CORRECTION: In an earlier post, RMT incorrectly reported that a Pima County Superior Court judge ordered Rosemont Copper Company to submit an amended air quality permit application within 30 days. In fact, the court has given Rosemont the opportunity to resubmit its application within 30 days. Rosemont has indicated it will resubmit the application.
Pima County Superior Court Judge Kenneth Lee has given Rosemont Copper Company 30 days to submit a complete air quality permit application to Pima County and for the county to make a decision on the application in a timely manner.
In a July 5 ruling, Judge Lee determined that Rosemont Copper’s application failed to include citations to all applicable air quality requirements, and therefore was incomplete and needed to be resubmitted.
The ruling clears the technical and procedural issues that have delayed the county’s decision on Rosemont’s request for an air quality permit to operate the proposed Rosemont Copper mine on the Coronado National Forest south of Tucson.
Pima County rejected Rosemont Copper’s air permit application in September 2011 for being incomplete. Last January, Rosemont Copper challenged the county’s decision by filing suit in Pima County Superior Court.
Judge Lee ruled that Pima County acted in an “arbitrary and capricious” manner when it rejected Rosemont Copper’s application because the county had not rejected other air quality permit applications that did not include the citations to all applicable air quality requirements.
But the court let stand the requirement that Rosemont’s application include the citations and set a 30-day deadline for the company to do so.
The court also denied Rosemont Copper’s request for summary declaratory relief and summary judgment. In doing so, the court did not rule on any of Rosemont’s other arguments, including a legal issue over whether state air quality standards or Pima County’s air quality standards apply to Rosemont’s permit.
The Arizona Daily Star reported that Rosemont intends to submit air quality applications to both the county and the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality.
A copy of the Judge’s decision can be downloaded here.
