Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
Press release from the Save the Scenic Santa Ritas Association:
Local Coalition Goes to Court to Protect Southern Arizona Water
Lawsuit filed to overturn Rosemont Groundwater Permit
(Tucson, Ariz.) A diverse coalition of southern Arizonans filed a lawsuit on Friday to overturn state approval of a key water permit for the proposed Rosemont Mine in the Santa Rita Mountains, south of Tucson.
Despite its name, the “aquifer protection permit” would allow a Canadian mining company to pollute Tucson’s groundwater supplies with mercury, arsenic, lead and other dangerous contaminants.
The suit seeks to overturn the Arizona Water Quality Appeals Board's (WQAB) decision to approve Rosemont Copper Company’s Aquifer Protection Permit. The suit asserts that the WQAB acted "arbitrarily and capriciously" when it rubber-stamped the Administrative Law Judge’s rejection of administrative appeals of the permit.
Vancouver, B.C.-based Augusta Resource Corporation is seeking permits for its subsidiary Rosemont Copper Company to construct an open-pit copper mine in the Santa Rita Mountains on the Coronado National Forest southeast of Tucson.
“As it stands today, the Aquifer Protection Permit for Rosemont should instead be called the Rosemont Aquifer Pollution permit. Southern Arizonans take threats to their water very seriously and that is why we are taking this action,” said Gayle Hartmann, President of Save the Scenic Santa Ritas, a citizens' coalition opposed to the mine. “Rosemont likes to talk about the economics of this mine, but the economic costs will be catastrophic if the WQAB and the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality shirk their responsibilities and allow the permanent destruction of southern Arizona's water resources by this foreign mining company.”
Issues identified in the suit include:
* The WQAB rubber-stamped the ALJ's findings and recommendations. Water Quality Appeals Board members publicly admitted they had not carefully read the ALJ’s decision nor any of the other materials submitted in the course of the lengthy hearings on this matter. Despite that admission, their written decision states - falsely - that they “reviewed the ALJ Decision, transcripts and arguments of the parties, and the WQAB completed a full and careful deliberation of the same.”
* Failure to consider the mine’s potential impacts to surface water as required by Arizona law. Rosemont is proposing to destroy a watershed that provides more than 20% of the groundwater recharge to the Tucson basin with an massive open-pit copper mine and toxic mine waste piled 600-800 ft. high.
* The permit is for a mine plan that no longer exists. In August 2012, Rosemont filed documents with financial regulators indicating that it made major modifications to the proposed configuration of the mine facilities – changes that would impact groundwater quality. The agency should have examined the mine proposal Rosemont is saying it will build now - not the one it was talking about four years ago.
* The permit does not address the mine’s adverse impacts to plants and animals.
The lawsuit requests that the permit be sent back to both the WQAB and the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality to correct these and other deficiencies.
“The stakes are too high. The damage Rosemont will inflict on our region is permanent and can't be reversed. The agencies tasked with responsibility to protect our water must DO THEIR JOB,” Hartmann added.
Save the Scenic Santa Ritas is a non-profit, community organization working to protect the Santa Rita and Patagonia Mountains from environmental degradation caused by mining and mineral exploration activities.
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Read the Notice of Appeal and Complaint for Judicial Review of Administrative Decision Here.
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