Tucson's two Congress members have asked the U.S. Forest Service to start over in gathering public comment about the proposed Rosemont mine, more than two months after that effort began.
U.S. Reps. Gabrielle Giffords and Raúl Grijalva want the Forest Service to restart what's known as the entire "scoping" process.
That's when the agency actively seeks comments, questions and descriptions of alternatives to the Rosemont project from the public and local governments.
The undertaking began in March and is scheduled to end on July 14. Then, the service would start preparing a draft environmental statement, scheduled to be released in March 2009.
The Congress members say they're troubled because their constituents and local government officials are confused about deadlines for submitting comments, and about delayed or curtailed release of important studies and public documents, Giffords and Grijalva said in a letter sent last week to Coronado National Forest Supervisor Jeanine Derby.
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"We strongly believe, as a result of the issues raised above, that the scoping process has been flawed from the beginning," they said.
Derby said she's not ready to respond formally to their request but added, "What people are missing is that the real work is ahead of us. Delaying any effort to get into that real work is not serving anyone well."
Comments from the public or officials are expected and welcome while the service is preparing the formal analysis — after the scoping period ends, Derby said.
Specifically, Giffords and Grijalva raised three issues:
● They agree with a May 19 letter from Pima County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry seeking extensive studies of the mine's water demands and effects on the local aquifer and asking for a peer-review process for technical documents submitted by Rosemont or commissioned by the Forest Service.
● The Forest Service said the purpose of its proposed action is "to grant permission" for Canadian company Augusta Resources to use Forest Service land for the mine. At the same time, the environmental review must consider "no action," and that will be hard to consider if the service's stated purpose is to approve the project, the congress members said.
● The federal government has failed to release important studies about Rosemont to the public and local officials, they said. The Save the Scenic Santa Ritas non-profit group has filed a Freedom of Information Act request seeking documents that hasn't been granted yet, they said.
In response, Derby said the Forest Service will require that studies be done on the water issues, probably by consultants if the agency doesn't have in-house expertise to do them. Some information may come from the county, she said.
The service hasn't had the opportunity to provide all the information the environmental group wanted and it sometimes takes several communications with an outside party to narrow down and then satisfy its request, Derby said.
She said the real decision the service must make during its environmental review is whether to approve Rosemont's mining plan. That decision will totally depend on the company's ability to provide technical information needed to answer issues coming from the public, she said.
"It can take some time before we get to that point," she said.
A prominent consulting firm was picked to help conduct an environmental review of the proposed Rosemont mine because it has significant experience with such large, complex projects and the expertise to do the job, a Forest Service spokesman says.
In the agency's first public statement on the hiring of SWCA Environmental Consultants since the firm was picked in March, the Forest Service says SWCA has handled other mining projects of similar scope in Arizona.
SWCA has also worked before with Coronado National Forest in reviewing a proposed Tucson Electric Power line from the Tucson area to Nogales, the Forest Service said in a statement.
The two Congress members who had first questioned SWCA's hiring, Reps. Gabrielle Giffords and Raúl Grijalva, now say that issue is moot.
That's because the two have now asked for the process to start over, so the Forest Service would have to re-select a consultant to help prepare an environmental impact statement for the mine proposal.
Last month, Giffords and Grijalva, both Tucson Democrats, questioned SWCA's hiring and inquired about the process that the Forest Service used to pick the company.
The company's hiring was questioned in part because it has a lengthy track record of working for private developers, including some in the Tucson area.
But the company pointed out that it also has worked for many public agencies including, repeatedly, the Forest Service.
— Tony Davis
BY THE NUMBERS
Proposed Rosemont mine:
• On 4,415 acres of land near the northern Santa Rita Mountains.
• Includes 995 acres of private land, 3,330 acres of National Forest land, 15 acres of Bureau of Land Management mine and 75 acres of state land.
• About 75,000 tons of copper ore and 195,000 to 267,000 tons of waste rock would be removed daily from a 1.2-square-mile open pit.
• Leaching, processing and support facilities would include a mill, a heap-leach facility, a solvent-extraction plant, waste-rock storage areas and a dry-stack-tailing-disposal area.
• Would produce 230 million pounds of copper and 5 million pounds of molybdenum annually over the mine's 19-year life.
• The open-pit walls would be 1,800 to 2,900 feet high, and the pit bottom would be about 3,150 feet above sea level.
• Besides the pit, surrounding roads would cover 250 acres.
• The mine would operate 24 hours daily, 365 days per year.
• Other facilities would include a 17,000-square-foot administration building, a 9,840-square-foot change house and boiler facility, a 6,600-square-foot warehouse, and an 8,400-square-foot analytical laboratory.
• The mine would also have a 4,950-square-foot light-vehicle repair building and fuel-storage area, a truck-wash facility, ammonium-nitrate storage silos and a main guardhouse and truck scale.
Source: Summary of proposed Rosemont Mine Plan of Operations
