A three-judge panel heard arguments on Wednesday inside the Ceremonial Courtroom at the Sandra Day O’Connor U.S. Courthouse in downtown Phoenix over continuing a court-ordered injunction blocking a controversial land exchange.
That pending land swap between the U.S. Forest Service and a multinational mining company would result in a six-decade underground copper project that is estimated to create a two-mile-wide crater, devouring an Apache holy site called Oak Flat.
It’s been 140 days since the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals delayed the land swap first approved by Congress more than a decade ago — with help from the late Republican Sen. John McCain.
According to the law passed in 2015 — better known as the Southeast Arizona Land Exchange and Conservation Act — more than 2,400 acres of the Tonto National Forest must be turned over to Resolution Copper within 60 days of a final environmental impact statement being published, which happened in June.
Plaintiffs in three different cases include the Arizona Mining Reform Coalition, San Carlos Apache Tribe, and a group of Apache women and girls. Defendants asked for the injunction to be lifted, which could lead to an immediate public land transfer.
The judges did not say when their decision will be made.
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Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren made his third annual state address in Shiprock on Tuesday, outlining his administration’s accomplishments amid ongoing efforts to remove him from office before his term expires this year. -
Tribes are still figuring out how to start and finish renewable energy projects amid the Trump administration freezing or eliminating federal dollars from the Biden-era Inflation Reduction Act, which directed more than $720 million to Indian Country. -
Scientists, writers, artists and others with an interest in the Colorado River got together recently in Moab, Utah, for an event called Rivers of Change. -
As currently written, the proposed EPA rule would narrow the 1972 landmark law’s enforcement with estimates suggesting that 80% of the nation’s wetlands could be at risk. -
During this week’s annual conference of water users in Las Vegas, a pair of Arizona tribes inked a new proclamation in hopes of setting an example for how other Basin states could operate when it comes to conserving the Colorado River.
