Dust kicks up along Santa Rita Rd, Hudbay tasked with creating a dust mitigation plan
We have been in regular communication with the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ), Pima County DEQ, and the Arizona State Land Department to get a mitigation plan in place for the road dust along Santa Rita Rd leading up to the Copper World project site.
What has become quite confusing (and frustrating) is that, while State agencies issue permits for these mines to operate, road dust from the project site is not monitored or addressed. ADEQ is only claiming responsibility for the project site, and road dust has fallen to Pima County DEQ, who has been scrambling to establish jurisdiction and develop a response plan.
We’ve received the following responses from our complaints:
ADEQ // Dust on Project Site: ADEQ explained to us that Copper World was granted an Air Quality Dust Activity Permit in April 2024, which is different from the Air Quality Permit, granted on January 2, 2025. After hearing from us, ADEQ conducted a site inspection and concluded that “no alleged deficiencies were noted during the course of the inspection.” We are reviewing this report closely, but you can read the full inspection report here.
Pima DEQ // Dust on Santa Rita Rd: We’ve been told that a working group will be formed in February that will work on developing a dust mitigation plan. The group will be led by ADEQ, Hudbay, Pima County, and the Town of Sahuarita. Jerry Bustmante from Hudbay is in charge of bringing this group together and there should be progress on this in February. SSSR is following up on this effort regularly, and pushing for resident concerns to be heard.
From Pima Department of Environmental Quality: “The initial process will consist of PDEQ air compliance doing weekly field assessments of Santa Rita road traffic and associated dust along with gathering other information and data necessary to determine the best path forward. Additionally, the information and data collected can assist the working group developing the dust mitigation plan for Santa Rita road.”
If you would like to submit a concern of your own directly here:
Issue at Copper World project site >> ADEQ Complain Form
Dust along Santa Rita Road >> Contact PDEQ
Current Activity
This begs the question of what activity Hudbay has already started that is kicking up this much dust? To that end, you can read a list of activities from an inspection conducted by ADEQ on December 16, 2024. View the inspection here.
Additionally, thanks to one of our key partners, Erick Meza (Sierra Club Borderlands), we were able to get some footage of current activities at the Copper World site. View the video here.
This footage is from Friday, January 10, 2025. Below, find some of the key observations:
Water was being spread in the road by a Pima County water truck.
Road work, mostly flattening and widening.
Heavy machinery and semi trucks going back and forth every 10 minutes with different types of loads (this includes both Copper World and Cimbar operations).
Different types of invasive plants such as buffelgrass and wild tobacco in many areas, especially where dirt is being moved around and mature trees bulldozed.
Sierra Club Site Visit, January 10, 2025
Erick Meza (Sierra Club Borderlands)