ROSEMONT PLANS FACE SCRUTINY

Scores of area residents turned out Wednesday at a U.S. Forest Service meeting to learn about the proposed Rosemont copper mine in the Santa Rita Mountains east of Green Valley.

Although local sentiment against the proposed mine seems high here, the event was orderly with no cat calls or harangues against the project.

That probably was because no one made speeches, and members of the public queued up in front of information displays. Some of them, however, closely questioned the idea of the proposed copper mine and what it may do to the landscape and area water.

This was the second of three such forums. The others were in Tucson Tuesday night and Patagonia Thursday night.

The Canoa Hills Center was jammed, the parking lot was full and overflow autos parked more than a 100 yards each way on both sides of the street

Keith Graves, head ranger for the Forest Service’s Nogales station of the Coronado National Forest, stood in the center of the room, surrounded by questioners.

Graves said he was pleased with the turnout and said the people who were filling out forms “would give us a good record to look at.”

To his audience, he described what sounded like a painstaking routine to check the comments, catalogue them and try to group them for further analysis.

Much of the area that would be displaced or serve as a dump is on Forest Service land.

Nineteenth century mining laws give many advantages to miners, including no restrictions on the amount of water they’ll use and where miners can dump the waste rock left behind by creating the huge open-pit mines.

Pima County Supervisor Ray Carroll, who represents the area where the mine is proposed, spoke to several people about the mine.

He was critical of how Augusta on the previous night attracted proponents to the hearing by offering them a free meal and a bus ride to the site.

Wednesday, Jamie Sturgess, an Augusta vice president, issued an explanation of the incident, saying apparently some of those who turned out thought it was “an opportunity to learn about jobs.”

Sturgess wrote in a memo, “Rosemont provided a setting for project supporters to gather at a local restaurant and provided transportation to those who requested it to the Forest Service scoping meeting,” in Tucson.

His memo acknowledged that some may have come hoping to learn about high-paying jobs, and he said, the company “is very encouraged by the high level of interest in the 500 new jobs Rosemont Copper will be hiring.”

One member of the audience, Green Valley’s Randy Graf, noted that mining was a major reason much of the American Southwest was settled and developed.

He said mining production is much more modern and less destructive than in the 19th century, and said it was good people “were here learning about the process.”

He said, “I don’t think people should dismiss it without” a better understanding.

Another visitor, Seymour Reichlin of Green Valley, said he thought the mine would be “a waste of water” because of “a lack of vision.”

Another Green Valley resident, Dick Shuman, said he came “for a better understanding,” and said the exhibits helped with that.

There were forest rangers standing beside some of the exhibits that consisted of illustrations and writing on large cards held up by tripods.

At other exhibits were private consultants wearing shirts emblazoned with SWCA, a private consultant to the Forest Service.

Richard Calabro of Green Valley, an occasional speaker for the environment, argued that with the SWCA presence, instead of really representing the Forest Service, the company represented the applicant, Augusta Resource.

Calabro said the mining companies pay the Forest Service, which in turn hires the consulting company.

jlamb@gvnews.com | 547-9749