that this mine is bad for southern Arizona. We are committed to continuing to fight it.”

Today’s decision represents a dramatic reversal by the U.S. Army Corps. In late 2016, General Helmlinger, wrote to Hudbay laying out that agency’s rationale for denying the permit. In the letter, he said:

In this case [the Rosemont Section 404 permit], the [Corps’ Los Angeles] District concluded that implementation of the proposed project would cause or contribute to violations of state water quality standards, and that minimization and mitigation measures, along with proposed monitoring were inadequate to ensure that degradation did not occur. The District further concluded that implementation of the proposed project would result in significant degradation of waters of the United States, as a result of a substantial reduction of functions and services and that the project would contribute to the degradation of Outstanding Arizona Waters.

The Corps’ decision also ignores serious concerns raised by Pima County, the Arizona Game and Fish Department, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management, the Tohono O’odham Nation, Pascua Yaqui Tribe, the Hopi Tribe, and a coalition of numerous Arizona conservation organizations. The EPA is on the record stating the mine should not be constructed as proposed. As recently as November 2017, the EPA strongly criticized Rosemont’s proposed Habitat Mitigation and Management Plan (HMMP), a key component of the mining company’s permit package. The EPA said, “[o]ur review of the HMMP affirms our position that the mitigation does not comply with EPA’s 404(b)(1) Guidelines and the requirements of the Mitigation Rule. The HMMP proposed by Rosemont fails to offset the proposed mine’s impacts to aquatic resources in the Cienega Creek watershed.”

The Corps decision is subject to challenge in federal courts. Opponents of the mine have vowed that they will pursue all legal means including litigation to stop the mine.

[Editors Note: Click here for additional information regarding the regulatory record concerning the proposed Rosemont Mine.]

Save the Scenic Santa Ritas is a non-profit organization consisting of a coalition of business, homeowner, and conservation and recreational organizations working to protect the Santa Rita Mountains from the environmental degradation caused by mining and mineral exploration.

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ADEQ Meeting in Tucson on Thursday, May 10 – Your Voice is Needed to Protect Our Water

May 2, 2018 By santaritas Leave a Comment

Some of you have probably already received this notice from ADEQ, but for those who haven’t:

ADEQ will be hosting an all-day meeting regarding the Triennial Review of Surface Water Quality Standards on Thurs., May 10 in Room 222 of the northern State of Arizona Building at 400 W. Congress (this building is immediately west of Granada on the corner of Granada and Congress – map). There is parking on the west side of the building.

Of particularly interest to those of us fighting the Rosemont Mine is the portion of the agenda from 3-5 PM concerning the Outstanding Water issue. As you know, the proposed Rosemont Mine threatens Las Cienegas Creek, an Outstanding Arizona Water and Rosemont functionaries are deeply involved in this process.

Urgent Phone Calls/Emails Needed to Protect Our Drinking Water

March 5, 2018 By santaritas 3 Comments

The only thing standing between our water and the destructive Rosemont Mine is the Sec. 404 Clean Water Act permit program.

Now, coincidentally, Rosemont and its mining allies are trying to pass a bill that is a blatant attempt to make things easier for companies like Rosemont owners to destroy our water resources in order to enrich themselves and their foreign investors.

The bill, SB 1493 is scheduled to be heard in Committee TOMORROW, TUESDAY March 5. Call this Committee TODAY, to tell them to vote AGAINST SB 1493. Again, call TODAY. Below is a listing of the Committee members for you to call.

SB 1493 is a bad idea that must be rejected.

Member	Position	Phone	Email
Brenda Barton	Vice-Chair	(602) 926-4129	BBARTON@azleg.gov
Russell Bowers	Chair	(602) 926-3128	RBOWERS@azleg.gov
David L. Cook	Member	(602) 926-5162	DCOOK@azleg.gov
Eric Descheenie	Member	(602) 926-4846	EDESCHEENIE@azleg.gov
Timothy Dunn	Member	(602) 926-4139	TDUNN@azleg.gov
Kirsten Engel	Member	(602) 926-5178	KENGEL@azleg.gov
Sally Ann Gonzales	Member	(602) 926-3278	SGONZALES@azleg.gov
Vince Leach	Member	(602) 926-3106	VLEACH@azleg.gov
Paul Mosley	Member	(602) 926-4844	PMOSLEY@azleg.gov
Michelle Udall	Member	(602) 926-4856	MUDALL@azleg.gov

