Possibly April 2024? ADEQ's draft Copper World air permit will likely to be released for public comment in April. There will be an informal public meeting and a formal, legally required public hearing.
Possibly April-May, 2024? After reviewing public comments, the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) will likely release the final Aquifer Protection Permit for Copper World.
April 10, 2024. The public comment period on the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality's (ADEQ) draft Aquifer Protection Permit for Copper World closes on April 10, 2024. You can read about how to submit your own comments here.
April 7, 2024. Comments by SSSR and 13 other groups on the draft Aquifer Protection Permit (APP) were submitted on April 7. These comments include reports by three expert scientists who reviewed the APP in detail.
March 5, 2024. ADEQ held a formal public hearing on the proposed Copper World Aquifer Protection Permit. Members of the public asked questions and made comments, although ADEQ staff was not permitted to answer. Based on answers provided by ADEQ staff at the February 20 meeting, prior to the March 5 meeting SSSR staff provided an updated list of technical questions to our members in advance of the meeting.
February 20, 2024. ADEQ held an informal public meeting where ADEQ staff answered questions from the public. With our technical consultants, SSSR developed a list of technical questions for the public to ask ADEQ staff at the meeting.
January, 2024. SSSR filed a lawsuit against state land department. Save the Scenic Santa Ritas and Farmers Investment Company, a Sahuarita pecan farming operation, filed a lawsuit alleging that the Arizona State Land Department and the department’s Board of Appeals violated the state’s Open Meeting Law when it approved a right of way (ROW) in January 2023 across part of the Santa Rita Experimental Range for pipelines capable of transporting toxic mining waste called tailings, an additional high voltage power line, communications line and an access road. None of the infrastructure has been installed. As of 4/8/2024 all documents have been filed and we are waiting the judge's decision.
May, 2022. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a 2019 ruling by a federal judge in Tucson, who ruled that the Forest Service had improperly approved Rosemont Copper's plans for dumping waste rock and tailings on Forest Service land where it did not have valid mining claims.