Tweet your support of this Morning's Border Wall Protest: against the Stinger, Bridge, & Iron - Fisher Industries

Please, share the twitter links below to show support of this morning's this Morning's Border Wall Protest: Akimel O’odham, Hia-Ced O’odham, Tohono O’odham, & Allies Against Stinger, Bridge, & Iron - Fisher Industries.

COOLIDGE, ARIZONA - On August 26, 2020 Akimel O’odham, Hia-Ced O’odham, Tohono O’odham, & Allies will gather at Stinger Bridge and Iron, a bridge manufacturing company that is owned by Fisher Industries, to protest its production of panels for the border wall extension. Fisher Industries prides itself in building “unbuildable’ walls”, using their patented bollard hanging system, allowing them to build one-mile of border wall per day. Located in Akimel O’odham territory in so-called Coolidge, Arizona, Stinger Bridge & Iron loads panels of steel slabs to be transported to Hia-Ced O’odham traditional territory - known to settlers as Organ Pipe National Monument, Cabeza Prieta Wildlife Refuge, and the Barry Goldwater Bombing Range.

Tax fraud, environmental harms, underhanded dealings, and corruption were well documented in the Fisher family business long before Bannon’s ‘We Build the Wall” illicit dealings made headlines. Legal issues with the Fisher family range from tax fraud, to child pornography, to multiple infractions with the Environmental Protection Agency. These types of behaviors are unacceptable on O’odham jeved.

Current harms perpetuated by Fisher Sand and Gravel and its subsidiary companies includes the destruction of sacred sites, burial sites, and environment in unceded O’odham territory. The border wall’s impact is permanent. Depletion of vital water sources for the mixture of concrete and paving of roads has already caused irreversible damage. In the interest of protecting the water, our culture, and the future of our people we must stand together and against this attack on our traditional territory.

We demand that Fisher Industries, the United States Government, and all other occupying entities cease and desist building the wall. We demand that Stinger Bridge and Iron stop assembling panels for transport. We demand that Fisher stop abusing our sacred ecosystem, and stop using groundwater for their destructive projects.

-Dan Millis of the Sierra Club


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Tweets to share:

https://twitter.com/AlisaReznick/status/1298611626774417410?s=20 

https://twitter.com/RafaelCarranza/status/1298606052406001665

https://twitter.com/CourtBourgoin/status/1298613811931484161

https://twitter.com/SierraClub/status/1298611404681949184

https://twitter.com/PaulaHemlock/status/1298614441857224704  

https://twitter.com/RafaelCarranza/status/1298614122351861761  

Stop Rosemont mobilization action: Thursday, August 1st

The Rosemont mine would be built above the Cienaga Creek that feeds into Tucson's aquifer 

UPDATE: August 1, 2019

 Federal judge bars Rosemont Mine construction
- Tony Davis Arizona Daily Star

U.S. District Judge James Soto heard oral arguments Tuesday on several cases related to the Rosemont Copper Mine, including a request by mine opponents for a preliminary injunction to halt construction until all other court cases challenging the mine are decided.

The main disagreement at the preliminary injunction hearing was whether the Army Corps of Engineers has the responsibility and authority to regulate downstream secondary and cumulative impacts from dredge and fill operations on the mine site.

Attorneys for tribes and environmental groups who oppose the mine argued that the agency has that authority. They argue that when the Army Corps of Engineers granted the mine's 404 permit under the Clean Water Act, it didn’t adequately analyze related impacts, including dewatering and polluting nearby water sources.

The attorney for the Army Corps of Engineers disputes that claim and says the Forest Service is the main regulatory agency for the mining project, and pointed to proposed mitigation for those impacts on Sonoita Creek.

Opponents also criticized Rosemont and the Army Corps of Engineers for insufficient public notice and financial guarantees on the mine project.

Save the Scenic Santa Ritas, the Center for Biological Diversity, the Arizona Mining Reform Coalition and the Sierra Club Grand Canyon Chapter have filed suit against the Army Corps of Engineers over that 404 permit. In April, the Pima County Board of Supervisors voted to back the lawsuit.

The Tohono O'odham, Pascua Yaqui and Hopi tribes oppose the project over concerns it would damage ancestral homelands, and have filed a lawsuit challenging the Forest Service decision to approve the final environmental impact statement for the mine.

The judge took all cases under advisement. He will make a decision on the injunction by Aug. 1.

More Information:

https://www.sustainablelivingtucson.com/2018/10/find-out-whats-up-with-proposed.html

Find Out What's Up with the Proposed Rosemont Mine

At Sustainable Tucson's October 9th meeting, Gayle Hartmann, president of Save the Scenic Santa Ritas, gave us an update on what is happening and what is likely to happen in the near future. It isn't a done deal. Several organizations, including Save the Scenic Santa Ritas and the Tohono O'odham nation are suing the mine.

Filmmaker Frances Causey also screened her documentary about the Rosemont Mine:

“Ours Is The Land” is a short film that depicts in moving and powerful detail the spiritual, cultural, and physical connection of the Tohono O’odham people of Arizona to Ce:wi Duag or the Santa Rita Mountains which are imperiled by the proposed creation of the mile-wide, half-mile deep Rosemont open pit copper mine. Desecrating this revered area with a mine would fundamentally alter the cultural landscape of the Tohono O’odham nation.

More information at:

http://www.rosemontminetruth.com/

What I learned from this presentation: The proposed mine will be built in one of the most biologically diverse regions of the country.  Ecotourism is a big boom to our 23 billion dollar tourist industry. Birdwatchers come from around the world to enjoy it. If the mine goes through, tourists will get a clear view of the huge, gaping pit as they drive down scenic highway 83. The economic impact of the 400 jobs the mine will create won't begin to equal even 1 % of what ecotourism brings to our state economy. The mine is expected to be in operation for 20 years, but the devastation to the region's diverse ecosystem and our water supply will last for hundreds of years.  

Impact on our water supply: The mine will be nearly 1 mile deep -  below the level of the aquifer and the ranchers' wells. That same aquifer provides Tucson with 20% of our water.  And the toxic tailings will end up in our water. When the mine stops running it will become a huge toxic lake.  The Rosemont mine has been formed into a limited liability company - so they will leave it for tax payers to clean up. We have an antiquated law in Arizona that allows mines to use as much water as they want.  All this during a drought that has drastically reduced the water level in Lake Mead where we get our CAP allotment.

The documentary "Cyanide Beach" tells how the directors of the Rosemont mine, were also on the board of Augusta. They promised the people of Sardinia, Italy that they would clean up the poisonous tailings left from their open pit gold mine, but instead they left a toxic lake that threatens the town's water supply.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPALNtyFmHY

Please, write a letter to the editor telling how the Rosemont mine will personally impact you, your business or your family. Be sure to follow the guidelines and word count limit of the target publication (up to 150 words for the Arizona Daily Star.)

Some lesser known history on Arizona's mining tradition:

 https://raglooms-heirlooms.blogspot.com/2016/01/arizonas-real-mining-tradition.html

UPDATES HERE: 

http://www.sustainablelivingtucson.com/2018/10/find-out-whats-up-with-proposed.html

Some good news for the environment: 

US Forest Service resumes cleanup of abandoned mines:

https://arizonadailystar-az.newsmemory.com/?publink=040a12e0e_134aa05