A Tucson-environmental group sent notice Wednesday it intends to file a lawsuit against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service over the agency’s “biological opinion” issued in April that concluded the proposed Rosemont mine would not jeopardize the survival of a dozen threatened and endangered species, including the nation’s only known wild jaguar.
The Center for Biological Diversity filed the required 60-day notice of intent to sue under the Endangered Species Act challenging the service’s biological opinion that removes a major obstacle in Toronto-based Hudbay Minerals Inc.’s plans to build the Rosemont open-pit copper mine.
“The Rosemont mine would be a fatal blow for an array of plants and animals already teetering on the brink of extinction,” says CBD conservation advocate Randy Serraglio.
“Jaguars can’t survive without water and neither can the endangered fish and frogs living in the area’s creeks and springs,” Serraglio states. “The fact is, there’s no way they’ll be able to escape Rosemont’s destruction.”
The CBD states that Fish and Wildlife’s own scientists concluded in draft biological opinions that the Rosemont mine should not be permitted, but the agency’s superiors ignored their findings in issuing its final approval.
The Rosemont mine would blast a mile-wide, 3,000-foot-deep open pit on the northeast flank of the Santa Rita Mountains in the Coronado National Forest 35 miles southeast of Tucson.
The nation’s only known wild jaguar has made the site its home territory. The jaguar, named El Jefe by Tucson school children in a poll conducted by CBD, could face serious injury or death because of the project.
The mine would bury 3,000 acres of surrounding public land with more than a billion tons of toxic mine waste. The mine would also pump a vast amount of groundwater, which threatens to dry up springs and creeks in the area that are critically important to jaguars and several other protected species.
The Arizona Game & Fish Department is downplaying the significance of the presence of the jaguar in the Santa Rita Mountains.
“The jaguars are a unique component of Arizona’s wildlife, but when you look at the species as a whole, I’m hard-pressed to say we play a significant role given the lack of animals in the past 50 years or 100 years,” Game and Fish’s Jim deVos told the Arizona Daily Star in a June 24 story.
“Having a jaguar in Arizona is neat, but from a population standpoint it is completely insignificant,” deVos stated according to the Daily Star.
Save the Santa Rita wildlife, and HudBay packing back to Canada.
THE GOVERNMENT AUTHORITIES , ASSIGNED TO MAINTAINING THE WELFARE OF THE NATION’S ENVIRONMENT , NATURAL RESOURCES , WILDLIFE AND ALL OF MOTHER NATURE’S TREASURES , HAVE FALLEN INTO A ” BOTTOMLESS PIT ” WHERE THEY RUN , CRAWL , HOP , FLY AROUND IN CIRCLES AND GO NOWHERE WHEN IT COMES TO MAKING WELL- PLANNED , MEANINGFUL DECISIONS . THE ROSEMONT PROJECT IS NOT BEING DEALT WITH IN A DECISIVE MANNER AND AS A RESULT , HUDBAY IS BEING GIVEN MORE AND MORE CHANCES TO DELAY THE PROJECT . THIS JUGGLING ACT IS COSTING THE TAX PAYERS DEARLY . BASED ON THE COMMENTS REGARDING THE JAGUAR’S FATE , IT BECOMES EVIDENT THAT IT MUST BE A ” MEXICAN ” JAGUAR AND THEREFORE EXPENDABLE .