Media Release: Key elements of Rosemont water mitigation plan “commonly fail”

January 4, 2018 By santaritas Leave a Comment

Key elements of Rosemont water mitigation plan “commonly fail”

Noted expert reviews Rosemont habitat mitigation plan for essential water permit

(Tucson, Ariz.) Save the Scenic Santa Ritas (SSSR) today released a new report debunking claims by Toronto-based Hudbay Minerals, Inc. that the water resource impacts of its proposed Rosemont Mine can be mitigated.

Internationally recognized water expert Dr. Mathias Kondolf was retained by SSSR to analyze Hudbay’s proposed Sonoita Creek restoration plan that is part of Hudbay’s Final Habitat Mitigation and Monitoring Plan for the proposed open-pit copper mine planned for the Santa Rita Mountains on the Coronado National Forest in southeastern Arizona.

The Habitat Mitigation plan is an essential component of Hudbay’s Sec. 404 permit application for the Rosemont project. Hudbay must demonstrate that its mitigation plan will satisfactorily mitigate the extensive impacts of its proposed mine to affected regional water resources. SSSR submitted Kondolf’s report to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for its review prior to the Corps’ pending decision on whether to issue the 404 permit.

Dr. Kondolf is a Professor of Environmental Planning at the University of California, Berkeley and is a noted expert on wetlands and river restoration. Kondolf previously reviewed Hudbay’s earlier Sonoita Creek mitigation plan and found that plan to be inadequate as well.

Hudbay subsequently modified its Sonoita Creek plan, which Kondolf analyzed for SSSR.

Kondolf’s key findings include:

The type of project Hudbay proposes for Sonoita Creek “commonly fail.” The plan involves a massive earth-moving project to create a new channel. Kondolf determined that consistent with “geomorphic principles and experience with similar artificial channel reconstructions elsewhere,” the new channel would very likely wash out…” during the initial moderate flows.
Hudbay’s proposed mitigation project would fill a portion of the existing Sonoita Creek channel, which is classified as a “Waters of the U.S.,” without corresponding mitigation. Contrary to the mining company’s assertions, Hudbay’s Sonoita Creek mitigation component is not demonstrably “ecologically superior” to this resource’s current condition.
The new channel Hudbay is proposing to build “would destroy existing riparian habitat, and fill material generated from the excavation would be spoiled on existing riparian habitat, also without mitigation.”

The Kondolf report is just the latest criticism leveled against the Rosemont project and its impacts on the scarce water resources in southern Arizona.

The Corps has long expressed serious concerns about the mile-wide, half-mile deep mine that would dump waste rock and tailings on more than 2,500 acres of Coronado National Forest, stating that Hudbay’s previous water mitigation plan was inadequate. The Corps’ Los Angeles district office recommended that the essential Sec. 404 permit be denied in July 2016. The Corps’ South Pacific Division, located in San Francisco, is currently reviewing Hudbay’s application.

In 2016, Pima County, where the mine is located, formally requested that the Army Corps deny the 404 permit. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has also issued letters to the Army Corps stating that the mine project should not move forward because of the lack of adequate mitigation.

The 404 permit is the last major permit Hudbay needs before it can begin construction on the mine proposed to be built in the Santa Rita Mountains on the Coronado National Forest 30 miles southeast of Tucson.

[Editors Note: Copy of the Kondolf report can be downloaded here]

Save the Scenic Santa Ritas is a non-profit, community organization working to protect the Santa Rita and Patagonia Mountains from environmental degradation caused by mining and mineral exploration activities. For more information, go to ScenicSantaRitas.org, RosemontMineTruth.com, Facebook, and Twitter.

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Media Release: Lawsuit Filed to Protect Arizona’s Waters, Wildlife From Proposed Rosemont Mine

Media Release: US Army Corps of Engineers Approves Water Permit for Rosemont Mine

ADEQ Meeting in Tucson on Thursday, May 10 – Your Voice is Needed to Protect Our Water

Urgent Phone Calls/Emails Needed to Protect Our Drinking Water

Media Release: Key elements of Rosemont water mitigation plan “commonly fail”

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