From AZ Poor People’s Campaign newsletter:

Earlier this month, the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) released a Public Notice that it intends to issue an Individual Industrial Recycled Water Permit to Resolution Copper Mining. The permit would allow Resolution Copper to deliver water obtained from the dewatering of their mine facilities at Oak Flat and near Superior to the New Magma Irrigation and Drainage District (NMIDD) where it would be mixed with water coming from the Colorado River via the CAP canal and used for irrigation.

A 30-day public comment period is open, ending on April 7, 2024. No public hearing is currently scheduled.

Please write a letter to ADEQ to extend the comment period and to ask for a public hearing.

The 30-day comment period is not nearly long enough to comment on this dangerous proposal, especially since interested parties have not yet even been able to obtain from ADEQ Resolution Copper’s request for the permit and the supporting documents. In addition, a public hearing must be held given the public’s interest in Resolution Copper’s plans.

This is the same permit, first issued in 2013, which allows Resolution Copper to transport its treated wastewater from mine dewatering and other sources via pipeline to the NMIDD in the East Salt River Valley. Once there, it is mixed with CAP water and used to irrigate crops (including alfalfa, barley, Bermuda grass, cotton, sorghum, turf, and wheat) and for storage credits. To date, Resolution Copper has avoided obtaining an Aquifer Protection Permit for this discharge, instead claiming that this discharge falls under an agricultural exemption. Resolution Copper is now proposing to add multiple new sources of mine wastewater to this system.

This permit and the use of polluted mine water for irrigation is controversial for many reasons, especially since Resolution Copper's end goal is to destroy Oak Flat and thousands of additional acres of federal public land and state trust lands.

Thanks,

Roger Featherstone

Director, Arizona Mining Reform Coalition

To take action, click here.

For More Info:

The Public Notice is linked here: https://azdeq.gov/public-notice-recycled-water-permit-resolution-copper-mining-llc