On July 9, 2010 at the Inter-Tribal Council office in Phoenix, the AZ Tribal Council and we met with the representatives of the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) regarding the concerns of the quality of water in our region and affected areas in the state. As I mentioned in earlier releases, we, the Tribal Council, are constantly keeping a watchful eye and we take the necessary precautions in order to do what is in the best interest for our people, in terms of economy, social settings and our natural resources.

Our livelihood relies heavily on our natural environment, therefore we will take the necessary measures to protect them. We all assume that the federal, state, local county and surrounding township governments take care of or can fully be responsible for our natural resources but it is also our mission to keep a vigil out for anything that may have a negative impact or effect on our natural resources and surrounding areas.

Why has it become more important? As we all are aware, mining companies have caused vast destruction to the natural environment in many parts of the country, including our areas. More often than not, mining companies’ interests are to take what they want from the high natural mountains and naturally clean waters. What is the end result is leaving behind contamination and metal toxic wastes and the local people to deal with.

Presently, Rio Tinto/Resolution Copper is requesting two permits from ADEQ. One permit is called storm water discharge permit. The permit works like this: when a heavy rainstorm happens, floodwaters and drainage resulting from the storm often collect toxic heavy metals, like copper, arsenic, beryllium along with other hazardous mine substances from the tailings and impoundments located on the mine site. If the storm is severe enough, the mine usually will not have built a big enough storage reservoir to retain these contaminated waters at the mine site. Therefore, under the storm water permit, ADEQ will allow Rio Tinto/Resolution Copper to discharge these storm waters, despite the fact that they contain heavy metals and other toxic things, into the Valley communities such as Queen Creek, under certain terms and conditions.

The second permit is an Aquifer Protection Permit (APP) that Rio Tinto/Resolution Copper needs in order to pump water that has collected in its mine shafts over the years into Queen Creek. The removal of this water from mine shafts and tunnels is called “mine de-watering.” This is done in order for the shafts and tunnels to keep dry for mining activities. The problem with this is that the water which has been sitting in the shaft or tunnels is often polluted with heavy metals and other toxins, making it dangerous to drink or to discharge into the water supply without special treatments. This is the case with Shaft No. 9.

Although both federal and state laws are in place to protect our natural environment, reality indicates that the mining companies are sometimes exempt from these laws with special permits issued by both state and federal governments. This is the part that puzzles me including many local people, Arizona Indian Tribes, national groups and organizations that care for the natural environment.

It is unfortunate that the federal, state and local governments may not be fully informed of all the details or completely failed to pay attention to any warnings when it comes to our natural environments. Case in point, the Gulf of Mexico disaster could have been prevented, had federal authorities not neglected their responsibilities in protecting the natural resources. As a result of the negligence and acknowledgement of irresponsibility in the Gulf of Mexico, a high ranking federal official of the Mining Mineral Services (MMS) has been forced to resign and several other MMS employees have been fired or have quit. The Inspector General’s (IG) issued a report which indicated a widespread of inappropriate gift-giving from the mining industry to MMS and described the unlawful activities as a “culture of ethical failures.”

I might add that it has been reported, “MMS officials received bonuses for issuing exploration leases — while the agency ignored warnings from scientists about the environmental risks.”

If states and federal governments fail to live up to their responsibilities as trustees of the natural resources then who will?

Here at the home front, we as your Tribal Council work hard to prevent any kind of disaster to our natural resources. We keep a close eye on any developments which may affect our people and our livelihood. Our way of life is just as important as of those people that reside in our region, therefore we are concerned for the people in Globe, Miami, Superior and neighboring towns as well. The younger generations, our children, our grandchildren are being raised on these homelands just as we did and it is our mission to protect what our people before us did in order for us to appreciate what we have today. It is our homeland and all of us are dependent on the natural resources for life such as the sun, water, air, plant and animal life.

On a county, state, national and international level we as your Tribal Government continue to monitor very closely the relationship and further development between Rio Tinto/Resolution Copper and Arizona Department of Environmental Quality. These relationships between the two organizations as well as the arrangements they will formulate will have a profound impact on all the people who live in this part of the state. It is very important that they both comply and adhere to the strict federal laws that are established to protect the environment and the people. We certainly hope that they do not engage in a “culture of ethical failures” and that they do everything in the best interest of the people. We don’t want to see anything comparable to the Gulf catastrophes in our homelands and have a foreign company like BP or Rio Tinto/Resolution Copper improperly regulated and destroying homelands for millions of animal, plant, and human livelihood for years to come.

We the Tribal Council will continue to do what is best for our people. We continue to appreciate your encouragement and your prayers.