Guest Comment: Everything is wrong with Rosemont Mine

In the Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2009 Green Valley News and Sun, former Pima County District One Supervisor Mike Boyd asked the question: “What’s wrong with Rosemont Mine?”

Mr. Boyd, the answer is: “Everything!”

This is not my opinion, alone. Nearly every elected official and public figure in Southern Arizona has come out against the Augusta/Rosemont attempt to desecrate the Santa Rita Mountains.

This is not a partisan issue. The list of opponents—both Republicans and Democrats—includes the Pima County Board of Supervisors, Congresspersons Gabrielle Giffords and Raul Grijalva, the entire District 30 membership in the Arizona State Legislature, the Sahuarita Town Council and the Green Valley Community Coordinating Council.

And, this list does not include the many civic organizations that have lent their voices to the chorus of opposition to an open-pit copper mine 6,000 feet across and 2,900 feet deep in the heart of the Santa Ritas.

Mr. Boyd claims that the Augusta/Rosemont mine would “not be like the open-pit mines of old... this one would be smaller.”

I do not believe an open-pit mine more than half a mile deep can be defined as “smaller.”

He also questions how many people would even be aware of the mine operation, claiming that hardly anyone ever hikes the area.

Perhaps if he hiked the area himself he would understand why people are so adamant about preserving this unique slice of God’s earth.

He may be right that this mine will not be like any other, as Augusta Resource Corp. has never operated a mine, anywhere.

Mr. Boyd characterizes those who oppose the mine as individuals with a “Utopian vision” that is being “foisted upon us by a radical environmental movement.”

This clearly indicates to me that he has not attended any of the public meetings on this mine. If he did, he would have seen many non “radical” people from Green Valley and Sahuarita who live with the disastrous consequences of mine tailings and tainted drinking water.

They oppose this mine and they are a vast majority, not a “vocal minority.”

To discuss my constituents’ legitimate concerns with such abject arrogance is unacceptable.

However, what disturbed me the most about Mr. Boyd’ s unconditional support for the Augusta/Rosemont project was his complete neglect of the most important issue created by the proposed mine.

That issue is water, or, more appropriately, the lack of water for the citizens of Green Valley and Sahuarita.

I can only believe that he ignored this issue because he was complicit in its creation.

On Dec. 7, 2006, as a member of the Central Arizona Water Conservation District (CAWCD), Mr. Boyd made the motion to approve an agreement with Augusta Resource Corp. to purchase 50,000 to 70,000 acre-feet of CAP water for storage over a five-year period.

That is more that four times the amount of water that people drink in the Green Valley area, annually.

The lame response from Augusta is to try to extend the CAP line south so that it can suck the pure groundwater dry while the rest of us drink the CAP water.

But as Mr. Boyd’s motion stated, Augusta will “hold harmless CAWCD against all loses to third parties resulting from water quality degradation or harm to property caused by Augusta... due to the commingling of Augusta’s infiltration water with the groundwater.’’

While Mr. Boyd was held harmless as a CAWCD member from the potential damage to the Green Valley/Sahuarita water supply that will be caused by Augusta; what about the people?

We are the ones who will be harmed as the Augusta/Rosemont mine diverts our drinking water to an open-pit mine in the Santa Rita Mountains.

Lastly, I am very skeptical of the Augusta/Rosemont economic figures.

The Western Economic Analysis Center that Mr. Boyd quotes has been doing studies for the Arizona Mining Association— hardly an impartial organization —for more than 30 years.

Incidentally, both that study and the more recent one from the Arizona Department of Mines —another very partial organization—were paid for by Augusta.

My experience has been that if you pay the bill, you generally get what you ask for.

What’s wrong with the Augusta/Rosemont Mine Mr. Boyd is that it will ruin our water supply, despoil our air, sicken our people, blight the aesthetic beauty of our mountains and permanently destroy our eco-tourism industry.

These facts have become obvious to almost everyone.

If they are not obvious to you than I feel as the-Irish-American songwriter, William Gray, wrote: “You are more to be pitied than censured.”

Ray Carroll was appointed District 4 Supervisor by the five-member Pima County Board of Supervisors in 1997.

Serving as a Republican, he was elected to the position in 1998. Subsequently, he was re-elected in 2000, 2004 and 2008 without opposition. During all this time, he has represented Green Valley—the largest unincorporated community in the county.

He has a satellite office in the Green Valley Government Center. Supervisor Carroll has been a leading figure in the opposition to the Augusta/Rosemont mine project.

The opinions expressed above are the writer’s own and do not necessarily reflect the views of this newspaper.