Take Action to Oppose Resolution Copper Water Permit that will deplete our water and devastate majestic Oak Flat

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First the good news...Governor Hobbs vetoed three more harmful energy and water bills that were passed at the AZ legislature along party lines.  

HB2063 exempt wells; certificate; groundwater use (Griffin) would have required the Arizona Department of Water Resources (ADWR) to issue a certificate of water rights to those with exempt wells (35 gallons per minute or less) that register with the well with ADWR. This would have served to increase rather than decrease pumping.

HB2124 agricultural operations; water; protection; definition (Smith) would have required the court to award attorneys' fees for nuisance claims related to groundwater pumping. This was another bill to protect big pumpers at the expense of those harmed who may have few tools available to them to challenge the pumping.

HB2591 forced labor; child labor; prohibitions (Biasiucci: Dunn, Kolodin, et al.) would have prohibited public power entities, public service corporations, and public entities from engaging in or renewing contracts to procure land, electric vehicles, utility scale batteries, or solar panels from individuals or businesses employing forced labor or oppressive child labor. The bill also mandates that automobile manufacturers furnish certification ensuring compliance with these standards for contracts involving electric vehicles and associated components. While we support prohibiting all of those activities, this is better addressed federally for all products. This bill singles out a few.

Please call the Governor at 602-542-4331 to say thank you to her for vetoing these bills.

Take Action to Oppose Resolution Copper Water Permit

The Arizona Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) has released a Public Notice that it intends to issue an Individual Industrial Recycled Water Permit to Resolution Copper Mining. The permit would allow Resolution Copper to deliver water obtained from the dewatering of their mine facilities at Oak Flat and near Superior to the New Magma Irrigation and Drainage District where it would be mixed with water coming from the Colorado River via the Central Arizona Project (CAP) canal and used for irrigation.

Allowing Resolution Copper to pump the water out of the mine shaft and mix it with CAP water to irrigate crops and doing so under weak permitting, is just one more way this mine is harming the region.
 

Please sign on to this petition asking ADEQ to reject this permit renewal.
The Sierra Club will deliver the petition to ADEQ on May 7th.

https://act.sierraclub.org/actions/Arizona?actionId=AR0438546

Urge members of Congress to co-sponsor Save Oak Flat Act

Tomorrow, April 8, 2022,  is an international call to action to protest Rio Tinto's inapproporiate mines and proposals around the world.  Please take action today via email and social media and spread the word widely!

On April 8, 2022, Rio Tinto will be holding its Annual General Meeting. Across the globe, this giant mining company continues to destroy Indigenous heritage, put communities under water stress, harm the environment, and loot resources.

This year, campaigners from Australia, Madagascar, Mongolia, Finland, Serbia, the UK, and the USA have come together to say enough is enough! It’s time for Rio Tinto to stop causing grief and misery to communities and the environment around the world. Add your voice to our call of international solidarity and send a message to Rio Tinto!

Please go to our action page for actions you can take.  

You can act locally by asking your member of Congress to cosponsor the Save Oak Flat Act.

And, you can act internationally by emailing or Tweeting Rio Tinto directly.

• To send an email to Rio Tinto’s Board of Directors and chief executives, go our Action Page.

• To send Rio Tinto a tweet, go to the Rio Tinto: Stop Plundering the Planet page.

Our action pages give you plenty of information about our fight to protect Oak Flat, but for more information about other struggles around the world against Rio Tinto, go here

Please ask your members of Congress to co-sponsor the Save Oak Flat Act to right a wrong, protect the religious freedom of Indigenous people, save an important recreational area, and protect the plants and animals that inhabit this biologically rich part of the Tonto National Forest.

The Save Oak Flat Act corrects Section 3003 of the 2015 National Defense Authorization Act, which currently allows the US government to give Oak Flat, a sacred recreational and ecological haven, which is US public land, to foreign mining companies.

The House version of the Save Oak Flat Act, HR 1884, was introduced by Congressman Grijalva (D-AZ) on March 12, 2021, and  the Seante version, S 915, was introduced by Senator Sanders (I-VT) on March 23, 2021.

