{"id":1469035,"date":"2024-01-28T14:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-01-28T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/grist.org\/?p=628238"},"modified":"2024-01-28T14:00:00","modified_gmt":"2024-01-28T14:00:00","slug":"is-the-southwest-too-dry-for-a-mining-boom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2024\/01\/28\/is-the-southwest-too-dry-for-a-mining-boom\/","title":{"rendered":"Is the Southwest too dry for a mining boom?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
This story was originally published by Inside Climate News<\/a> and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk<\/a> collaboration.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n One by one, leaders from across Arizona gave speeches touting the importance of water conservation at Phoenix City Hall as they celebrated the announcement of voluntary agreements to preserve the declining Colorado River in November.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When Tao Etpison took the mic, his speech echoed those who went before him. Water is the lifeblood of existence, and users of the Colorado River Basin were one step closer to preserving the system that has helped life in the Southwest flourish<\/a>. Then he brought up the elephant in the room: Arizona\u2019s groundwater protection was lacking, and mining companies were looking to take advantage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe two largest foreign-based multinational mining companies in the world intend to construct the massive Resolution Copper Mine near Superior,\u201d said Etpison, the vice chairman of the San Carlos Apache Tribe. \u201cThis mine will use, at a minimum, 775,000 acre feet of groundwater, and once the groundwater is gone, it\u2019s gone. How can this be in the best interests of Arizona?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The question is one the state and the Southwest must answer. Mine claims for the elements critical to the clean energy transition are piling up from Arizona to Nevada to Utah. Lithium is needed for the batteries to store wind and solar energy and power electric vehicles. Copper provides the wiring to send electricity where it will be needed to satisfy exploding demand. But water stands in the way of the transition, with drought playing into nearly every proposed renewable energy development, from solar to hydropower, as the Southwest debates what to do with every drop it has left as the region undergoes aridification due to climate change and decades of overconsumption. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Mining opponents argue the proposals could impact endangered species, tribal rights, air quality and, of course, water\u2014both its quantity and its quality. Across the Southwest, the story of 2023 was how water users, from farmers in the Colorado River Basin<\/a> to fast-growing cities in the Phoenix metropolitan area<\/a>, needed to use less water, forcing changes to residential development and agricultural practices. But left out of that conversation, natural resource experts and environmentalists say, is the water used by mining operations and the amount that would be consumed by new mines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The San Carlos Apache Tribe has fought for years<\/a> to stop Resolution\u2019s proposed mine. It would be built on top of Oak Flat, a sacred site to the Apache and other Indigenous communities, and a habitat of rare species like the endangered Arizona hedgehog cactus, which lives only in the Tonto National Forest near the town of Superior. The fate of the mine<\/a> now rests with the U.S. District Court in Arizona after the grassroots group Apache Stronghold filed a lawsuit to stop it, arguing its development would violate Native people\u2019s religious rights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But for communities located near the mine and across the Phoenix metropolitan area, the water it would consume is just as big of an issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Throughout the mine\u2019s lifespan, Resolution estimates it would use 775,000 acre feet of water\u2014enough for at least 1.5 million Arizona households over roughly 40 years. And experts say the mine would likely need far more. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cBy pumping billions of gallons of groundwater from the East Salt River Valley, this project would make Arizona\u2019s goal for stewardship of its scarce groundwater resources unreachable,\u201d one report commissioned by the San Carlos Apache Tribe reads. In one hydrologist\u2019s testimony to Congress<\/a>, water consumption was estimated to be 50,000 acre feet a year\u2014about 35,000 more than the company has proposed drawing from the aquifer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Resolution copper mine isn\u2019t the only water-intensive mining operation being proposed. Many of what the industry describes as \u201ccritical minerals,\u201d like lithium and copper, are found throughout the Southwest, leading to a flurry of mining claims on the region\u2019s federally managed public lands. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWater is going to be scarcer in the Southwest but the mining industry is basically immune from all these issues,\u201d said Roger Flynn, director and managing attorney at the Western Mining Action Project, which has represented tribes and environmental groups in mining-related lawsuits, including the case over Oak Flat.<\/p>\n\n\n