A proposed copper mine in Tucson is awaiting federal approval. The south Arizona mine that would have and output of 234 million pounds of copper per year is stuck in limbo as it waits for permit applications to be passed. The Rosemont Copper mine is located 30 miles south east of Tucson on private and public land in the Santa Rita Mountains.
The Rosemont Copper mine needs to file a formal permit application with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to gain a permit for the mine under the federal Clean Water Act. A permit denial would result in the scrapping of the project.
The permits are commonly called the 404 permits as they are based on the Section 404 of the Clean Water Act. The permit is sought regularly from the the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for projects that include subdivisions, roads, bridges, shopping centers and anything thing similar which would cause discharge of fill material into rivers, washes and wetlands.
The mine would need to gain permission to build diversion structures to reroute the water which is currently running in washes and around proposed mining facilities such as the open pit. The permit is needed for placement or discharge of fill material into rivers, streams, washes and adjacent wetlands that fall under the corps' legal jurisdiction.
Patrick Parenteau, a Vermont Law School professor said that the fact that someone has a right to mine does not mean they have a right to discharge. Patrick Parenteau was a former attorney for the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Wildlife Federation who has done extensive Clean Water Act-related litigation.