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3 mines to be cleaned up under agreement

By Dick Kamp

Published: Tuesday, May 19, 2009 4:49 PM MST

Wick Communications Environmental Liaison

Arizona has reached a $30 million agreement with Asarco to clean up three mining properties and to transfer four miles of the San Pedro River to the State Land Department as part of the settlement. The deal is part of a $70 million, 11-state Superfund settlement with the Tucson-based operation, which is up for sale.

Who will pay for the clean-up depends on who buys Asarco: India-based Sterlite or its repurchase by Grupo Mexico, whose claims to past ownership have been thrown out of court.

The court-approved remediation/cleanup agreements constitute a Natural Resource Damage Settlement. The transfer of lower San Pedro River land to a joint trust administered by U.S. Fish and Wildlife, Arizona Fish and Game and the Arizona Land Commission is expected to be approved in the next few days, ADEQ acting director Patrick Cunningham said.

That land is north and south of where Aravaipa Creek enters the river 10 miles south of Winkelman, and is payment for mining damage to Mineral Creek.

Three mines are to be cleaned up:

The Trench silver, gold and lead mine that operated from the late 1930s to the early 1960s along Harshaw Creek in the Patagonia Mountains.

The Salero silver-lead mine that operated from the 1850s to the 1920s and is upstream of the First United Realty Salero Ranch development 15 miles east of Tumacacori in the Santa Rita mountain foothills.

The Sacaton open pit copper mine northwest of Casa Grande that closed in the 1980s.

ADEQ said it will cost about $20 million to remediate Sacaton, and $3 million for the Trench and Salero cleanup. Asarco is currently onsite working on cleanup at Trench and Salero.

After the cleanup, the properties will be transferred to a court-appointed custodian who will put them up for sale, and the money will go to the state. Mineral rights will be obtained at Salero and Trench and the could, conceivably, be mined again.

The San Pedro land, over 1000 acres, is valued at up to $4 million and the agreement comes with another $4 million to maintain and preserve the river land under a joint plan that will be developed by the three agencies in charge.

The Trench mine and its “Adit” mine shaft have been a surface and groundwater pollution concern of ADEQ and USEPA Region 9 for a number of years and are among mines that have been polluting Harshaw Creek in the Patagonia Mountains.

A February 2003 EPA statement said both mines “are discharging acid mine drainage containing zinc, copper and cadmium above water quality standards into Alum Gulch, which eventually drains into Patagonia Lake.”

Alum Gulch drains into Harshaw Creek, which has several mining properties polluting it before entering Patagonia Lake. Mine shafts and tailings are believed to be causes of the acidic pollution.

The Salero mine properties, including tailings and historical buildings, are above the high-end Salero Ranch development and sits upstream of semi-perennial flows in Bond Canyon to the west of the Santa Rita foothills that flow into the Santa Cruz River.

The pollution impact the old mining property has had on surface or groundwater is unknown.

The Salero mine property has alternated between Asarco, current owner First United Realty, and property owner Bruce Bennett since the mid-1980s and is not a part of land being developed for real estate. Bennett said soil samples analyzed by a private company in Phoenix in 2007 indicated high lead and arsenic levels.


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