Well owners devise plan Residents want detailed study from Rosemont

Hundreds of Sahuarita Heights residents, including many well owners, heard about a common strategy Thursday night for dealing with the impacts of huge new Rosemont Copper wells on the local aquifer.

The proposal included asking Rosemont for a detailed study of impacts and to put a million dollars or more into a fund that would pay for well owners to extend them in the future.

The plan was presented by meeting co-organizer Thomas Perry and Tubac lawyer Hugh Holub at the Sahuarita Baptist Church, where attendees occupied all 180 chairs and were standing along the walls and in the hallway.

Dozens of well owners have signed forms authorizing Holub to represent them in crafting an agreement with Rosemont.

Holub said the well owners have no protection under current federal or state law against Rosemont’s plan to operate wells to serve its proposed copper mine in the Santa Rita Mountains east of Sahuarita-Green Valley.

Neighbors said Rosemont’s wells would “suck dry” the aquifer and put their own wells out of operation, and the lawyer agreed wholeheartedly, saying mining companies in Arizona have had a history of walking away from the communities in which they operate.

Rosemont has said it will recharge the aquifer with 5 percent more Colorado River water than it takes out in groundwater and said it will do the recharge as close to its well sites as possible, though it has not settled on a recharge site at this time.

Rosemont has offered up to $15 million to pipe Colorado River water to Green Valley, but neighbors said that would not help their aquifer because it takes a long time for water to migrate short distances underground and Green Valley is too far away.

Rosemont has test wells at Alvernon Way and Dawson Road and at Santa Rita Road south of Sahuarita Road. Perry said another well site is being planned near Harrison and Sahuarita roads.

pfranchine@sahuaritasun.com | 547-9738