Courtesy of Save the Scenic Santa Ritas
An Arizona court’s decision to revoke a required air pollution permit for the proposed Rosemont mine underscores the myriad risks facing both Hudbay Minerals’ investors and southern Arizonans from the controversial $1.5 billion open pit copper project.
Maricopa County (AZ) Superior Court Judge Crane McClennen’s March 6 decision found that the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality’s (ADEQ) approval of the air permit was “was arbitrary and capricious,” an “abuse of discretion,” and “not supported by substantial evidence.”
The ruling is a serious blow to Toronto-based Hudbay Minerals’ efforts to blast a 1/2 mile deep, mile rim-to-rim open pit copper mine in the Santa Rita Mountains and dump the waste on the Coronado National Forest south of the Tucson. The ADEQ appealed the decision earlier this week.
In his decision, Judge McClennen accepted evidence provided by Save the Scenic Santa Ritas (SSSR) proving that Rosemont had manipulated air quality modeling data. Rosemont’s misleading data erroneously convinced ADEQ that pollution from the mine would not result in violations of air quality and health standards. The consequences of violating these standards are significant – emission sources in Pima County could be forced to install expensive pollution controls, and federal funding for transportation projects could be jeopardized. These impacts would increase the already significant adverse economic consequences of the project to residents and businesses.
The air permit is just one of many social, environmental and financial risks facing the project that are discussed in detail in a recent report prepared SSSR. The report also closely examines Hudbay’s background and the regulatory and legal challenges still facing the company as it seeks the state and federal approvals needed to proceed with the Rosemont project. The report is sourced using a wide variety of publicly-available, factual information including documents obtained from Hudbay.
For more information, go to ScenicSantaRitas.org, RosemontMineTruth.com and Twitter.