SSSR to host Town Hall on Copper World’s hidden impacts on Sahuarita and Green Valley
Jan. 27, 2026
Contact: John Dougherty, (520) 261-5014, jdougherty@scenicsantaritas.org
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tucson--Save the Scenic Santa Ritas will host a free Town Hall at 1 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 31 at the Sahuarita Unified School District Auditorium to present information hidden from the public on the impacts of the proposed Copper World mine on Sahuarita and Green Valley.
“Toronto-based Hudbay Minerals is misleading the community on the devastating impact this
massive mine will have on the groundwater and future water bills,” says John Dougherty,
executive director of Save the Scenic Santa Ritas. “And Community Water Company and the
Town of Sahuarita are assisting the deception by quietly working with the company.”
Sahuarita signed a 2013 Right-of-Way encroachment agreement with Rosemont Copper Company that allows the mine developers to install an underground water pipeline along Santa Rita Road within the town limits. The pipeline would connect Hudbay’s groundwater wellfield with the mine planned on the northwestern slope of the Santa Rita Mountains.
Hudbay purchased Rosemont in 2014. The agreement states the mining company would replenish 105% of the groundwater it pumps with Central Arizona Project water. The agreement requires the CAP water to be recharged into the aquifer in the same area from where it is pumped.
“There is no feasible way for Hudbay to recharge 105% of the groundwater water with CAP water in Sahuarita and Green Valley,” Dougherty says. “The Town should immediately cancel the encroachment agreement to protect the community from much higher water bills. Instead, the Town is refusing to release public records showing how little CAP water Hudbay has recharged into the area aquifer.”
The Community Water Company has been promising residents for more than a decade that it will build a pipeline to bring CAP water to the area to help replenish the groundwater table that is steadily declining. The company has an agreement with Hudbay to fund the pipeline project called Project Renews.
“Project Renews is only 20 percent complete and it is virtually certain there will not be enough
CAP water available to make it worth building,” Dougherty says. “But CWC’s agreement with
Hudbay allows the mining company to state on its website that it will replenish all the groundwater it will pump from the aquifer.”
Hudbay also has known for years that its series of open pits mines that will straddle the Santa Rita Mountains will require tens of thousands of heavy trucks a year because there is no rail access to the mine site that lies east of the 52,000-acre, state-owned Santa Rita Experimental Range. The number of trucks needed for the mining operation were detailed in federal studies required for the Rosemont Mine, which was the previous name of the Copper World project.
“Hudbay is refusing to disclose its transportation plan that will require at least 40,000 heavy trucks a year passing through downtown Sahuarita carrying hazardous chemicals, explosives and copper concentrate. Previous studies have shown the trucks will increase the risk of injuries and fatalities,” Dougherty says. “The Town of Sahuarita has done nothing to alert the community of the impending truck traffic that would operate 24/7/365 for decades.”
SSSR will provide details on the water and truck impacts during the community meeting open to the public. The SUSD Auditorium is located at 350 W. Sahuarita Drive, Sahuarita.
For more information go to Scenicsantaritas.org.
###