We’ve just heard that Senator Kyl is playing hardball by putting holds on all kinds of bill to try to force through the Oak Flat land exchange. We’ve also heard that Senator McCain was rebuffed by Senator Levin when he attempted to add the Oak Flat land exchange to the Defense Authorization bill.
Call your Senators now and tell them that the Oak Flat land exchange is a poison pill that will sink any bill it is attached to.
Dec 6, 2012 | Arizona Mining Oversight, Oak Flat Mining |
December 5, 2012
On November 30, Rio Tinto announced that unless the US Congress passes the Oak Flat land exchange immediately, they will lay off 80% of their workforce at Oak Flat between now and March. In an orchestrated fashion, Senator McCain and Congressman Gosar both urged the Congress to pass the land exchange this year and an AZ Republic Op-ed decried Senate inaction.
Since Rio Tinto has made similar statement during every Congressional season since the land exchange has been introduced, organizations opposing the land exchange have blasted the announcement.
Dec 6, 2012 | Action Alert, Arizona Mining Oversight, Oak Flat Mining |
We are at the tail end of the 112th Congress and have been able to keep the Oak Flat land exchange from moving in the US Senate. However, Senators Kyl and McCain are intent on pushing through the Oak Flat land exchange (HR 1904) this year to give more government handouts to two of the world’s largest mining companies.
Congress is back after the elections in a lame duck session that should wrap up by the end of the year. Kyl and McCain will most likely attempt to attach HR 1904 to important legislation instead of letting the Senate decide on the merits of the bill. Because of the controversial nature of the Oak Flat land exchange, this would amount to adding a poison pill to any necessary legislation.
Do not let Senators McCain and Kyl divert the Congress from important business by inserting their destructive special interest bill.
Apr 18, 2012 | Arizona Mining Oversight, Oak Flat Mining
The Concerned Citizens and Retired Miner Coalition is hosting a Picnic and rally at Oak Flat Campground this weekend as part of World Earth Day.
Please join us at Oak Flat.
The celebration starts Friday afternoon, April 20 and goes through the Day on Saturday April 21.
The picnic will be held at the Oak Flat campgrounds at the first campsite under the big oaks.
Jul 12, 2011 | Arizona Mining Oversight, Oak Flat Mining |
Several organizations have sent letters to the House Natural Resources Committee opposing the Oak Flat land exchange.
Of note are:
The Access Fund — A national climbers advocacy group dedicated to climbing access and conservation.
The National Trust for Historic Preservation — an organization dedicated to saving historic places and revitalizing America’s communities.
Concerned Climbers of Arizona — an organization advocating continued recreational access to climbing areas that are threatened by development or other forms of encroachment.
Dec 9, 2010 | Arizona Mining Oversight, Oak Flat Mining |
Ocelots are roaming Arizona!
The Sky Island Alliance photographed an ocelot in southern Arizona in November or 2009. And in April of 2010, an ocelot was run over by a car between Gaan Canyon just east of Oak Flat Campground and Top Of The World, Arizona. According to a recent article in the latest issue of the High Country News, the Arizona Game & Fish Department thinks that this ocelot was not captive breed and therefore presumably a free roaming wild ocelot. In addition to the ocelot kill on US Highway 60, there have been several sitings of ocelots within the Oak Flat Campground itself since April of 2010. The Arizona Game & Fish Department is working with the US Fish & WIldlife Service and the US Forest Service to investigate these sitings.
It has been known for some time that the Oak Flat ecosystem (containing Gaan Canyon, Apache Leap, Queen Creek Canyon, and Oak Flat Campground) is ecologically unique, but the high probability of ocelots in the area is yet another reason to not rush into passage of the Oak Flat land exchange and to make sure that Rio Tinto goes though the normal process of trying to permit a mine rather than taking a Congressional shortcut.
Apr 21, 2010 | Arizona Mining Oversight, Oak Flat Mining |
The following editorial written by Roy Chavez and Roger Featherstone ran in the April 20, 2010 edition of the Arizona Republic.
The Sonoran Institute was on target in its critique of
the proposed Rosemont mine south of Tucson (4/3/10 Arizona Republic), however,
the author drew the wrong conclusion about Rio Tinto’s proposal to mine under
Oak Flat Campground east of Superior. In fact it would be impossible to
do the same thorough analysis of the Rio Tinto project as is being done on the
Rosemont mine proposal, since Rio Tinto has yet to even write a mining
plan. Rio Tinto is trying to evade the rules, which every other mining company
wanting to use public lands must follow, and has instead gone straight to the
U.S. Congress for a special sweetheart land exchange deal.
of water a day from its normal course down Queen Creek to a pipeline carrying the water directly to the Phoenix area where it is diluted and dumped on agriculture fields in return for water credits going to Rio Tinto that could be used should Rio Tinto develop a proposed mine at Oak Flat. This diversion has left Queen Valley, a small retirement community centered around it’s golf course, with water shortages.See the 