By Curt Prendergast | Arizona Daily Star
A federal judge ruled Tuesday the U.S. Forest Service erred in allowing a mining project to move forward without a detailed environmental review.
In her ruling, U.S. District Court Judge Rosemary Marquez in Tucson said the drilling likely would exceed the one-year period required for a categorical exclusion to environmental assessment. Therefore, the Forest Service’s decision to grant the exclusion was arbitrary and capricious, she ruled.
The Sunnyside Project was slated to begin on Oct. 1 and included drilling six 6,500-foot holes so mining company Regal Resources USA Inc. could explore the copper content of a national forest area about 5 miles south of Patagonia.
