Local opinion: Save the Scenic Santa Ritas' legal win is significant

On Oct. 13, Dennis Fischer wrote another letter attacking Save the Scenic Santa Ritas, this time for supposedly wasting donors’ money to fight the proposed Copper World mine.

First, let’s get clear who the characters are. Save the Scenic Santa Ritas is a nonprofit organized by neighbors in Pima County fighting Toronto-based Hudbay Minerals’ giant Copper World project. Copper World would destroy the northern Santa Rita Mountains and place hundreds of millions of tons of mine waste next to the Corona de Tucson neighborhood within hundreds of feet of houses and a mile-and-a-half from the Copper Ridge Elementary School. A top-notch economic report commissioned by us shows that the mine would seriously harm the Pima County economy, pump billions of gallons a year out of the underground aquifer neighbors depend on for water, and depress housing prices — who wants to live downwind of a 500-foot-high pile of toxic waste?

Mr. Fischer, on the other hand, is a former Hudbay employee who continues to advocate for his former company. He now objects because we sued the Arizona State Land Department’s Board of Appeals for not disclosing the true purpose of a right-of-way for Hudbay during a December 2022 public hearing.

We won that lawsuit. A Maricopa County Superior Court Judge ruled on Sept. 9 that the Board violated the Open Meetings Law by failing to disclose that the right-of-way’s purpose was to allow Hudbay to pipe mining waste across the state-owned Santa Rita Experimental Range. Hudbay wants this right-of-way so it can avoid crossing federal land, which would trigger careful scrutiny of environmental impacts, exactly what Hudbay is trying to avoid.

Mr. Fischer, however, asserts that the lawsuit wasted our supporters’ money because, after the court’s ruling, the Board held a subsequent hearing where it reaffirmed its previous December 2022 decision. Contrary to Mr. Fischer’s implication that our lawsuit accomplished nothing, we were successful in forcing the Board’s decision into the open. Moreover, the Court has allowed us to seek reimbursement of our attorneys’ fees from the state. A settlement is pending before the court that likely means our legal costs will be trivial.

More importantly, our Open Meetings Lawsuit win provided us an opportunity to file another lawsuit against the Board and the land department challenging the legality of the right-of-way. Our lawsuit, which was filed last month, alleges that the right of way was issued in violation of a state law that requires the Santa Rita Experimental Range to be operated for “ecological and environmental research.” The suit also cites a 1991 land department order that specifically closed the Range to rights of way.

If any entity is wasting money, it is the state of Arizona, which continues to favor a foreign mining company over the best interests of the citizens of Arizona. We will continue protecting taxpayers from this project that would allow Hudbay to extract hundreds of millions of dollars in profits and transfer incalculable expense to Arizona citizens.