On April 23, 2025, Pima County released a new Memo to the Board of Supervisors. In it, Jan Lesher, Pima County Administrator, provides an update on Hudbay’s Copper World project.
Topics discussed:
- Project Permitting Status
- Santa Rita Road Dust Mitigation
- Pima County Blasting Permit
- Dark Sky – Lighting Complaint
- Water Quality Monitoring
- S.544 – Mining Regulatory Clarity Act
Perhaps most shocking, early testing has already found evidence of water contamination just from the the exploratory work and road construction. See excerpt from pgs. 4-5.
“More recently, there were unanticipated increases in metal contaminants in the water, including dissolved copper, lead, arsenic, and zinc. Although high concentrations occur primarily in storm flow, the elevated concentrations of contaminants in base flow samples have been found as well, suggesting a degradation in the water quality.
Dr. McIntosh hypothesizes that the increased metals concentrations might be related to growing disturbance of the metalliferous soil associated with ground preparations for the Copper World Project. The below series of photos show the increased disturbance of the mountaintop during this sampling period showing increased metal concentrations.”
Read or download the full report here
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