Excerpt from a press release from the Center for Biological Diversity:
Tribal and conservation groups sued the U.S. Forest Service Friday to stop a land trade that would hand over thousands of acres in the Tonto National Forest in central Arizona to a London-based mining company. The Oak Flat area, considered sacred by Apache and other Native people, would be destroyed by multinational mining company Rio Tinto for a massive copper mine.
“Without a doubt, the proposed mine presents a huge threat to water quality and water supplies for our region, since the mine would create a crater more than a mile wide and 1,000 feet deep, deplete billions of gallons of water and destroy the environment and ancestral lands that are sacred to tribes in Arizona,” said Shan Lewis, vice chairman of the Fort Mojave Indian Tribe and president of the Inter Tribal Association of Arizona. “For our 21 member tribes, the COVID-19 pandemic has put a magnifying glass on the fundamental need to protect and preserve healthy water supplies in Arizona.”
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Phoenix, says the Trump administration violated federal law by failing to properly analyze and mitigate the proposed mine’s potential damage to waters, national forest land and wildlife. It also failed to apply the correct laws and regulations, including ignoring public input provisions, to infrastructure needed for the mine.
“Given the overwhelming pressure applied to the Forest Service from the highest levels of the Trump administration, it is no wonder that the agency’s analysis is fatally flawed,” said Roger Featherstone, director of the Arizona Mining Reform Coalition. “We are asking the court to throw out the final environmental analysis and restore the process that should have been followed to protect Oak Flat and thousands of additional acres of precious land from Resolution Copper’s failed experiment.”
The Trump administration fast-tracked the Jan. 15 publication of a final environmental analysis, which triggers the land exchange with Rio Tinto so it can build the Resolution Copper mine at Oak Flat.
“Trying to force this decision before leaving office, the Trump administration put the interests of multinational mining corporations above those of Indigenous and local communities in Arizona,” said Pete Dronkers, southwest circuit rider with Earthworks. “The former administration’s rushed and flawed review unlawfully ignores the concerns expressed by the area’s tribes and communities. We join these mining-impacted communities to ask the court to put a stop to this injustice.”
Oak Flat has been used for centuries by Apache and other Native people for ceremony, sustenance and habitation, and ceremonies are still conducted there. Several tribes consider it sacred, including the nearby San Carlos Apache Tribe, which filed suit Jan. 15 to challenge the land exchange. Oak Flat is also a popular campground and recreation area, with stunning scenery and world-renowned rock climbing. It and the surrounding lands are important habitat for a diverse array of wildlife, including migratory and endangered birds as well as endangered plants and fish.
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