Grant County Tyrone mine closure plan

Location: Silver City/ Grant County

Opposing Parties: Freeport McMoRan

Initiation Date: 2001

Status: On-going - The NM Water Quality Control Commission directed NMED to determine which parts of the aquifers underlying the mines are “places of withdrawal” where water quality standards must be met. NMED must make this determination and reevaluate the permit conditions in light of its determination within 18 months.

Clients/Partners: Gila Resources Information Project (GRIP)

Attorneys: Bruce Frederick

Issues:

Ensure future remediation and bonding of Phelps Dodge mine (5th largest open pit mine in U.S.) in Grant County. UPDATE: NMED and Tyrone settled, but the settlement is contingent on several future events, such as promulgation of copper mine discharge permit regulations and granting of variances. NMELC will continue to monitor the situation in behalf of GRIP.

Latest News:

12/22/2010 - NM Environment Department announces settlement with Freeport McMoran on the longstanding appeal associated with closure requirements for the Tyrone copper mine in Grant County, N.M. Get PDF of NMED press release.

03/06/2009 - Freeport McMoran filed an appeal to the decision from the Water Quality Control Commission to uphold the groundwater discharge permit requirements.

01/13/2009 - After four years of litigation, including an excursion to the NM Court of Appeals and a year of “executive session” deliberations by the NM Water Quality Control Commission, the Commission issued its decision on January 13th, 2009 regarding the groundwater discharge permit that the Environment Department (NMED) issued in 2005 to Phelps Dodge Mining Co., now Freeport McMoran.  The decision is significant for the protection of New Mexico’s groundwater.

The permit requires that the company clean up its extensive and deep groundwater pollution, which spans two aquifers.  Two of the permit conditions require the company to regrade and cover all of the exposed tailings, waste rock and ore at the site, encompassing nearly 10,000 acres of land. After the permit was issued, Phelps Dodge sued over those permit conditions. Although it did not dispute that the piles will continue to be sources of groundwater contamination for centuries to come, the company argued that it had the right to pollute the groundwater beneath its property. 

The Commission made several important determinations that rejected the arguments presented by the company and its numerous experts.  Most importantly, the Commission stated unequivocally that land ownership and control of the land surface are not relevant to determining whether groundwater will be used in the future.  Instead, it directed the NM Environment Dept. to only consider objective factors such as aquifer characteristics, present use of water, pre-mining water quality, and reasonably foreseeable use of the groundwater at issue over a time horizon of at least the next 100 years.