A key document was turned over to the U.S. Forest Service on Friday, pushing the decade-old, $1.5 billion Rosemont Mine project one step closer to a final decision.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service sent its final biological opinion on the proposed mine to the Forest Service, ending a formal review of the mineβs impacts on imperiled species thatβs lasted nearly two years.
The review was triggered by the discovery of an endangered ocelot near the mine site in spring 2014, along with the prospect that two more imperiled species β the northern Mexican garter snake and the Western yellow-billed cuckoo β would soon receive federal protection. That raised the number of endangered and threatened species reviewed by the wildlife service to 11 in the mine area.
The new biological opinion will not be publicly released for 10 business days, to give Forest Service officials time to review it, said Coronado National Forest Supervisor Kerwin Dewberry. Dewberry will make the final decision on the mine with help from superiors in the Forest Serviceβs Albuquerque regional office and its Washington, D.C., office. That timetable means it would be released approximately by May 6. The opinion has also been turned over to Hudbay Minerals Inc., which would build the mine, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which must make a separate decision on the project.
Here are some questions and answers on the biological opinion and the Forest Serviceβs future course of action:
Q. Why is the Forest Service keeping this document from the public 10 days, when it was written by a public agency?
A. Dewberry said in an interview at his downtown Tucson office Friday that he needs time to review it βto ensure that we are in a position to be able to fully answer any type of inquiries that will come to us.β He said the release of the document will be a βcoordinated effortβ among federal agencies that produced it.
Q. What will the opinion say?
A. Wildlife service officials have declined to answer in advance. Opponents of the mine expect the service will not take a position that could legally stop the mine from being built. Endangered-species issues can stop a proposed project only if the wildlife service concludes the project would jeopardize the existence of a species or destroy or βadversely modifyβ its federally determined critical habitat. Such findings very rarely occur in biological opinions. When they do, the service usually finds mitigation plans to allow the project to go forward. In late 2013, the wildlife service wrote an earlier version of the Rosemont opinion that concluded there would be no jeopardy or major adverse habitat impacts, but was forced to revisit it.
Q. So why does this report matter?
A. The Forest Service has said that under the 1872 Mining Law and related federal laws and regulations, it canβt turn down a mining proposal on federal land unless itβs shown the mine would violate federal law. The mine would be built on private land in the Santa Rita Mountains southeast of Tucson; its tailings and waste rock would be disposed of on public land. A favorable biological opinion would show to the Forest Service that the mine meets the federal Endangered Species Act, and the Forest Service has already concluded that the mine would meet all other applicable laws and regulations. Environmental groups and other mine opponents, however, are certain to challenge such findings in court if the mine is approved.
Q. When will the Forest Service make its final decision?
A. Recently, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency officials, who have been generally critical of Rosemont, predicted the Forest Service would decide on the mine by mid-May. The Army Corps, which canβt make its decision until the Forest Service decides, is also likely to decide by mid-May, EPA Regional Administrator Jared Blumenfeld said recently in a telephone interview from his San Francisco office.
The Forest Serviceβs Dewberry, however, said the agency still has no timeline for a decision and canβt even say for sure that it will issue a decision this year. It will be using the final biological report to begin finalizing that decision, but that will take a lot of coordination, he said.
Q. What other information will the Forest Service need and what other steps might it take before reaching a decision?
A. βI canβt answer that for you,β Dewberry said Friday. βIβm not sure at this time. Until I review the biological opinion, I wonβt know what is the information I will have or need to help lead me to the next steps. We will be in the mode of coordinating with other action agencies.β
Q. On Thursday, the Forest Service, the White House Council of Environmental Quality and four other federal agencies conducted a site visit to Rosemont. The Army Corps, EPA, Fish and Wildlife Service and BLM also went. But unlike a January 2014 visit that the same agencies conducted, the press wasnβt invited and no outside groups were allowed. Why was that, particularly given President Obamaβs public commitment on taking office in January 2009 βto set a new standard of openness?β
A. βThis field trip was an internal site visit for the federal families that are involved in this process, for federal officials only,β Dewberry said.
The tripβs purpose was to help Ted Boling, a top U.S. Council on Environmental Quality official who was in Tucson last week for other purposes, Dewberry said. βWe wanted to make sure he was familiar with the site himself on the ground while he was in the local area.β
Q. Whatβs Rosemontβs view going into this last-stage review?
A. βRosemont will be a modern mine built on sound science and we were glad to be able to welcome the professionals and officials from the federal agencies at the project site as part of the permitting process,β said Patrick Merrin, vice president of Hudbayβs Arizona Business Unit, in a written statement.
Q. What are opponents saying?
A. Gayle Hartmann, president of the opposition group Save the Scenic Santa Ritas, predicted that the Forest Service will impose more mitigation plans on the mine but that the agency will ultimately decide in the mineβs favor. Then, she said she believes the Army Corps could turn down the mineβs permit application, given the general water supply and water quality issues involving the mine, including potential impacts on Cienega Creek and Davidson Canyon and the lowering of the water table west of the Santa Ritas for the mining company to pump groundwater to serve the project.
βThe sooner the Corps decision happens, the more likely the decision (will be against the mine),β she said. βThe closer we get into election season, all bets are off.β
Q. Assuming the mine is approved, will more mitigation efforts be required?
A. βI would expect there will be new conservation measures and/or terms and conditions that would be incorporated into the record of decision,β Dewberry said.
