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This coming weekend, February 25 to 27, marks one year since Native Americans started protesting a proposed copper mine an hour east of Phoenix. Citizens of the San Carlos Apache Nation have been staying around the clock at the Oak Flat campground, because they claim it’s sacred. The mining company behind the operation, Resolution Copper, says the project will create 3,700 jobs. While attention has focused on the mine itself and the occupation, one man says the debate is diverting attention from a much bigger environmental problem: namely, where the potential mining’s toxic waste will go.

Congress approved a land exchange to give 2,400 acres of the Tonto National Forest to Resolution Copper. In exchange, the company will give 5,300 acres of their land to the National Forest.

“The mine will be on private land, the mill will be on private land, but the tailings will end up being on public land,” said Scott Wood, a retired forest archaeologist with the Tonto National Forest. “And there are more than a few people that question why that the waste material from it should have to go on public land,” he said.

Tailings are a white, powdery substance that are “full of toxic minerals,” said Wood. “It’s not good to breathe.” Wood explained the waste will be generated from rock that is extracted from the proposed copper mine at Oak Flat. It will be crushed into the powder and, after the copper is removed, mixed with water to form a slurry pond that will ultimately pile into a large mound. Drivers on U.S. Route 60, which runs parallel to Queen Creek, will see a big, white pile of unnatural waste, he said.

Wood took me on a tour of the proposed tailings disposal area where the desert landscape is home to grazing cows, and active people. He stopped at a rare spring in the forest  he said collects valuable rainwater for wildlife. “Whatever’s right here is going to get destroyed,” he said. Due to the water scarcity and drought, Wood claimed many nearby residents are re-digging their wells because of dropping water tables.

“It’s going to have quite an impact on the way the people use the area, the way the animals use the area, and it’s always got the potential of leaking into the groundwater,” Wood further explained. “Of course if it’s covered with 500 feet of tailings there won’t be any wildlife right here. They’ll have to be somewhere else. But there aren’t many good waters out in this part of the forest.”

Wood added the 5,300-acre forest also holds unique archeological sites such as pit houses, small settlements, farming settlements, checked dams, and Apache sites.  

He said he’s additionally concerned about who will maintain the tailings site 50 years down the road after the miners leave. The Oak Flat Copper Mine is projected to have a lifespan of 40 years. Wood said even after that, the tailings disposal area will need to be well-engineered, protected, and maintained if it’s not to interfere with the rest of the landscape.

“Hardly anybody even knows about the fact that they’re going to have to dump tailings all over the place out here,” said Wood. “Maybe a lot of people don’t think about the desert as being an important place. But some of us do. And certainly the wildlife does. And the tribes that used to live here do. Five thousand acres of public land is a lot of land. And I think it’s certainly a topic worth some public discussion.”

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[/et_pb_image][et_pb_team_member admin_label=”Person” name=”Jourdan Bennett-Begaye (Dinè)” image_url=”https://kjzzearlyfellows.nextgenradio.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/29/2016/02/Jourdan.jpg” animation=”off” background_layout=”light” linkedin_url=”https://www.linkedin.com/in/jourdanbennettbegaye” header_font_size=”18″ body_font_size=”14″ use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]

Jourdan Bennett-Begaye is of the Diné (Navajo) Nation. She is currently pursuing her master’s degree as a Newhouse Fellow in the Magazine, Newspaper and Online Journalism Program at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University.

After receiving her B.A. in Athletic Training and English-Communications from Fort Lewis College, she co-founded the Survival of the First Voices Festival. She’s also a freelance writer and has been contributing to Native Peoples Magazine since 2014. In her free time, Jourdan helps out Native artists with their independent projects.

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This coming weekend, February 25 to 27, marks one year since Native Americans started protesting a proposed copper mine an hour east of Phoenix. Citizens of the San Carlos Apache Nation have been staying around the clock at the Oak Flat campground, because they claim it’s sacred. The mining company behind the operation, Resolution Copper, says the project will create 3,700 jobs. While attention has focused on the mine itself and the occupation, one man says the debate is diverting attention from a much bigger environmental problem: namely, where the potential mining’s toxic waste will go.

Congress approved a land exchange to give 2,400 acres of the Tonto National Forest to Resolution Copper. In exchange, the company will give 5,300 acres of their land to the National Forest.

