The Arizona Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) is in the middle of a public comment period for a draft Aquifer Protection Permit (APP) they propose to give Augusta Resources for its proposed Rosemont Mine.
There are many things wrong with the draft permit. Some are institutional with all APP’s and some are unique to this draft proposal.
While we are still reviewing the draft permit and factsheet, we have identified a number of problems with the proposal.
Please see comments we have written on other Draft Aquifer Protection Permits to get a better idea of the institutional limitations of these permits in general.
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.
Curis Resources, a Canadian Junior mining company is proposing an in-situ copper mine on the banks of the Gila River within the town boundaries of Florence, Arizona.
Don Steuter, the Conservation Chair of the Grand Canyon Chapter of the Sierra Club (and one of our steering committee members), wrote an editorial about the proposed project which appeared in the Arizona Republic today.
Concerned Climbers of Arizona — an organization advocating continued recreational access to climbing areas that are threatened by development or other forms of encroachment.
One would think that in Arizona, which has the worst mining
laws and regulations of any state in the union, the mining industry would
realize how good they’ve got it. However,
in their quest to mine fettered only by the limits of their own greed, min
ing
companies carp as loudly as ever about being over-burdened and over-regulated
to death.
Mining companies trot out a list as long as your arm about
how many reports and permits they are required to obtain. However, given the track record of the mining
industry in Arizona, there is a good reason for regulation – for nearly 150
years, mining in Arizona has proven to be a social and environmental nightmare.
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.
