On September 29, the Pima County Department of Environmental Quality denied Augusta Resource Corporation an air quality permit for the proposed Rosemont mine. Pima County cited a number of deficiencies in the permit application. (Read Pima County’s letter to Augusta here.) Augusta now has several options. They can appeal the decision, give up and go home, or they can submit a new, correct permit and try again.
This is good news and shows that Augusta does not have the wherewithal to handle the intricacies of building a mine. While this does not mean that the fight to protect the Santa Ritas is over, it does show that despite Augusta’s multi-million dollar PR campaign to bully Tucson and the surrounding communities into accepting their mine proposal, has fallen short.
We still expect that the US Forest Service will be releasing their Draft Environmental Impact Statement on the mine sometime in October. That will be a golden opportunity to show just how wrong the concept of destroying the Santa Ritas Mountains with an open pit copper mine is.
Please check out the following news clips about the victory.
News Clips:
KGUN
Pima County deals setback to proposed Rosemont Copper mine
http://www.kgun9.com/news/local/130829518.html
KVOA
Rosemont Copper mine gets denied
http://www.kvoa.com/videos/rosemont-copper-mine-gets-denied/
KMSB
Air quality ruling a setback for proposed mine south of Tucson
http://www.fox11az.com/video?id=130867598&sec=546502
KOLD
Pima County denies company’s copper mine permit
http://www.kold.com/category/179377/video-center?clipId=6306184&autostart=true
AZ Daily Star
Rosemont Copper says it will fight Pima County’s permit denial
http://azstarnet.com/business/local/article_0be1ad72-eada-11e0-8b28-001cc4c002e0.html
Green Valley News
County denies Rosemont Mine air quality permit
http://www.gvnews.com/news/county-denies-rosemont-mine-air-quality-permit/article_78245e86-ead9-11e0-8f65-001cc4c03286.html
Rosemont Mine Truth
MAJOR SETBACK FOR ROSEMONT COPPER IN COUNTY’S DENIAL OF AIR POLLUTION PERMIT
http://www.rosemontminetruth.com/?p=254