Comments Filed April 2017 – April 2018

The following are most of the comments we filed and/or signed onto in the past year:

Pinto Valley Mine Expansion

Apache Leap Special Management Area

Tonto National Forest Plan Revision

Excelsior Mining Gunnison In-Situ Mine Proposal

Rosemont Mine 60 days Intent to Sue Notices

Galiuro Exploration Plan

ADEQ Draft TMDL report for Queen Creek

Ray Mine Land Exchange

Oak Flat Mine Plan Scoping comments

Selected 2017 News Articles about Oak Flat

Selected 2017 News Articles about Oak Flat

Check out these news articles about our struggle to protect Oak Flat

 

Mother of a Metal, Phoenix Magaizine, June 2017, by Keridwen Cornelius

Massive copper mine tests Trump’s push to slash regulation, Reuters, July 12, 2017, by Emily Flitter

What’s at Stake in Oak Flat, Edible Baja Arizona, November/December 2017, by John Washington

Photos of our trip to London to adress the Board of Directors of BHP, Billiton (the minority owner of the proposed mine at Oak Flat)

Please tell the EPA to protect precious Arizona groundwater

Please tell the EPA to protect precious Arizona groundwater

Please comment now to protect precious Arizona groundwater

The deadline for comments is Tuesday, February 27, 2018, so act now!

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is currently accepting comments for a draft permit that would allow a brand-new mining company with no track record to pollute Arizona groundwater to extract copper from Arizona grasslands rich in cultural heritage just upstream from the Willcox playa, winter home to thousands of imperiled Sandhill cranes.

The permit would allow the company to drill 1,400 wells and inject over 7,000,000 gallons of sulfuric acid a day into the groundwater. 

In-situ mining is a type of mining that injects acid into the ground to dissolve copper and other minerals.  This toxic solution of copper and acid is then pumped from the ground and processed to remove the copper.  In-situ mining, by definition, is the intentional pollution of ground water.  In-situ mining has long been used to produce uranium but (outside of several existing mines) has never been attempted to mine copper.  No in-situ mine has ever returned the groundwater to pre-mining conditions.

What could possibly go wrong?!!

Please send the EPA comments on this inappropriate project. 

For More Information:
Original comments from a Coalition of groups
Supplemental comments
EPA’s project website

 

Updated 2/26/18