Giffords, supervisor tangle over Rosemont Mine

Nearly every local elected official, regardless of party, is against the proposed Rosemont Copper mine on the east side of the Santa Rita Mountains. But Pima County Supervisor Ray Carroll, a Republican, set off a war of words with Democratic U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords by saying she is wavering in her opposition, a charge that led the congreswoman to call his recent letter on the matter “unethical” because it “blatantly misrepresents and distorts remarks I made to the Green Valley News.”

Carroll sent the congreswoman a letter Wednesday claiming that statements she made in a sit-down interview with the newspaper “seem to indicate that your opposition to the mine is weakening.”

Giffords fired back Friday with a letter to Carroll saying “my opposition to the mine has not changed. An open pit copper mine does not belong at the base of the Santa Rita Mountains.”

Giffords said that the fact Carroll distributed his letter to the media before calling her “leads me to question your motives. Had you contacted me, I would have been able to update you about recent positive developments resulting from actions I have taken in opposition to the mine.”

Giffords later wrote, “we will soon be bringing the USDA Assistant Secretary to Arizona to see firsthand why a ‘No Action’ (no mine approval) decision is warranted.”

Giffords and U.S. Rep. Raul Grijalva have asked the Department of Agriculture, which oversees the Forest Service, to overturn the opinion posted online by Coronado National Forest Supervisor Jeanine Derby, who has written that she has no choice but to approve the mine under federal law.

Carroll’s letter noted that Giffords has supported a proposal by Grijalva to remove the mine and other federal land in Pima and Santa Cruz counties from federal mining laws. Current federal law encourages mining on public land and leaves approval up to the Forest Service.

Carroll’s letter quoted from the interview Giffords gave the Green Valley News. She said that she has “no direct jurisdiction over” the mine approval process, but noted that Grijalva does, as he is a member of the House Natural Resources Committee. Carroll’s letter omitted the second part.

Carroll quoted Giffords saying that early on in the Forest Service process, “we’ll stand back and see what happens,” but did not say that she later decided the agency process was not open and pressured the agency to extend the comment timeline and in other ways open up the comment process. Giffords said the changes helped lead to the filing of 11,000 comments by the public on the mine plan.

Carroll said he was concerned by Giffords’s statement that “living next to a 24-hour open pit copper mine is going to be a change for a lot of these folks and pretty undesirable. I’m pro-mining, I’m not anti-mining, but I just want to make sure ... that we actually have a reasonable process.”

Carroll said “everyone wants a reasonable process, but such statements by our Congressional representative can only give aid and comfort to (owners) Rosemont/Augusta as it tries to bamboozle the Forest Service into approving its plans and duping unsuspecting investors into financing its scheme to rape the Santa Rita Mountains.”

Giffords said she has taken a series of concrete steps to oppose the mine, including writing to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to have him reverse Derby’s “No Action” interpretation, and scheduling follow-up meetings, as well as pressing the Forest Service to open up the comment process.

Giffords wrote that “preventing the mine from becoming a reality will require more than grandstanding at public meetings and in letters. It will require deeds, not rhetoric.”

Giffords attached a two-page transcript of the parts of the Green Valley News interview that Carroll quoted, and asked him to call her in the future to discuss the mine.

pfranchine@gvnews.com | 547-9738