Representatives Ron Barber and Raul Grijalva sent a letter to the Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack yesterday urging the Forest Service to not release a final Environmental Impact Statement on the Rosemont Mine project without addressing several shortcoming.
You can read the letter here.
Joint statement issued from offices of Grijalva and Barber:
Tucson, Ariz. — Reps. Raúl M. Grijalva and Ron Barber today sent a letter to Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack urging the Forest Service, which is under the authority of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), not to release a final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) on the proposed Rosemont Mine project near Tucson without addressing several known shortcomings in the version available for public comment. The public comment period closes today, leading to widespread concerns that the draft will not substantially change before it is finalized.
Grijalva and Barber write in the letter, which is reviewable at http://1.usa.gov/16SHSMm, that the Forest Service “has no obligation to rush through an environmental assessment,” especially because the draft “is missing essential elements [such as] analysis of endangered species impacts, consultation with Native American communities regarding impacts to historical and cultural sites, Clean Water Act permits, and responses to [earlier] public comments.”
Authorities at the Coronado National Forest, where some waste from the proposed mine may be dumped, seem tempted to fast track analysis of other federal agencies’ comments in order to issue a record of decision by Sept. 27, the letter says. New rules on approving such documents go into effect the following day — rules that Forest Service officials may be trying to avoid at the Rosemont site.
As today’s letter says, “The Forest Service has no obligation to rush through an environmental assessment. The agency’s duty, first and foremost, is to assess the proposed mine’s impacts on Arizona’s natural resources, water supplies, and public health. Such a review should take the time that is appropriate to ensure full input from the public and stakeholders. The impacts of this study will be permanent and demand full and careful review.”
Grijalva is the ranking member of the House Subcommittee on Public Lands and Environmental Regulation. Barber sits on the House Committee on Small Business.
This article appears in Aug 15-21, 2013.
Barber , Grijalva liberal roadblocks to stops jobs from coming to Tucson, Area, Grijalva already said he would play this card and now sides with gibby reject stand-in. Vote them out they both hurt Pima Co. area…
If the company cannot properly manage investor’s funds though the permitting process, they will not properly manage operating and clean up funds. Rosemont is a scam
Rosemont mine is an environmental disaster waiting to happen. ALL the independent studies show that. Greed and power and payoffs…same old story. Keep writing those letters, showing up at the public hearings and funding this Save the Santa Rita organization folks. The Canadian holding company will run out of money.
The owners of El Charro Mexican Restaurant support approving the Rosemont Open Pit Mine and, therefore, they support the destruction of a beautiful part of Southern Arizona. Ray Flores emailed me a year or so ago that he wanted to protect the jobs of his employees. I will never eat in El Charro Mexican Restaurant again, so there is a little less work for his employees due to his support for the Rosemont Open Pit Mine.
If approved, the Rosemont Open Pit Mine will drain the water table so much that nearby private water wells will have to be drilled deeper. If approved, the big hole in the ground will destroy a large area of critical wildlife habitat, it will increase large truck traffic on the Sonoita Highway and endanger all drivers on that road, it will take value from nearby privately owned real estate. There is a long list of additional detriments, if the Mine is approved.
Unless the executive branch of government refuses to lease public U.S. Forest land for the foreign Augusta Mining Company to dump many square miles of tailings on, the judicial branch must be drawn into the decision through lawsuits.
I will regularly donate money to Save the Scenic Santa Ritas and to other groups that sue to halt the Rosemont Open Pit Mine. I do not want this noxious hole in the ground to destroy the beauty of the Santa Rita Mountains.
All very interesting, but why isn’t the Tucson Weekly covering the shady business behind TUSD’s hiring of H.T. Sanchez? According to the Arizona Daily Star, TUSD hide people to drive trucks to block the view of the other candidates and wouldn’t reveal their names until the Arizona Daily Star filed a lawsuit. I have to say, all 3 of the other candidates look superior to H.T. Sanchez in terms of experience in education and in dealing with major real issues facing TUSD.
http://azstarnet.com/news/local/education/precollegiate/tucson-unified-school-district-reveals-finalists-after-court-order/article_c6c500d3-1492-59c1-b1f2-6d3d38f44753.html
So, Barber is moving to the center? It must be lonely for a Democrat out there on the Right all the time with all those Republican. I hope Barber can hold out on this one, and resist the temptations that will come his way.
Raúl Grijalva and Ron Barber deserve thanks for not bowing to the mining interests –as so many of their fellow Democrats are doing– and calling for resolution of the pending issues on the EIS. Personally, I hope Rosemont will NOT be approved, because it is a serious threat to the livelihood of many people in the east Santa Ritas and will use scarce water only to benefit Canadian and US capital.
The Rosemont project is important to Arizona and to America. It never fails to amuse me to read the ill-informed comments by those who want all their neighbors to work at low-wage-no-skill jobs.
Mining and natural resources made America great and the investment was often foreign. I say Welcome to those who will invest in America. I support development and the Rosemont Project.
It is obvious to me that all those citizens in favor of Rosemont open pit have not the slightest knowledge or interest in what impact it will really have on our economy once the mining is done and the polluted water and destroyed landscape it will leave behind. The dollars it will take ( if it can be done) to clear the pollution alone will outway any fin ancial gain to our community through employment. I appaud those people for wanting tpo put our citizens to work. But who’ll pay the bill when we have to restore our little piece of the planet. Just look at the results of open pit mining now. How can they be proud of what they see??