Crucial Rosemont federal water permit decision expected within weeks

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers says it will make a permitting decision in the next few weeks on Toronto-based Hudbay Minerals Inc.’s Clean Water Act (CWA) permit for its proposed Rosemont copper project southeast of Tucson, the Arizona Daily Star reports.

Hudbay must obtain the CWA Section 404 permit before construction could begin on the $1.5 billion open-pit copper mine that would be built in the Santa Rita Mountains on the Coronado National Forest.

Hudbay has submitted a mitigation plan to the Army Corps to compensate for the destruction of rare desert wetlands from the proposed mine. Hudbay’s plan”would protect four parcels of more than 4,800 acres at a $48 million cost,” the Daily Star reports.

Neither the Corps nor the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which has veto power over Corps 404 permits and has been sharply critical of earlier mitigation plans, would comment on Hudbay’s mitigation plan, the newspaper states.

Hudbay’s latest plan prepared by its Arizona-based Rosemont Copper Company subsidiary “proposes to re-create and restore several washes and a creek on the Sonoita Creek Ranch, about 12 miles south of the proposed mine site,” according to the Daily Star’s June 26 story.

While the Corps and EPA are remaining quiet pending release of the permitting decision, a technical report prepared last summer by private consultants contracted by EPA indicates that the Rosemont mitigation plan once again falls short of what’s legally required under Section 404.

The Sonoita Creek Ranch restoration plan is generally considered to be the lynchpin in Rosemont’s overall mitigation proposal.

The EPA-contracted technical report concludes that Rosemont’s Sonoita Creek Ranch mitigation plan “will not function as designed.”

The report was prepared by Dr. Mathias Kondolf, consulting fluvial geomorphologist, of Berkeley, California, and James Ashby, of PG Environmental, LLC, in Golden, Colorado.

Rosemont Copper employed Water and Earth Technologies (WET), Incorporated to provide the construction design and Westland Resources, Inc. (“Westland”) for restoration related to the construction of the proposed Sonoita Creek Ranch mitigation plan.

The Kondolf/Ashby report lists eight shortcomings in the Sonoita Creek Ranch mitigation plan.

The Kondolf/Ashby summary states:

1. The hydrologic modeling significantly overestimates the water available for Sonoita Creek and the proposed constructed channels.

2. Sonoita Creek is a semiarid stream that is characterized by highly dynamic geomorphic and ecological processes, but the hydraulic modeling unrealistically assumed fixed bed elevations.

3. The proposed constructed channels will likely not sustain flow in the specific soil types within the project reach.

4. The existing ecological functions of Sonoita Creek will be reduced by diverting flow from the main channel.

5. There are no comparable reference sites shown or provided for the constructed channel design.

6. The proposed channel design is not self-maintaining or sustainable and will require continual maintenance.

7. The proposed constructed channels do not provide equal ecological value or the same level of functions as the original Sonoita Creek channel.

8. There is no ecological benefit to controlling bank erosion at Sonoita Creek.

“Given our observations, review of the WET report, and consideration of the environmental and ecological conditions at Sonoita Creek, it is our professional opinion that the WET plan will not function as designed,” the Kondolf/Ashby report states. “Our conclusions are consistent with the EPA’s previous reviews and comments.”

If the Army Corps does not issue the 404 permit, Rosemont Copper can pursue administrative and legal remedies.

Hudbay announced earlier this year that it is delaying plans to build the mine that would dump waste rock and tailings across 3,000 acres of the Coronado National Forest because of low copper prices that are expected to endure for several more years.