Copyright 2000 Phoenix Newspapers, Inc.
THE ARIZONA
REPUBLIC
September 6, 2000 Wednesday, Final Chaser
SECTION: VALLEY & STATE; Pg. B5
LENGTH: 232 words
HEADLINE:
DECISION TO ALLOW MINING NEAR LAKE APPEALED
BYLINE: By
Judd Slivka, The Arizona Republic
BODY:
A coalition
of environmental groups is appealing the Environmental Protection Agency's July
decision to permit a copper mine to operate in a scenic area near Roosevelt
Lake.
Local and national environmentalists have been working since 1995
to keep the Carlota Mine from being built, arguing that water coursing through
the mine's waste rock dump could worsen local water quality. In
July, the EPA issued a wastewater permit for the site the last regulatory hurdle
for a site plan that would divert Pinto Creek from its present path in order to
mine a copper deposit beneath the natural stream bed.
As part of the
agreement with the EPA, the mine's owner, Montreal-based Cambior, Inc., agreed
to mitigate its own damage to the environment by cleaning up some of the mess
from an abandoned mine nearby, which has been leaching copper into Pinto Creek
since it was shut down a decade ago.
But environmental groups -
including the Washington D.C.,-based Mineral Policy Center and local chapters of
the Sierra Club and the Audubon Society - have objected to the new mine's
opening at all, saying that even with the cleanup of the older mine, the Carlota
site would still pollute the area.
Pinto Creek runs 28 miles from its
headwaters in the Tonto National Forest into Lake Roosevelt.
The permit
appeal will be heard by the EPA's Environmental Appeals Board in the coming
months.
LOAD-DATE: September 18, 2000
