water permit copper world Workers and environmentalists clash over water permit for Tucson-area copper mine
In a previous, informal meeting, ADEQ had said the department’s monitoring process relies on the company to report groundwater pollution violations that it finds at wells that the company will drill and check routinely. Department officials said failure to report such violations carries steep penalties and that state legislators established the monitoring program by law.
But opponents said they were shocked to learn that the company will essentially police itself under this arrangement.
They also said they fear that toxic dust will drift across Vail homes and schools, an issue that ADEQ will address with a separate permitting process for air quality. Nina Luxenberg, a Tucson doctor, said digging massive pits and piling tailings in the mountains will ruin their appeal to both tourists and residents who seek the area out for recreation and birdwatching.
“Who’s going to come and hike the Santa Ritas?” she said. “They’re going to have to wear a mask.”
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Company shifts its attention to private land
Copper World is the latest rendition of the company’s former Rosemont mining proposal on Coronado National Forest land on the east slope of the Santa Ritas. Rosemont hit a setback when federal courts sided with environmentalists and Native American tribes in ruling that a mining company cannot dump waste on public lands.
While some federal lawmakers have proposed a law to eliminate that restriction, Hudbay has shifted its focus to privately owned land on the range’s western slope. For its private claims, Hudbay does not need the Forest Service approval it would have for Rosemont, but only state environmental permits.
The mine is part of a wave of prospects now seeking to develop in Arizona, partly in response to demand and federal support for domestic mineral projects to supply greater electrification of the economy. These include other major copper deposits, such as one at Oak Flat, near Superior, that would displace a site sacred to Apaches, as well as a zinc and manganese mine in the Patagonia Mountains that would supply minerals for electric vehicle batteries.
These mines would alter parts of southeastern Arizona’s sky island mountain ranges, one of the nation’s more biologically diverse habitat zones for a wide range of sensitive species. An endangered jaguar, for instance, recently traversed the Santa Ritas for years.
At Tuesday’s hearing, a 19-year-old Tucson resident, Alison Soland, said the Santa Ritas had provided a soothing backdrop throughout her young life, and that hiking in them at 16 had helped her recover from an addiction.
“Nature connections have done that to so many others,” Soland said.
Both Pima County and Tucson have taken positions against the mine, largely because of its potential threat to both water quality and the supply of groundwater. To support its operations, the mine would pump water from the aquifer that feeds the Santa Cruz on the west side of the Santa Ritas.
Pima County Supervisor Matt Heinz, whose district includes the mine site, had to leave the hearing for work but left a statement for an aide to read. He said the mine would use 4 billion gallons of water a year, enough to supply 41,000 families in a desert region whose supply already is stretched.
The state’s groundwater protection law, passed in 1980, requires metropolitan regions including Tucson to prove new housing developments have a 100-year supply before construction, but the law exempts mines.
“This must change,” Heinz said in his statement, but in the meantime is a major failing in the state’s water management program.
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Hudbay defends its plans, promises to adhere to regulations
Hudbay plans to use approximately 5,100 acre-feet of water per year during operations, according to a spokesperson’s written response to questions from The Arizona Republic. That’s generally considered enough water to supply 15,000-20,000 households. Opponents note that the company’s plans have changed in recent years, though, and may change again.
Regarding pollution, Hudbay told The Republic that the water and air permits it is seeking from the state “are required for this exact reason: to ensure that local water resources and air quality are not impacted by our operations.” The company noted that there are financial penalties for violations.
At the previous public meeting, ADEQ officials said the legal limits for such penalties, when they decide they are warranted, are $25,000 per day per violation. For example, if three monitoring wells show pollutants beyond regulated levels, it could cost the company $75,000 a day.
“Hudbay is dedicated to environmental responsibility and collaboration with regulatory authorities,” the company said in its statement.
Department officials also noted that state law requires them to issue a permit under the water quality program if the company can demonstrate that its work will not degrade drinking water beyond standards or further degrade already polluted aquifers.
Cathy McGrath is among the closest neighbors to the project, with a home backing onto the mountains and just across an arroyo from where the company intends to move mine tailings. Last month she told ADEQ she intends to test water from her well and on her land where she expects storm water from the waste to send contaminants such as arsenic into the aquifer. She asked if the department could do its own tests on mine property if her results show a spike in pollution, and a department official said they could.
McGrath told The Republic she and her husband bought their home when no one else lived nearby, when they had no hint that a mine could infringe on their solitude.
“We’ve been here 25 years and planned to die here,” she said. “I can build my house and my life and then find out a mine can come in and pollute my home and my life.”
Representatives for area chambers of commerce urged state regulators to back the mining plan, as did a union representatives for carpenters who would work on the project. Copper is essential to the nation, as are the workers who produce it, said Ron Heilman Jr., vice president of the Carpenters Local Union No. 1912.
“We are essential employees, essential workers,” Heilman said. “We’d like to work where we live.”
A draft of Hudbay’s proposed aquifer protection permit is available on ADEQ’s website, and the department is accepting written public comments through March 11.