Vail-area residents who don't want three open-pit limestone quarries in the foothills of the Santa Rita Mountains will host a forum later this month to rally more opposition.
Meanwhile state officials are still considering requests to reopen the mothballed Andrada quarry near Corona de Tucson and to blast and dig two new pits to the east.
The Empire-Fagan Coalition has scheduled an Aug. 26 forum in Vail to update the status of the requests and inform those who haven't yet heard about the situation, said Mary Kidwell, coalition president.
"It's come to our attention that there's still a lot of people in the area who aren't aware of this issue," Kidwell said. "We want to spread the word more widely, to the people of Tucson ... because their views will be affected."
Kim Kolba, the coalition vice president, said the nearly 400-member organization includes some "from out-of state and from out-of country" who appreciate the area's environment.
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Kidwell said the two new quarries that would be on state trust lands southeast of Corona probably would be visible from far away like the old Andrada quarry, about a mile south of Wentworth and East Sahuarita roads.
"The dust and the haul roads and big trucks will certainly be visible," she said.
Those nuisances and the negative effect on property values would directly affect residents near the three sites, she said.
Pat Finger, who lives on South Melpomene Way about two miles west of the Andrada quarry, said she dreads the noise, dust, big trucks, bright lights and other nuisances that come with this kind of mining. "I've been out here for almost 20 years, and we just don't want this here in our area. That's not why we moved out here."
County officials and other municipal leaders also oppose the quarrying proposals.
Company officials have said that the operations would generate jobs and economic activity for Corona.
David Bittel, manager of the Arizona Portland Cement plant in Marana, said his company wants to renew four leases so it can extract about 4 million tons of high-grade limestone that's in the Davidson Canyon deposit.
That would supply the plant with enough limestone to manufacture cement for another 50 years, he said.
After the limestone was extracted, the company would rehabilitate the areas where open-pit mines had been.
"We have a reclamation plan, and we would try to restore it back as much as we could," Bittel said. "We would change the topography some — there would be a hole there — but it would look pretty much like it looks today."
Doug Woolsey, general manager of W.R. Henderson Arizona Properties, which owns the Andrada site, said cleaning up the site is why his company wants the state to renew that lease.
The old quarry, established in 1958, is within 150 acres that the company bought as a real estate investment in the area, he said.
The company wants to process the 1 million tons of "overburden" — mine tailings that have already been extracted — to recover calcium carbonate to help pay the cost of cleaning up the quarry, Woolsey said.
"We can't clean up the place if we can't mine it," he said.
Charles P. Seel, a Montana resident who is seeking renewal of a lease in the Empire Mountains and next to the Las Cienegas Natural Conservation Area, could not be reached for comment Friday and Monday.
Limestone is an important ingredient of cement. Calcium carbonate is used in many industrial applications, mainly as an ingredient in paint, carpeting, rubber, glass and paper.
But Kidwell said the areas where the new quarries would be are too environmentally sensitive for such operations.
They're an important wildlife corridor and a habitat that would be greatly disturbed by the quarries, said Kidwell, who lives east of Arizona 83 near the site in Davidson Canyon.
Winkleman said Tuesday he expected to make a decision in the not-too-distant future.
Michael Rice, manager of the Land Department's minerals section, said he does not know when it will be decided whether to renew the leases, which expired years ago. But if the commissioner does renew the leases, residents can appeal, said Rice, who is involved in the department's review of the lease-renewal applications.
Woolsey said he suspects the commissioner won't decide before the November elections, since the decision promises to generate political heat whether or not the leases are renewed.
"We've waited three years now," he said. "What's another three months?"
If you go
● What: The Empire-Fagan Coalition will host a public forum on a proposed mining operations that would be established south and southeast of Corona de Tucson.
● When: The meeting is scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. Aug. 26.
● Where: Empire High School, 10701 E. Mary Ann Cleveland Way in Vail.
● More information about the coalition and meeting is available by calling 762-1962; by e-mail at info@empirefagan.org; or online at www.empirefagan.org.
