SSSR calls on Town Council to pass a resolution opposing the $18 million power line project at June 22 meeting
After more than six months of claiming the Santa Rita Connection had nothing to do with Copper World, the Tucson Electric Power Company has confirmed that the 138 kV power line extension will terminate at a jointly operated TEP-Hudbay Minerals substation that could relay power to Hudbay’s Copper World mine.
In a guest opinion column published Wednesday in the Green Valley News, Eric Bronner, TEP’s vice president of energy management, planning and development, stated a separate 138 kV power line approved in 2012 for the mine would connect to the jointly operated Santa Rita Substation.
More importantly, Bronner’s column shows TEP failed to clearly disclose the Santa Rita Connection’s direct linkage to Copper World to state regulators reviewing TEP’s pending application to construct the power line.
Bronner’s column also ignores the crucial question raised by Save the Scenic Santa Ritas of who will pay for the Santa Rita Connection, residential ratepayers or Toronto-based Hudbay? In other words, are residential ratepayers being set up to subsidize the cost of delivering power to Copper World?
We still don’t have the answers to these questions.
TEP will appear before the Sahuarita Town Council at next Monday’s meeting to discuss the Santa Rita Connection and its ties to Copper World. The meeting begins at 6 p.m. at the town hall located at 375 W Sahuarita Center Way.
“The council now has the opportunity to set the record straight by passing a resolution opposing TEP’s application to construct the Santa Rita Connection pending before the Arizona Corporation Commission,” said SSSR Executive Director John Dougherty.
“The resolution should request the commission to require TEP to resubmit its application and fully disclose the relationship between the Santa Rita Connection and Copper World.”
The public should demand the council holds TEP – and its staff – accountable for failing to disclose the Santa Rita Connection’s ties to Copper World.” — John Dougherty
TEP and Sahuarita have tried since early this year to hide the direct linkage between the Santa Rita Connection and Copper World.
TEP, with Sahuarita’s assistance, repeatedly claimed the Santa Rita Connection is needed to provide reliable power to 14,000 residential customers. The company never mentioned that Copper World could require 138 megawatts of power, enough to meet the average demand for more than 68,000 homes.
TEP hid Copper World’s role in the Santa Rita Connection during a Jan. 26 Sahuarita Town Council meeting. The obfuscation occurred in response to a leading question by Mayor Tom Murphy that reinforced TEP’s cover story that the power line was for “future capacity and growth, this is not connected to Hudbay in any way, is it?”
“No, it is not,” Christopher Ortiz y Pino, TEP’s Project Manager for Siting, Outreach and Engagement replied.
The public first learned about TEP’s plan to power Copper World after SSSR uncovered a March 12 email exchange between Sahuarita’s development services director and Ortiz y Pino.
The emails revealed the plan to build the joint TEP-Hudbay substation that would include a connection to the mine. They also indicate that town staff may have known about this as early as Jan. 12 when staff met with TEP to discuss the power line and Copper World.
TEP included the emails in a late 57-page regulatory filing that was made public less than six hours before a May 26 public hearing before the Arizona Power Plant and Line Siting Committee.
Sahuarita Town Manager Shane Dille assisted TEP in keeping the information about the joint substation and its connection to Copper World out of the public eye.
Dille did not disclose this information in his May 11 staff report to the council and the public when TEP provided an update to the council about the Santa Rita Connection. Once again, there was no mention of Copper World during TEP’s council presentation.
“The public should demand the council holds TEP – and its staff – accountable for failing to disclose the Santa Rita Connection’s ties to Copper World,” Dougherty said.
SSSR recommends the council requests TEP to disclose how much of the power delivered through the Santa Rita Connection could potentially be used by Copper World versus residential ratepayers.
And the council should also ask TEP how much money Hudbay will contribute to the cost of building the Santa Rita Connection that is an essential component of the company’s plan to construct the Copper World mine.
Hats off to you John! we appreciate you are doing to prevent a disaster from happening
in Sahuarita!