Sharon Bronson is a member of the Pima County Board of Supervisors, a Democrat from District 3. She is president of the County Supervisors Association of Arizona.

Other articles by Sharon Bronson:

Colo. oil-shale debate must involve other states

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Everready Glass
Sales Reps Health Care
CENTRAL ARIZONA COLLEGE
DIRECTOR OF HEALTH INFORMATION MANAGEMENT Finance and Accounting
Charles E. Gillman Company
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Dependable Health Services
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Printing

As we enter the new year with new administrations imminent in both Washington and Arizona, we have a unique opportunity to approach how best to protect our watersheds and keep them healthy, preserve our Sonoran Desert wildlife habitat and continue to provide recreational opportunities for us and for future generations, while operating within today's economic realities.

Over the last several years our region's public lands and watersheds have come under real and potential threat from inappropriate land- use decisions made at the state and federal level regarding mineral leases and mining activities in the Santa Rita Mountains near Davidson Canyon and Cienega Creek.

Augusta Resource Corporation is proposing to operate Rosemont Mine in the Coronado National Forest near the Cienega Creek Natural Reserve and Conservation Area, while California Portland Cement has been granted new mineral leases on State Trust land west of Davidson Canyon and the Bureau of Land Management is considering granting a federal mineral lease to the company on the east side of the canyon.

These same areas have received the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality's "Outstanding Waters of Arizona" designation and are listed as Biological Core and Important Riparian Areas and contain critical landscape linkages as identified in the Sonoran Desert Conservation Plan. Moreover, local taxpayers have invested millions of dollars in open space acquisitions to forever preserve these unique natural places.

Surely, the special designations afforded these lands should have earned them increased protection. But this has not occurred.

The state environmental determination had no impact on the Arizona State Lands Department decision to grant California Portland Cement a mineral lease. And while almost all Federal Reserves in our region are closed to mineral exploration, more than 200,000 acres of the Coronado National Forest in Pima County, including the Santa Catalina Mountain Range and the Santa Rita Mountain Range remain open to mining entry.

Add to this the Bureau of Land Management's decision to consider the less rigorous Environmental Assessment in lieu of an Environmental Impact Statement for the federal action of granting a mineral lease to California Portland Cement.

What is clear is that the policies of various federal and state agencies are often at odds, that inter-agency communication is minimal and that agency decisions are often narrow in scope, failing to consider the broader regional, long-term impacts these decisions will have on local residents.

Complicating an already frustrating situation is that the amount of input these bureaucracies seek from the affected public has diminished significantly and when made available as required by law, it is often ignored. At the same time, local jurisdictions' abilities to influence the actions of state and federal regulatory bodies continue to erode.

Public meetings regarding mineral leases for Rosemont Mine and Davidson Canyon have been well attended with strong opposition to those leases voiced by most of those in attendance. Reasons for opposition included inadequate reclamation and mitigation of past activity, negative public health effects, impacts to water quality and quantity, air quality concerns, invasive species threats, and the inherent riskiness of mining in today's global economy.

Recently, when the Pima County Board of Supervisors reviewed the issuance of an administrative floodplain permit to California Portland Cement for possible revocation, it became clear that the board had no statutory authority or legal basis for revocation.

While recognizing that mining will always be a part of Arizona's economy, we must acknowledge that there simply are places where mining is not appropriate — places like the Cienega Creek Natural Reserve and Conservation Area and Davidson Canyon. We cannot continue to embrace past mining practices that leave our communities in economic chaos and environmental crisis.

We should ask that Congress and our public regulatory agencies act now, not decades later, to lessen the negative impacts of mining by requiring concurrent reclamation, rigorous dust control methods for tailings, roads and motor vehicle operations. We should request that they mandate water quality and water sustainability measures be incorporated into any mining operational plans.

Lastly, we should ask federal and state regulatory agencies to increase their transparency, be more open to local jurisdictional and public input, and demand that they review their conflicting policies and revise those policies to resolve those conflicts in ways that maximize the public good and restore public trust.

It is an opportune time for the new administrations to bring the change we need in how federal and state agencies manage our lands and cooperate with local governments and taxpayers.