Guest Comment: Rosemont intends major mining of our groundwater

I would like to share with you today some alarming information about Rosemont Copper Co.’s proposed mine to be located in the Santa Rita Mountains south of Tucson. This information is from the public records of the Arizona Department of Water Resources.

The Rosemont Mine will impact residents of the northern San Cruz River Valley. Please bear with me.

I am a resident of Sahuarita Heights area, which is located south of Tucson and north of Green Valley. My wife was born and raised in Tucson. She met me in northern California where we lived for over 20 years and raised our family. She had always wanted to move back to Arizona.

In 2003, while on vacation, her brother took us to Sahuarita to see some property that was for sale. After only one look, I could see how beautiful it was and what a fabulous view of the Santa Rita Mountains it had. I knew that this was the place for our family to build our dream home. In 2004, I moved my family to Arizona to live on our newly acquired property. While living on the property in a trailer, we built our dream home to all of Pima County’s 2006 building codes.

Rosemont Copper Co. has acquired a parcel of residential property (about 50 acres) near my home and plans to put in several wells, at depths of 1,300 feet, to continuously pump 6,000 acre-feet of groundwater (our drinking water) each year for the next 20 years. They will transport this water 15 miles up to and over the crest of the beautiful Santa Rita Mountains to its mine for processing copper ore.

The pumping of so much water will dry up as many as 200 domestic wells in my neighborhood, at depths of only 200 to 300 feet, which supply the drinking water for up to 400 families. It also has come to my attention that there is already a land subsidence issue in my area of up to 2.4 inches from groundwater depletion, excessive pumping of groundwater, in an eight-month period between Feb. 23, 2007 and Oct. 26, 2007. I believe that if Rosemont Copper Co. is allowed to transport 1,955,226,000 gallons (which is the same as 6,000 acre-feet) of our groundwater away from our area each year, the land subsidence will get even more severe at even a faster rate, and this will drastically affect our communities for years to come.

I’m hoping that something can be done immediately to protect the communities of Sahuarita and Green Valley from the same fate as Pinal County, where the subsidence issue is measured in tens of feet instead of inches.

It is grossly unfair that our community is required to follow 21st century building codes, while mining companies can use an antiquated, 19th century mining law to destroy our homes. But the issues I have described here are far more important than complying with the intent of the 1872 Mining Law, which was to encourage mining exploration and development, perhaps necessary in the 1800s.

These issues go to the core of the National Environmental Protection Act (NEPA), the intent of which is to protect our environment, our properties, and our way of life.

National Environmental Policy Act Section 101 paragraph B pertains to Rosemont’s activities of transporting groundwater away from Sahuarita would interfere with the natural balance of the environment’s ability to maintain critical water levels for the overall development and welfare of the our community.

Rosemont’s transportation of groundwater from Sahuarita, which is already suffering from a groundwater depletion and land subsidence, may cause a risk to health and safety of the residents with undesirable consequences to the community and Rosemont’s transportation of our groundwater could dramatically affect future growth in our communities.

When a company applies for a permit which will impact waters of the United States, the agency that is being asked to issue the permit must evaluate the environment effects of the permit decision under NEPA. The federal agency can require the private company to pay for the preparation of analyses, but the agency remains responsible for the scope and accuracy of the analyses. With this being said, Rosemont should be made to pay for a hydrologic study for the environmental impact of the transporting of groundwater away from Sahuarita Heights and how will it affect the land subsidence.

Sahuarita Heights is a low-income community and needs to be included in the NEPA process. A meeting needs to be held in Sahuarita to inform the community of Rosemont’s activities and how these activities will affect our community

Pima County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry stated earlier this month his concerns about the overuse of the groundwater and that the aquifer in Green Valley is falling at the rate of 4 feet a year.

Water is the most precious resource Arizona has and should not be wasted for the profits of others, especially foreign companies. Also, it should not be allowed for the Rosemont Copper Co. to trade Central Arizona Project water that it has been recharging into the ground in Marana for drinking water (groundwater) in Sahuarita, 30 miles or more to the south of Marana, especially since Marana groundwater is flowing away from Sahuarita. This defies logic, boggles the mind and is a great misuse of taxpayers’ money.

The water of Arizona is the life blood of the communities in this great state and should never be wasted in such a foolish manner. I hope that our politicians will be better stewards of the taxpayers’ money and stop the wasteful use of Arizona’s groundwater. In so doing, they will be protecting the lives of our communities. The water belongs to the citizens of Arizona. It’s time to use common sense for the common man for the common good of Arizona.

Robert Robuck, Arizona homeowner.

The views expressed are the author’s and not necessarily this newspaper’s