Florence Loses Her Water -- Part 2

Fracking Florence for Copper

Curis Resources is using a controversial "hydraulic fracturing" process, otherwise known as fracking, to obtain copper in an electro-deposition mining operation in a largely residential area of Florence, Arizona. (see previous post)  The fracking process jeopardizes the potability of Florence's water supply.  Although Curis claims that the sulfuric acid/water solution used to dissolve copper is no stronger than vinegar, I'd challenge Curis executives to pour it over their holiday salads.  

Curis Resources Florence Copper Project will use a fracking 

process which has been shown to create misery and severe

 health concerns for nearby residents.

Among the list of players, below, the first two are principals in this drama...the last three are prophetic icons of what may occur if the promises of safety made by Curis Resources go awry. 

Curis Resources Ltd., a Canadian company and subsidiary of Hunter Dickinson Inc., with operations in the United States. The firm is beginning an in-situ copper mining process that entails injecting a water/sulfuric acid mixture into a copper ore body and extracting the mixture through an otherwise pure aquifer. First, however, the ore is pulverized or fracked to make it more available to the acid solution.

 

Florence, Arizona, a quiet small town known for ranching and farming and on the verge of development that would make it as large as Tucson. Florence uses the aquifer through which Curis Resources is drilling/fracking.

_______________________

Silent Spring, written by Rachel Carson, has been out slightly over 50 years.  First published in September, 1962, the book created a sea-change in the ecological infra-structure of America.

Orion Magazine, an eclectic publication with a subtitle of “NATURE / CULTURE / PLACE” used its September/October issue as a loose celebration of Rachel Carson, broad environmental issues, and commentary on the relationship between people, corporations, and their relation to the environment.

BP’s Deepwater Horizon off-shore drilling platform had an unanticipated blowout killing 11 people and subsequently paid the largest fine of its type in US history.

Where will this situation end?  Despite all good intentions, Florence will get fracked, all for a $2.50 / lb. metal.

Florence Loses Her Water

Curis Resources is in the process of exploiting a major copper discovery within a residential area of Florence, Arizona.  The mining company plans to do this with a controversial "in-situ" process that may destroy potability of the aquifer that supplies water to this major community of Arizona.

The Arizona Department of Environmental Quality granted Curis a permit to inject "billions of pounds of sulfuric acid into the subsurface in close proximity to an aquifer that supplies drinking water wells presently servicing approximately 83,000 people, and that will ultimately supply drinking water to thousands of more residents of a master-planned residential subdivision..."

The facts are straight forward; the implications, less so.

Curis Florence Copper Mine Project "in-situ" mine site.
 Curis employee inspects wellheads that inject "recovery 
solution" (sulfuric acid) and retrieve "copper-bearing" 
solution.

As claimed by Florence residents, "...uranium  mining companies using similar extraction methods in Texas, Colorado and other states have never been able to restore the aquifer to pre-mining conditions....There is no enforceable backup plan to save our water aquifer if it is damaged or destroyed and, if the company goes bankrupt, there is no way to get our water back."

Curis employee explains that Curis' mining payroll will 

benefit Florence residents.  Curis will gain copper and the

city of Florence will lose it's water.  

The "Florence Copper" mine project might be more palatable to residents if the activity of the mining company was held, not to design specifications, but to performance specifications.  In other words, if drilling specifications were set out in such terms as, 1. we plan to drill in such a way as not to harm the aquifer or, 2. we will re-mediate any damage we cause. Instead, representations of the well are shown below.

 Probable arrangement of injection/retrieval wells.

Mining activity was triggered when copper reached $2.50/lb. The question is whether copper is worth more than water?