“The mine will be on private land, the mill will be on private land, but the tailings will end up being on public land,” said Scott Wood, a retired forest archaeologist with the Tonto National Forest. “And there are more than a few people that question why that the waste material from it should have to go on public land,” he said.

Tailings are a white, powdery substance that are “full of toxic minerals,” said Wood. “It’s not good to breathe.” Wood explained the waste will be generated from rock that is extracted from the proposed copper mine at Oak Flat. It will be crushed into the powder and, after the copper is removed, mixed with water to form a slurry pond that will ultimately pile into a large mound. Drivers on U.S. Route 60, which runs parallel to Queen Creek, will see a big, white pile of unnatural waste, he said.

Wood took me on a tour of the proposed tailings disposal area where the desert landscape is home to grazing cows, and active people. He stopped at a rare spring in the forest  he said collects valuable rainwater for wildlife. “Whatever’s right here is going to get destroyed,” he said. Due to the water scarcity and drought, Wood claimed many nearby residents are re-digging their wells because of dropping water tables.

“It’s going to have quite an impact on the way the people use the area, the way the animals use the area, and it’s always got the potential of leaking into the groundwater,” Wood further explained. “Of course if it’s covered with 500 feet of tailings there won’t be any wildlife right here. They’ll have to be somewhere else. But there aren’t many good waters out in this part of the forest.”

Wood added the 5,300-acre forest also holds unique archeological sites such as pit houses, small settlements, farming settlements, checked dams, and Apache sites.  

He said he’s additionally concerned about who will maintain the tailings site 50 years down the road after the miners leave. The Oak Flat Copper Mine is projected to have a lifespan of 40 years. Wood said even after that, the tailings disposal area will need to be well-engineered, protected, and maintained if it’s not to interfere with the rest of the landscape.

“Hardly anybody even knows about the fact that they’re going to have to dump tailings all over the place out here,” said Wood. “Maybe a lot of people don’t think about the desert as being an important place. But some of us do. And certainly the wildlife does. And the tribes that used to live here do. Five thousand acres of public land is a lot of land. And I think it’s certainly a topic worth some public discussion.”

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[/et_pb_image][et_pb_team_member admin_label=”Person” name=”Jourdan Bennett-Begaye (Dinè)” image_url=”https://kjzzearlyfellows.nextgenradio.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/29/2016/02/Jourdan.jpg” animation=”off” background_layout=”light” linkedin_url=”https://www.linkedin.com/in/jourdanbennettbegaye” header_font_size=”18″ body_font_size=”14″ use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]

Jourdan Bennett-Begaye is of the Diné (Navajo) Nation. She is currently pursuing her master’s degree as a Newhouse Fellow in the Magazine, Newspaper and Online Journalism Program at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University.

After receiving her B.A. in Athletic Training and English-Communications from Fort Lewis College, she co-founded the Survival of the First Voices Festival. She’s also a freelance writer and has been contributing to Native Peoples Magazine since 2014. In her free time, Jourdan helps out Native artists with their independent projects.

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This coming weekend, February 25 to 27, marks one year since Native Americans started protesting a proposed copper mine an hour east of Phoenix. Citizens of the\u00a0San Carlos Apache Nation\u00a0have\u00a0been staying around the clock at the\u00a0Oak Flat campground, because they claim it’s sacred. The mining company behind the operation,\u00a0Resolution Copper, says the project will\u00a0create 3,700 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":287,"featured_media":318,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"project_category":[],"project_tag":[],"coauthors":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kjzzearlyfellows.nextgenradio.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/project\/170"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kjzzearlyfellows.nextgenradio.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/project"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kjzzearlyfellows.nextgenradio.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/project"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kjzzearlyfellows.nextgenradio.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/287"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kjzzearlyfellows.nextgenradio.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=170"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kjzzearlyfellows.nextgenradio.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/project\/170\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kjzzearlyfellows.nextgenradio.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kjzzearlyfellows.nextgenradio.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"project_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kjzzearlyfellows.nextgenradio.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/project_category?post=170"},{"taxonomy":"project_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kjzzearlyfellows.nextgenradio.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/project_tag?post=170"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kjzzearlyfellows.nextgenradio.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}