Press Release

For Immediate Release: March 7, 2013

Rosemont Air Permit Based on Wrong Mining Plan and Manipulated Data

ADEQ Decision Challenged by Local Coalition

(Tucson, Ariz.) The air pollution permit issued in late January by the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) for the proposed Rosemont Mine was based on an outdated mining plan that differs dramatically from the one Rosemont Copper announced last summer. The permit was also based on data that was manipulated by Rosemont to hide potential air pollution violations in Tucson and Pima County.

Those are among the key issues cited in an appeal of the ADEQ decision by Save the Scenic Santa Ritas (SSSR), a local coalition of farmers, ranchers, residents and businesses who are concerned about the damage the proposed open-pit copper mine would cause to southern Arizona’s water supplies, air quality and economy.

“It’s hard to believe that ADEQ would simply rubber-stamp this permit application,” said Dr. Tom Purdon, a Green Valley physician. “ADEQ should have reviewed data about the mine that Rosemont actually intends to build, not data about a plan they discarded more than six months earlier.”

In its appeal, SSSR identified several additional flaws in ADEQ’s review of the Rosemont applications, including ADEQ’s:

• failure to adequately evaluate Rosemont’s setting of “process area boundary” for modeling air pollution emissions in direct violation of ADEQ standards;

• failure to adequately evaluate Rosemont’s questionable claim that mining operations will not exceed 10 tons per year of certain hazardous air pollutants or 25 tons combined of those hazardous air pollutants; and

• failure to adequately evaluate Rosemont’s manipulated modeling techniques that misrepresented weather conditions and other modeling inputs in order to avoid data showing violations of the Clean Air Act.

“Air pollution from the Rosemont Mine has the potential to harm the health and safety of southern Arizonans,” said SSSR President Gayle Hartmann. “The ADEQ needs to follow its own regulations and require Rosemont to use accurate modeling techniques to ensure that the mine doesn’t cause Tucson and Pima County to exceed air pollution standards. To do otherwise would jeopardize the health of those of us who live and work here.”

Contrary to Rosemont’s misrepresentations to potential investors and others, the ADEQ air pollution permit is just one of seven permits or other decisions that still must be obtained by Rosemont Copper before it can proceed with the mine:

• The US Forest Service must complete an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) and issue a Record of Decision. In 2012, the Environmental Protection Agency gave the draft EIS its lowest possible rating and concluded that it was one of the worst EIS’s ever reviewed. The Forest Service process has been delayed in large part by Rosemont’s failure to provide requested information and by the Company’s decision to dramatically change its mining proposal in July 2012.

• The US Army Corps of Engineers must issue a permit under the Clean Water Act that allows Rosemont to pollute area waterways. As with the EIS, the Environmental Protection Agency concluded in 2012 that the Rosemont Mine would cause “significant degradation” of area waterways, including “substantial and unacceptable impacts” to Davidson Canyon and Cienega Creek.

• The US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) must issue a Biological Opinion assessing whether the Rosemont Mine would jeopardize nearly a dozen threatened and endangered species, including the jaguar, ocelot and southwestern willow flycatcher. In addition, the FWS is in the process of designating critical habitat for both jaguars and the southwestern willow flycatcher that may include the Rosemont Mine site. The Arizona Department of Game and Fish has concluded that the Rosemont Mine “will render the northern portion of the Santa Rita Mountains virtually worthless as wildlife habitat and as a functioning ecosystem, and thus also worthless for wildlife recreation.” Federal agencies are not allowed to approve actions that destroy or adversely modify critical habitat for endangered species.

• The Aquifer Protection Permit issued by the ADEQ in 2012 is still under appeal on the grounds that it fails to protect area groundwater supplies. The Water Quality Appeals Board has not yet ruled on the appeal.

• The Forest Service must also consult with the State Historic Preservation Office and, potentially, the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation to ensure that the Rosemont Mine doesn’t adversely affect historic and cultural sites, including traditional lands of the Tohono O’odham Nation and other Native American Tribes.

