Santa Cruz County Watchdog
Awareness, Accountability, Action
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Santa Cruz County Watchdog is dedicated to helping residents, government, academic, environmental, and mining interests find equitable solutions to mining challenges
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From the USDA Forest Service website – “Water is one of the most important commodities on Forest Service lands, and the cleanest water flows from healthy, forested watersheds. The most effective way to approach ecological issues is to consider them at a watershed level.” You can read more here. We must hold the Forest Service…
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From the USGS website: “Nature-based solutions provide benefits to both nature and people, simultaneously addressing the issues of climate change and biodiversity loss. The Department of the Interior (DOI) manages more than 480 million acres of natural and working lands in the United States, presenting a significant opportunity to leverage nature-based solutions to contribute to…
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There has been a lot of talk about how much water South32 has been approved to discharge at the Hermosa Project as part of its dewatering program required to access critical minerals. In fact, the US Forest Service has approved South32 to extract and discharge up to 6.5 million gallons of water per day at…
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South32 will do whatever the US Forest Service (USFS) tells them to do. It’s up to us to ensure that the USFS mandates the best solution for all stakeholders, not the least expensive or easiest to implement. And the best way to do that is for all of us to lobby our publicly elected officials…
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The General Mining Act of 1872 is a United States federal law that authorizes and governs prospecting and mining for economic minerals, such as gold, platinum, and silver, on federal public lands. It was signed into law by President Ulysses S. Grant on May 10, 1872, to promote the development of the nation’s mining resources.…
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In the South32 Landowner Agreement contract proposal sent to landowners, South32 states that South32 will ‘ensure safe access to and use of a suitable replacement water source based onLandowner’s prior existing water uses.’ While this provision of the contract proposal does guarantee access to water, it does not provide for any change in a landowner’s…
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The phrase “lies, damned lies, and statistics” was popularized by Mark Twain in his 1907 work Chapters from My Autobiography. Statistics are not inherently lies, but they can be used to create misleading or incorrect conclusions through data manipulation, data selection, or the improper use of statistical methods. In the South32 Landowner Agreement contract proposal…
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The USDA Forest Service Hermosa Critical Minerals Project Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) identifies a ‘cone of depression’ up to 58 square miles in size around the mine which will be created by a dewatering program required to access minerals for extraction. Per the DEIS, the ‘cone of depression’ will intersect SH82 south of Patagonia…
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Here is a 10-minute USGS video that perfectly describes how we can responsibly use Mine dewatering discharge for the benefit of our community and the environment. https://www.usgs.gov/media/videos/re-greening-a-dryland-watershed Discharging water into the headwaters of washes surrounding the Mine, will recharge the Santa Cruz River and Harshaw Creek.
Santa Cruz County Watchdog 