State Land Department breaks promise to notify Pima County before advancing Copper World’s request to purchase land for toxic waste dumps

Sept. 12, 2025

Pima County’s top administrator has requested a meeting with the Arizona State Land Department’s Commissioner after failing to notify the county it was advancing an application from Copper World to purchase State Trust Land to expand toxic waste dumps.

Pima County Administrator Jan Lesher requested the meeting with Land Commissioner Robyn Sahid after the Department’s Board of Appeals voted 3-0 Thursday to approve Copper World’s application to purchase 160 acres east of the Santa Rita Experimental Range.

The purchase would allow the company to extend its series of tailings dumps that typically contain trace heavy metals to the southern edge of Corona de Tucson. The Board of Appeals approval was necessary before Commissioner Sahid could schedule the 160 acres for public auction. The board approved the department’s appraisal of the land at $993,000.

The department has 240 days from the Aug. 14 effective date of the appraisal to auction the land before the valuation expires.

“Pima County continues to strongly oppose the proposed development of the Copper World mine upstream of Tucson,” Lesher stated in her Sept. 11 letter to Sahid.

“We continue to share similar concerns regarding the substantial increase in groundwater withdrawals from the Tucson Active Management Area necessary to operate this mine, and the permanent destruction of significant natural and cultural resources, both of which conflict with our locally informed and scientifically designed Sonoran Desert Conservation Plan.”

Lesher included the letter in a memo sent to all five elected members of the Pima County Board of Supervisors.

This is the second time the board has approved the 160 acres for auction. In July 2023, the board advanced Copper World’s application but Sahid never scheduled it for auction.

“At that time your department was attempting to encourage the applicant to purchase additional State Trust land parcels to serve as mitigation for the mine tailing impacts,” Lesher stated in her letter to Sahid.

“Copper World representatives told us they were willing to agree to deed restrictions precluding development on a small 40-acre parcel, but not to purchase additional State Trust land for mitigation purposes,” Lesher wrote.

Lesher stated that the land department staff told the county that the 2023 appraisal expired after 240 days. The department would need to prepare an updated appraisal to submit to the Board of Appeals for approval before Copper World’s application could proceed to auction.

The department, Lesher wrote, said it “would notify us if and when this occurs.”

However, Lesher added, “We were not notified by your department but instead by the Executive Director of Save the Scenic Santa Rita’s.”

SSSR routinely monitors the board’s website to determine when it posts the complete agenda for upcoming meetings. SSSR discovered the Sept. 11 meeting agenda was posted on the board’s website late on the afternoon of Sept. 9. The state requires at least 24 hours public notice before board meetings.

SSSR immediately notified Pima County that the department had prepared a new appraisal for the 160 acres and placed it on the Board of Appeals Sept. 11 agenda.

Lesher attached a copy of SSSR President Thomas Nelson’s Sept.10 letter to Sahid and the Board of Appeals requesting Copper World’s application be withdrawn from the board’s agenda. She also attached a Sept. 10 letter from the Tohono O’Odham Nation opposing the land sale.

SSSR’s letter included an August 4 letter from Sahid to the U.S. Forest Service formally objecting to the proposed Resolution Mine east of Phoenix because of its potential damage to groundwater aquifers and contribution to land subsidence. The Resolution Mine, like Copper World, will require massive groundwater pumping over many decades.

“ASLD has significant concerns with the withdrawal of an estimated 544,858 acre-feet of

groundwater in the (Superstition Vistas Planning Area) over the life of the mine,” Sahid stated in her letter that was filed in ongoing federal litigation involving Resolution.

Superstition Vista spans more than 200 square miles of State Trust Land southeast of Apache Junction and north of Florence that is slated for residential development.

Copper World will require at least 10,000-acre feet of fresh water per year and company’s regulatory filings have stated the mine could be in operation for 44 years. The amount of potential groundwater withdrawal by Copper World is similar in magnitude to Resolution.

The state-owned 52,000-acre Santa Rita Experimental Range is immediately east of Copper World’s groundwater well fields in Sahuarita near the Santa Cruz River. There is additional State Trust Land adjacent to Sahuarita. Unlike the Resolution Mine, the department has not released any studies on the environmental and economic impacts on State Trust Land from Copper World’s projected groundwater pumping.

“I respectfully request another meeting with you about this matter and hope that you give it the same level of attention and concern to which you have given the Resolution Copper Mine proposed in the Superstition Mountains,” Lesher stated in closing her letter to Sahid.

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