A federal judge has quashed a bid by three tribes and an environmental group to stop the ongoing work of Hudbay Minerals Inc. in grading and land-clearing on the west slope of the Santa Rita Mountains south of Tucson.
U.S. District Judge James A. Soto on Monday dismissed a lawsuit filed by the Tohono O’odham, Pascua Yaqui and Hopi tribes and Save the Scenic Santa Ritas “for lack of subject matter jurisdiction,” since Hudbay recently surrendered a suspended Clean Water Act permit it was issued for the Rosemont Mine.
In mid-April, the plaintiffs had sought a temporary restraining order and injunction to halt work Hudbay has begun on its Copper World mine project, near the Rosemont Mine site on the Santa Ritas’ east slope, as it prepared to file a lawsuit alleging the Copper World site should be subject to federal water regulations.
That effort is connected to the Clean Water Act permit because some of the land that would be graded for the Rosemont permit is also at issue for Copper World’s grading.
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Hudbay’s Clean Water Act permit for Rosemont was essentially suspended by a ruling issued by Soto himself in 2019.
Soto ruled that the U.S. Forest Service failed to validate Rosemont’s claims on the land where mine waste would be deposited as part of environmental studies supporting the permit issued by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in 2017.
Hudbay, which maintains that the Copper World site on private land doesn’t include washes subject to Clean Water Act authority, said it voluntarily surrendered its suspended permit for the Rosemont Mine in late April.
The Canadian-based mining company filed a motion to dismiss the tribe’s lawsuit for lack of subject matter jurisdiction because the claims are moot, citing its surrender of the water permit.
The tribes contended that the matter was not moot, since the permit is still the subject of the core dispute with the Corps of Engineers.
Mine tailings and Mill of the Copper World Mine during the 1950s.
Stu Gillespie, an attorney for three tribes, argued that there is no regulatory process to “surrender” a permit, that they can only be altered or revoked, and Hudbay’s move was an attempt to evade legal review.
But Soto sided with Hudbay.
“Because Rosemont has …….