For Immediate Release:

Judge Denies Preliminary Injunction Motion in Rosemont-Related Lawsuit

Issues in Underlying Litigation Remain Unresolved

Contact:           

Gayle Hartmann, SSSR, (520) 325-6974

Randy Serraglio, Center for Biological Diversity, (520) 784-1504
David Steele, FICO, (520) 321-1111 (office), (520)907-2620 (cell)

TUCSON, Ariz. — In a written order today, Federal District Court Judge Frank R. Zapata denied a preliminary injunction motion filed by plaintiffs in Rosemont-related litigation. This lawsuit asserts that the Forest Service illegally allowed Rosemont Copper and its representatives to participate in closed-door cooperating agency meetings on the preparation of the draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) for this project.

While the judge ruled against the plaintiffs’ motion, the issues identified in the underlying lawsuit remain unresolved and will be addressed.  To this point, Judge Zapata said, “[I]n reviewing the pertinent statutory, regulatory and case law authority, the Court does find, at best, that the USFS was less than prudent in inviting Rosemont and its consultants as the primary and only regularly invited non-governmental agency and that such actions, at a minimum, presents an appearance of impropriety on the part of the USFS as well as Rosemont.”

A business and conservation coalition comprised of Save the Scenic Santa Ritas, the Center for Biological Diversity and Farmers Investment Co. filed a lawsuit in February against the U.S. Forest Service, asserting that the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA) was violated. FACA requires that committees established by federal agencies be open to public membership and participation. Evidence presented to the court found that the Coronado National Forest allowed representatives of Rosemont Copper Co. to actively participate in closed-door meetings the Forest Service has held since early 2009 with other government agencies that excluded members of the public.

“While we are disappointed in the ruling, we still believe fairness is the issue, and the public trust was violated. We will continue to work to bring the public into this process.”

Gayle Hartmann, Save the Scenic Santa Ritas

“Today’s ruling only addresses the preliminary injunction. The Rosemont process has been flawed from the start. We are going to continue fighting to ensure that the public’s voice is heard and ALL of the impacts of this complex proposal are thoroughly and realistically analyzed. From the start, Rosemont Copper and the Forest Service are rushing this project at the expense of the public interests.”

Randy Serraglio, Center for Biological Diversity

“While we are somewhat disappointed that the Judge did not grant the Preliminary Injunction, we believe that the underlying issues in it remains unresolved – the Forest Service’s process to prepare the draft Environmental Impact Statement for the proposed Rosemont Copper Mine is tainted as a result of Rosemont’s illegal participation in the cooperating agency meetings. Later we will have the opportunity to present in court facts that clearly show that Rosemont illegally participated in the Forest Service’s cooperating agency meetings to the detriment of the public’s interest. The purpose of FACA is to ensure that the sun shines on important federal agency decisions about public resources.

Nan Stockholm Walden, Farmers Investment Co.

Background

The Rosemont area of the Santa Rita Mountains is home to a rich diversity of plants and animals, including several species that are imperiled and one that is found nowhere else. It is an important wildlife corridor connecting the Sky Island mountain ranges of southern Arizona. Many cherish this area for its wide array of recreational opportunities; a massive open-pit copper mine such as the one proposed by Rosemont Copper would destroy the permanent value of this public land in exchange for the short-term profit of a few.

Save the Scenic Santa Rita (SSSR) is a volunteer-based, nonprofit organization based in Tucson, Arizona. It was established in 1996 to protect the scenic, aesthetic, recreational and wildlife values of the Santa Rita Mountains through education and outreach.

The Center for Biological Diversity is a national, nonprofit conservation organization with more than 320,000 members and online activists dedicated to the protection of endangered species and wild places.

Farmers Investment Co. (FICO) is a family-owned farm that grows pecans on approximately 4500 acres it owns in the Upper Santa Cruz River Valley near Sahuarita, Arizona.