The following message is meant as a template for expressing opposition to the BAAJA to Senators Kelly and Gallego. You can contact the senators on their websites using the buttons below. Please feel free to tailor and personalize the message below by copying & pasting it into another document.
MESSAGE:
Dear Senator Kelly/Gallego:
I respectfully urge you to vote NO on the Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act, or BAAJA.
The proposed bill, which has not had any hearings nor consultation with local governments or tribes, would radically weaken the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), the
National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA), the Clean Water Act (CWA) and the
Endangered Species Act (ESA).
The bill also contains the Mining Regulatory Clarity Act, or MRCA, which, if passed, would undermine the landmark “Rosemont Decision” that prevented Toronto-based Hudbay Minerals from turning Arizona’s Coronado National Forest into a mining waste dump.
Hudbay announced its formal approval of the Copper World mine in an Oct. 21 press release, and with it published a legally-required “Definitive Feasibility Study.” The DFS details Hudbay’s plans for the mine.
While the Canadian corporation has been using the slogan “Arizona Copper. Made for America,” as part of its marketing campaign, the DFS reveals that Hudbay is abandoning its promise to produce finished copper on site and sell directly to U.S. customers. Southern Arizona will be robbed of our natural resources by a foreign company who will ship one-hundred percent of the copper concentrate to be smelted overseas.
Hudbay also revealed in the DFS that the size of the mine is currently limited by a lack of space to dump mine waste, or tailings. If the BAAJA, thus also the MRCA, is passed, Hudbay will be enabled to bury the Coronado National Forest in toxic tailings piles and greatly expand the footprint of the mine. If the mine expands, so too does the rabid consumption of our limited groundwater as well as the health impacts for nearby communities.
While electrification and national security remain poised as the benefits of the BAAJA, the actual impacts of passing this bill will be devastating to southern Arizona. Our aquifers will be depleted, our air polluted, and our public lands destroyed, without the once-promised supposed “upside” of bolstered domestic copper supply.
The risks to Pima County and Southern Arizonans are too great. The BAAJA must not pass.
I respectfully urge you to vote NO on November 9th to protect your constituents, our natural resources, and our way of life against the ills of foreign greed.
I’m vehemently opposed to Copper World processing their copper away from site, where the finished copper is sent overseas!
We live across Highway 83 from the proposed copper mine. The pollution from tailings with blow between the Santa Rita Mts. & Empire Mts. like a wind tunnel towards Vail/Tucson. We’ve lived out here since 1972 & area has been referred to as “wind tunnel” because how the Mts. funnel the wind. ALSO they would drain our wells. Ours sits at 565 feet to reach water & with the study done by previous mine owner our water HAS NOT BEEN REPLENISHED since before 1st nuclear bomb tested. NO RADIOACTIVE in our water.
PLEASE SAY NO!!!!!
No to leaving mine waste on our lands!!!
Please vote No on BAAJA. thank you.