Copyright 2000 Phoenix Newspapers, Inc.
THE ARIZONA
REPUBLIC
June 4, 2000 Sunday, Final Chaser
SECTION: VALLEY & STATE; Pg. B1
LENGTH: 678 words
HEADLINE:
STATE A LEADER IN MINE WASTE;
BUT NUMBERS MAY MISLEAD
BYLINE: By Judd Slivka, The Arizona Republic
BODY:
One complex of Arizona copper mines produces
more waste than 47 of the nation's 50 states.
Another Arizona mine
produces more waste than Oregon, Iowa and Oklahoma combined. In fact, because of
hardrock mine waste, Arizona has had more toxic releases than any state but
Nevada.
The numbers, recently released by the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency, suggest that the decades of prosperity generated by hardrock
mining in Arizona have come at a price. How big a price is in dispute.
The data were released by the agency as part of its annual Toxic Release
Inventory. The newest numbers are from 1998, and show the hardrock mining
industry - copper, silver, gold, etc. - as the nation's leading producer of
toxic materials.
But each side is wielding the numbers for its own
purposes.
An environmental group has taken those numbers and claimed it
is time for change, that the hardrock mining industry needs to clean up. The
industry says that it released the numbers last year and that the substances,
for the most part, are naturally occurring.
The EPA, which compiles the
numbers, is careful to say that factors other than the number of pounds of
hazardous materials released need to be considered.
"The question is,
'Are they harmful or aren't they?' " said Jim Kuypers, consulting engineer for
the Center for Science and Public Participation in Montana.
"Here in
Montana, we have 10 of 13 mines that will require water-quality treatments in
perpetuity. Forever. We don't know what mines' impact in Arizona will be."
In Arizona, most of the toxic material is in waste rock, excavated rock
with such low concentrations of copper that it isn't viable to extract it.
Instead, the mining companies grind it up and leave it in piles on their
property.
By definition, those piles are toxic: They contain naturally
occurring copper, antimony, barium, cadmium, cobalt and lead.
But mining
officials say: So what?
"They're reportable because they're on the EPA's
list. But in the way they're handled and stored, they're pretty safe," said Clay
Allen of Phelps-Dodge, whose Morenci mine released 142 million pounds of toxic
materials last year.
But to industry watchdog Alan Septoff, the very
fact that the material is coming out of the ground is an issue.
"It
directly points to the problem of toxics in the environment," said Septoff, of
the Washington D.C.-based Mineral Policy Center. "If they weren't taking the
materials out of the ground, they wouldn't be exposed to the environment."
Some of those toxic substances would naturally leach into the ground,
critics say, but taking them out and exposing them to the elements hastens the
process.
"A lot of waste rock will generate acid," Kuypers said. "Acid,
in turn, causes materials to leach."
That process, known as acid mine
drainage, has been associated with environmental problems in the gold-mining
industry in the northern Rockies.
But Edward Hollop, a former official
with the U.S. Bureau of Mines and an industry consultant, thinks that
responsible reclamation is the key.
"I'm not going to say there might
not be problems where minute amounts of copper could move around," he said. "But
if it's handled correctly, there should be no problem."
Still, the EPA
numbers are dramatic.
Asarco's Mission Complex in Sahuarita alone
reported 336 million pounds of releases in 1998, more than the total toxic
releases in all states but Nevada, Arizona and Utah. The Cyprus Amax Sierrita
mine in Green Valley reported 123 million pounds of toxic stuff, about 4 million
pounds less than the entire reported releases in North Carolina.
But
what does it mean?
Even the EPA, which fought a long war with industry
to get the releases reported at all, is struggling to put the numbers in
context.
"A pound of toxic materials does not equal a pound of risk,"
said Patricia Monahan, the EPA's Toxic Release Inventory coordinator for the
West.
"For people to make a determination, they have to look at what the
chemical is, at how it was released. People really need to look at all the
factors."
GRAPHIC: Color chart by Tony Bustos /
The Arizona Republic (Missing; See microfilm); Top mining waste producers
LOAD-DATE: June 6, 2000 
