By Andrea Kelly | Arizona Public Media
The Arizona Department of Environmental Quality Wednesday issued the final state environmental clearance for Rosemont Copper Mine.
The state granted the mining company a conditional water quality certification for its proposed mine in the Santa Rita Mountains south of Tucson. The certification will permit the mining company to move some of the extracted dirt from its proposed open pit mine into nearby canyons.
The review is required by the federal government, said Linda Taunt, a technical adviser on water quality for the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality.
“There’s a section in the Clean Water Act that requires states to review federal permit applications or federal licenses to make sure that water quality standards are going to be protected,” she said.
