Water for mining is a factor that needs to be addressed. I tracked down the AZ Statute that gives mining companies the right to pump water that they need even in a "managed" area: (A.R.S.) § 45-514
ADWR’s hands are tied even though the HudBay mining company will withdraw 6,000 acre-feet (water to serve over 6,000 to 9,000 families for a year of clean groundwater annually from the AMA to be use outside of the AMA. ADWR does not do assessments of the impact on other wells.
The supply wells that Hudbay will be using were purchased by property companies so that the seller did not know the buyer was a mining company. How these exempt wells in a semi-rural district owned by property companies became mining supply wells is a mystery.
Arizona is in a drought and cannot afford to subsidize water and sacrifice 238,000 trees to a foreign mining company. The time has come to change the law.
Nancy Freeman, Environmentalist, Author
Green Valley
Disclaimer: As submitted to the Arizona Daily Star.