Section 3003 of the land exchange was added to the 2015 National Defense Authorization Act at the last minute in the dead of night because the supporters of the exchange were repeatedly unable to pass the bill as a stand-alone measure.  

The Tonto National Forest released a Draft Environmental Impact Statement in 2019. It details some of the harm the mine will cause. The proposed Resolution Copper Mine would:

• * Create a crater roughly two miles wide and 1,000 feet deep right there at Oak Flat due to subsidence of the land.
• * Dump nearly 1.4 billion tons of toxic mining waste into an unlined tailings dump -- the preferred alternative tailings site will ultimately cover six square miles with a dam 490 feet high.
• * Use more water annually than the City of Tempe, AZ, a minimum of 50,000 acre-feet per year.
• * Permanently destroy about 16,000 acres of public land, state trust land, and private land.

Please ask your members of Congress to co-sponsor the Save Oak Flat Act:

https://org.salsalabs.com/o/676/p/dia/action4/common/public/?action_KEY=23970

REP. ANN LEILA KIRKPATRICK

District: US Representative

PHONE:(202) 225-25422

SEN. MARK EDWARD KELLY

District: US Senator

Phone:(202) 224-2235

Fax:(202) 228-2862

SEN. KYRSTEN LEA SINEMA

District: US Senator

Phone:(202) 224-4521

Fax:(202) 228-0515

For More Information: 

Arizona Mining Reform Coalition Resoluton Copper DEIS comments

Arizona Mining Reform Coalition website page

Ask Members of Congress to Co-sponsor the Save Oak Flat Act

Please, ask your Members of Congress to Co-sponsor the Save Oak Flat Act. It's so easy. Click this link and in put your zip code and it automatically pulls up your Members of Congress and a pre-filled letter. Just put in your into and hit send. It doesn't matter what state you live in. It takes less than a minute. Please, help #SAVEOAKFLAT #PROTECTOAKFLAT from destruction. Please, we are running out of time to save Chi' Chil Bildagoteel.. Learn more at Apache-Stronghold.com

On January 17, 2019, the Save Oak Flat Act was introduced in the US House of Representatives and the US Senate. The Bills would repeal Section 3003 of the National Defense Authorization Act of 2015 and keep Oak Flat in public ownership.

Congressman Raul Grijalva (D-AZ) introduced the US House version, HR 665, with 29 cosponsors from both parties.

Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) introduced S 173, the Senate version of the Save Oak Flat Act with four cosponsors, Senators Warren (D-MA), Merkley (D-OR), Wyden (D-OR), Heinrich (D-NM), and Booker (D-NJ).

The success of the Save Oak Flat Act is very important for the protection of Oak Flat.

Please contact your Representative asking him/her to cosponsor HR 665 and your Senators to cosponsor S 173. (If your Congressional delegation members are already cosponsors, please thank him/her for helping to protect Oak Flat).

Oak Flat is critical for the religious freedom of Native Americans and is an ecological and recreational haven. Oak Flat is located 60 miles east of Phoenix, Arizona and is public land managed by the Tonto National Forest.

Rio Tinto, one of the world's largest mining companies, wants to privatize Oak Flat to build a copper mine, destroying Oak Flat in the process. Rio Tinto's Congressional supporters had been unsuccessful 12 times over ten years to give Oak Flat to Rio Tinto, but managed to attach the Oak Flat land exchange to the National Defense Authorization Act in the dead of night in December of 2014. The land exchange, which would give Oak Flat to Rio Tinto upon completion of an "environmental" study, is Section 3003 of the massive defense bill.

Rio Tinto’s mining plan for Oak Flat is currently being analyzed by the US Forest Service with public input. The more the public learns about Rio Tinto’s planned block cave mine at Oak Flat and the associated 5,000 plus acres of public land that would be permanently destroyed by a toxic waste dump and other mine facilities, the more convinced we become that this project is not feasible and must be stopped.

- Arizona Mining Reform Coalition

For More Information:

Arizona Mining Reform Coalition website page
H.R. 665 (House Version) Cosponsors
Grijalva Save Oak Flat Act Press Releasehttp://org.salsalabs.com/o/676/p/dia/action4/common/public/…