Environmental Impact Report Delayed by Rosemont Copper’s Failure to Comply with Agency’s Requests
According to an article published in the Arizona Daily Star, a letter sent by Arizona Senators John McCain and Jon Kyl along with Representative (and Senate candidate) Jeff Flake blames the Forest Service for the delay in the release of the draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) for the Rosemont Copper Mine in the Santa Rita Mountains southeast of Tucson.
This Congressional letter, however, does NOT disclose that Rosemont Copper has, in fact, contributed significantly to these delays. According to publicly available Freedom Information Act (FOIA) documents consisting of internal Forest Service emails and Rosemont project meeting documents, there is ample evidence that Rosemont Copper has slowed down this EIS process.
These documents refer to Rosemont’s “dawdling”, timeline delays resulting from Rosemont not providing needed reports, and that the Forest Service made “repeated request for reports” from Rosemont.
“As indicated by this letter, Senators McCain and Kyl and Rep. Flake are apparently more concerned about expediting the Rosemont Copper project to enrich their investors than ensuring that the devastating and permanent environmental impacts are analyzed”, said Frances Causey of Rosemont Mine Truth.
This information should certainly be picked up by our regional newspapers. Why has this information NOT been published or dessiminated by the local press?