The Pima County Board of Supervisors is scheduled to vote on December 16 on an ordinance to require permits and daily limits on the number of heavy trucks that can travel across unpaved county roads. The county believes this ordinance can improve air quality countywide and help meet federal clean air standards.

A secondary benefit of the ordinance would be to limit the daily number of heavy trucks that could cross seven miles of the unpaved Santa Rita Road between Sahuarita and Hudbay Minerals’ Copper World mine site on the northwestern flank of the Santa Rita Mountains.

The Santa Rita Road bisects the state-protected, 52,000-acre Santa Rita Experimental Range, one of the most important open-space research centers in the United States that is required by law to be managed for “ecological and rangeland research.” The county states the Santa Rita Road should remain unpaved.

UPDATE - Oct. 16, 2025 - At an Oct. 8 meeting with Pima County, State Land Commissioner Robyn Sahid told county officials that the land on the western base of the Santa Rita Mountains will be auctioned next year.

The Arizona State Land Department is considering selling 160 additional acres to Copper World, where they intend to dump mine waste, known as tailings. Please write to Governor Hobbs TODAY, asking that she instruct Commissioner Sahid NOT to put this land up for auction. 

The proposed Copper World mine will unleash a torrent of heavy trucks hauling copper concentrate, sulfuric acid, and other toxic chemicals across the Santa Rita Experimental Range and right through downtown Sahuarita on their way to and from Highway 19. These semi-trailer trucks and mine commuter traffic will be a huge inconvenience and safety risk for anyone living near Sahuarita. Note: background photo is of a haul truck at Hudbay's Constancia mine in Peru. Courtesy John Dougherty

Use this constituent letter to contact elected officials and urge them to voice opposition to the Copper World mining project