Views from the Santa Rita Experimental Range.
The Center for Biological Diversity, Save the Scenic Santa Ritas and Farmers Investment Co., have appealed an air quality permit issued by the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ), for the Copper World Project, southeast of Tucson.
The open-pit copper mine, operated by Hudbay Minerals Inc., is now permitted to begin blasting operations in the Santa Rita Mountains as of Jan. 2, when the permit was issued.
The air quality permit is required due to the mine’s potential to release particulate matter– a mixt of microscopic solids and liquid droplets into the air.
The Center argues that the permit ignores a major pollution source that will be caused by more than 100 of Hudbay’s trucks traveling across a dirt road near the Santa Rita Experimental Range, hauling sulfuric acid, copper concentrates and other mining materials.
“The ADEQ isn’t requiring Copper World to meet the bare minimum standard to protect our air and the environment,” Jeremy Nichols said. “We need Arizona’s environmental regulator to stop giving the mining industry a free pass to pollute.”
The appeal wants to revoke Copper World’s air pollution permit, arguing that ADEQ was legally required to impose stricter regulations due to the level of pollution.
In September, conservation groups including 15 tribes, submitted a 100-page letter to ADEQ, challenging the permit.
The agency must set a hearing on the appeal within 60 days.
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