Environmental Report due on Rosemont in August
Tony Davis, Arizona Daily Star Arizona Daily Star | Posted: Thursday, April 14, 2011
After two years of delays, the U.S. Forest Service plans to release a draft environmental report on the proposed Rosemont Mine near Tucson in August and make a decision on the hard-fought project in January.
The service's announcement comes after four delays of the release of the environmental report, originally scheduled for spring 2009. It was first delayed to fall 2009, and then until April 2010. It was then pushed back to end of 2010 and then again until now.
The environmental impact statement has long been seen as one of the most critical points in the lengthy review of the copper project.
The service cannot make a decision on Rosemont without completing the environmental analysis. That means mine construction can't start until that hurdle is overcome and the courts finish with any legal challenges to the service's decision.
In its announcement Wednesday, the service said its regional office in Albuquerque and its Washington, D.C., office are reviewing an internal working draft of the environmental statement. Once that's completed, the Forest Service will then give a group of local, state and federal agencies and Indian tribes the chance to review the draft before it is publicly released.
After the service publishes a notice in the Federal Register that the environmental statement is available, the public will have 90 days to comment on the document.
The announcement was published Wednesday in the service's Schedule for Proposed Actions, which is updated every three months - in January, April, July and October. It contains the best information available at the time, the service said Wednesday in a news release announcing the new Rosemont timetable.
The service is one of four agencies that must issue a permit for the Rosemont Mine in the Santa Rita Mountains. It's been considered the most crucial permit, in part because it will offer the most comprehensive review.
The delays in releasing the environmental impact statement have come as the issues surrounding the proposed mine have mounted and in some cases grown more complex.
The environmental statement is supposed to cover 11 issues dealing with the mine, which would be 30 miles southeast of Tucson.
Gayle Hartmann, an environmentalist who has led opposition to the mine, said she was not surprised about the August release date, because "word on the street" had been that August or September would be the date.
But she said the final decision timetable seems rushed, because it won't give the service much time to review public comments before deciding, said Hartmann, president of Save the Scenic Santa Ritas.
Heidi Schewel, a Forest Service spokeswoman, said in response that this schedule is subject to change.
Rosemont Copper officials have made it clear they would like to get the permitting resolved as quickly as possible so they can start construction in 2012.
"We would hope the draft EIS could be available to the public by June 2011," company President and CEO Rod Pace said late Wednesday in a statement.
