Coronado National Forest faces exploratory drilling approval
Santa Rita Quarry - IMERYS
U.S. Forest Service· Coronado National Forest, Santa Rita Ecosystem Management AreaU.S. Forest Service project page ↗
Forest ServiceWe track this on the agency’s own system of record, where most on-the-ground decisions live.
The groups on this fight
4 groups work Arizona
By footprint, from the same match the STAND matchmaker runs; none is linked to this decision in our record yet. Give straight to them; nothing routes through us.
- Center for Biological Diversity
Works Arizona: tucson-based litigant that in 2003 pressured BLM to order Grupo Mexico/Asarco to remove an illegal pipeline, powerline, and road crossing the monument near the Silver Bell mine..
- Grand Canyon Trust
Works Arizona: intervened in federal court to defend the monument designation against the Arizona Legislature's lawsuit.
- Sierra Club
Works Arizona: the Grand Canyon Chapter has been co-plaintiff with Western Watersheds Project in the monument grazing litigation, including the 2021 case that produced the 2024 restricted-grazing plan..
- Western Watersheds Project
Works Arizona: sued BLM over monument grazing in 2008, 2013, and 2021, winning the August 2023 NEPA ruling that forced the December 2024 plan restricting grazing to short seasons in above-average precipitation years..
Every group above is on STAND for Public Lands, with its court record, its filings and who backs it.
The Forest Service is near-final approval of limestone exploratory drilling in the Santa Rita Ecosystem Management Area.
What’s at risk
Only people who submitted written comments during scoping are eligible to file a formal objection. At stake is 1.31 acres across 17 coreholes in the Coronado National Forest, disturbed to assess limestone deposits for potential future extraction.
If this goes through
The Forest Service would authorize a three-phase exploratory drilling program at the Santa Rita Quarry, laying the groundwork for confirming limestone reserves that could support future mining operations.
Our plain-English read of the official notice ↗. Check it against the agency’s own words below.
3 holes in the agency’s own analysis
What the public could have raised, from the agency’s own document
- I oppose this action as proposed, and I ask the agency to weigh the specific harms below.
- This environmental assessment covers a three-phase drilling program that would disturb 1.31 acres of the Coronado National Forest, and the public deserves a full review of what permanent damage that disturbance could cause to the Santa Rita Ecosystem Management Area.
- Splitting the pit expansion out of this analysis while approving the drilling that confirms limestone deposits undermines NEPA by fragmenting a connected project into pieces that avoid full environmental scrutiny.
- The Nogales Ranger District should not finalize approval of this Plan of Operations for Cimbar Resources until the scope of the full quarry project, including any potential pit expansion, is analyzed together in a single environmental review.
- Say something only you can say. The law requires the agency to consider and respond to substantive comments, and specifics are what make a comment substantive.
In the agency’s own words
Plan of Operations submitted by Cimbar Resources for three phases of definition drilling at the Santa Rita Quarry to confirm the presence, extent (volume), and assess the grade of limestone.
The reporting behind this
From More Than Just ParksIt’s referred to as Unit 346 in the Twin Mountain II Timber Sale. On the ground, it’s some of the most spectacular old growth we’ve ever witnessed, and it’s marked for clearcutting.
To document and do our part to save America’s greatest old growth forest
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