Rosemont gets approval to store CAP water in basins south of Tucson, over city's objections

The company planning to build the Rosemont Mine has won approval from the Central Arizona Project to start storing some CAP water at recharge basins south of Tucson, over city officials’ strong objections.

Following a lengthy, highly contentious debate, the CAP governing board voted 7-4 Thursday to approve Rosemont Copper’s request to store 1,124 acre-feet of water annually for 10 years at the Pima Mine Road Recharge Project, a collection of water storage basins located between Tucson and Sahuarita.

Four other CAP board members, including Karen Cesare and Mark Taylor of Tucson, recused themselves from the vote, citing conflicts or potential conflicts of interest. Cesare, a landscape architect, and Taylor and his employer Westland Reources have done work for both Rosemont Copper and the city of Tucson, they said.

The approval could trigger legal action by Tucson to block its implementation.

City officials have opposed the mine for many years, saying it is a threat to water supplies and quality because Rosemont has a state permit to pump groundwater for the mine, which would be built in the Santa Rita Mountains southeast of Tucson.

But supporters of the recharge plan said the pros and cons of the mine itself were not at issue and that it would benefit the aquifer to store this water, which is brought to the Tucson area from the Colorado River via the CAP canal.

Matt Bingham, an attorney for Hudbay Minerals inc., Rosemont Copper’s Toronto-based parent company, told the CAP board that the recharge is part of the company’s efforts to be good citizens, and that the company doesn’t view its mining as a threat to Tucson’s groundwater supply.

“Contracting with partners to increase CAP water storage for the Tucson (area) is prudent water management that will help maintain water levels in the regional aquifer. Through recharging CAP water and the transfer of existing surface water rights to conservation uses, the Rosemont Project will have a positive impact on water resources in the region,” Hudbay said in a statement to the Star.

Bingham noted the company has already stored more than 42,000 acre-feet of CAP water in the Tucson area, well downstream of Pima Mine Road, in Marana.

But because the Pima Mine Road Recharge Project runs as a partnership of CAP and Tucson, it’s unknown whether the mining company will actually be able to use the recharge basins. A city-CAP agreement gives the city the right of first refusal if someone else wants to put CAP water in it.

City officials are investigating whether the CAP board vote was legal. It’s not clear if the city can exercise its first refusal right this year after having already put in its order for CAP water for 2022, officials said, but they said the city can stop Rosemont from using the facility in 2023.

City Councilman Steve Kozachik told the Star Thursday he believes CAP violated the 2000 agreement the two entities signed to operate the Pima Mine Road Recharge Project, and that the city should take legal action to block Rosemont Copper from using this recharge site.

Tucson Mayor Regina Romero said through a spokesman she will initiate discussion of what should be the city’s next steps on this issue at the City Council’s Jan. 11 or Jan. 25 meetings.

“Simply put, the city of Tucson opposes the use of a project we co-own to facilitate a project we strongly oppose,” Romero wrote in a letter to CAP Wednesday.

“The city of Tucson, Pima County, the Tohono O’odham Nation, the Pascua Yaqui Tribe and other jurisdictions oppose the Rosemont Mine Project.

“We live here, and despite industry claims to the contrary, we strongly believe that the Rosemont Mine project will diminish our groundwater supply and contaminate our soils and our aquifers for the predominant benefit of a private, foreign corporation,” Romero wrote.

Chris Avery, an assistant city attorney, said that if the city had learned last summer — before the city put in its order for CAP water use in 2022 — that Rosemont Copper wanted to use this facility, “I am confident that we would have requested full use” of all available space at the Pima Mine Road project not used by CAP, so that Rosemont could not use it.

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By the time it learned of Rosemont’s interest in the site last fall, the city had already put in its CAP order, telling the project how much water it wanted to store at each of its recharge facilities including Pima Mine Road, he said.

Councilman Kevin Dahl wrote to CAP, saying, “Tucson mayor and council have voted multiple times to not support activities that would benefit Rosemont’s attempt to excavate open-pit, copper mines in the Santa Rita Mountains. Your contract is very concerning.”

But CAP Board President Terry Goddard said while he doesn’t support the mine, he voted for its CAP storage because he didn’t think the mine’s flaws are relevant to the recharge decision, “which was based on whether the applicant met the requisite legal requirements.”

A denial wouldn’t be consistent with the rules CAP has set up for all recharge basins statewide, Goddard said.

“They met their criteria,” said Goddard, adding the board voted in December to allow Rosemont Copper to store CAP water in the Lower Santa Cruz River Recharge Project in Marana. "Tucson hasn't exercised its right of first refusal.

“It would be inconsistent for us to say that you can use it for this basin and not this one,” Goddard said.

The proposed Rosemont Mine already has the right to withdraw groundwater, said CAP board member Marie Pearthree of Tucson, who voted to approve the contract.

This vote only concerned Rosemont Copper’s ability to recharge a portion of its CAP water supply closer to the area of hydrologic impact, meaning the area from which it can withdraw groundwater, said Pearthree, who declined to discuss her position on the mine itself.

“I have enormous respect for the city of Tucson and others who have urged the Board to vote ‘no’ on this water storage agreement, but I do not believe it is CAP’s role to be drawn into the community controversy regarding the mine and thereby be perceived to take a side for or against the mine,” Pearthree said in an email to the Star.

But CAP board member Alexandra Arboleda of Phoenix said the CAP staff should have evaluated the validity of the city’s claims before this contract was approved. That’s because the city expressed “grave concerns” that the agreement will cause negative impacts to the quantity and quality of the city’s water supply and force it to occupy all of the storage space at the recharge project, reducing regional water storage options for other entities, said Arboleda, adding she has no position on the mine itself.

"When I read all the letters from the city of Tucson and others it was very concerning," Arboleda said of the correspondence CAP received opposing Rosemont from Pima County supervisors and the County Regional Flood Control District and the two area tribal governments.

Another “no” voter, CAP board member Pat Jacobs of Tucson, said his question was why, if Rosemont wants to recharge CAP water, it doesn’t do so in the Upper Santa Cruz recharge project in Marana. That would allow this issue to be resolved by collaboration, he said, rather than headed toward litigation.

The approval comes as a 9-mile pipeline being built by a Green Valley water company to take CAP water down to a separate set of recharge basins is under construction and is approaching being 50% complete, said Arturo Gabaldon, president of Community Water Company of Green Valley. Rosemont Copper has agreed to pay that line's construction tab. That pipeline should be in operation by 2025 or 2026 at the latest and possibly sooner, he said.

Until that pipeline is done, Rosemont Copper can’t recharge any water in that area — the same area where its wells will pump groundwater to be used at the mine — Jacobs said.

“I’m pro-mine,” said Jacobs, describing himself as a Rosemont supporter. “But do we need more lawsuits over something that makes no difference?”

But Hudbay said recharging CAP water at Pima Mine Road is consistent with its stated goal of compensating for the impacts of its groundwater pumping for Rosemont at wells lying upstream of the recharge project -- but in the same groundwater basin in both cases.

Both Project Renews and the Pima Mine Road recharge site are both in the Upper Santa Cruz Basin which is the goal of the Project Renews facility," said Hudbay of the recharge basins in Sahuarita that it will pay to build.