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BISBEE — A legal step toward addressing groundwater pollution from the Freeport McMoRan Copper Queen Mine in Bisbee was announced Friday by the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality.
ADEQ and then-Freeport McMoRan president Tim Snider on Nov. 13 signed a “mitigation order on consent” to limit the amount of sulfate present in wells surrounding the Bisbee mine, extending south into Naco, Ariz., to a standard of 250 parts per million.
A public advisory group established under the consent order will meet Tuesday in Bisbee.
The Bisbee mine complex includes, in part, the Lavender open pit, which has been closed since 1975; acid leach processes, tailings and overburden piles; and 2,300 miles of tunnels and shafts dating back to the 1870s that extend south into Mexico.
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Company data and ADEQ reports indicate the tunnels are filling with water at a rate of about 10 feet per year. Some computer models have predicted the tunnels would fill up and mix with groundwater by about 2028 if no more mining or other large scale pumping took place.
The sulfate problem has been known for more than 20 years. In 1986, in response to a request by rancher, and then Bisbee mine superintendent, Jack Ladd, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency declared the groundwater between the mine and the Mexican border at Naco a “sole source aquifer” that would provide pollution protection. In the process of doing so, the EPA and ADEQ discovered an underground “plume” of sulfates, total dissolved solids and other contaminants extending over about 20 square miles south of the mine. The pollution was moving in a southerly direction.
The pollution was attributed to tailings piles south of the Warren area of Bisbee. Sulfate was in excess of 1,000 ppm was present in some private wells, four times the limit called for in the consent order. Sulfate levels of 2,950 ppm were found in wells on the south end of company property.
ADEQ states in the order that most sulfate well data dates back to 1997, but that in October 2005, a Naco Water Co. well in Bisbee Junction had 460 ppm. Arizona Water Co.’s Naco water wells, which provide drinking water to Bisbee, have never had high sulfates.
Uranium-based compounds also were present in Copper Queen Mine monitoring data from the 1980s and 1990s at levels beyond what are now Arizona and EPA standards on Phelps Dodge property, and at much lower levels in private wells. They are not addressed in the consent order.
Sulfates can cause diarrhea, particularly to babies and the elderly in cases and aggravated where dehydration takes place. There is neither a state nor federal health-based drinking water standard for it, only an “aesthetic” secondary standard. The EPA first proposed a sulfate standard in 1972.
Since 1989, ADEQ and Phelps Dodge, which was purchased by Freeport McMoRan, have been negotiating for one or more “aquifer protection permits” for the Copper Queen Mine. The permits are the agency’s enforcement tool for controlling discharges from industrial facilities to protect groundwater quality.
The consent order, ADEQ spokesman Mark Shaffer said, “mirrors a similar requirement imposed on Phelps Dodge by ADEQ at Phelps Dodge’s Sierrita Mine near Green Valley. The order also requires FMI (Freeport McMoRan) to provide quarterly status reports to ADEQ and to establish a community advisory group to keep community members informed of the company’s activities.”
Both consent orders were negotiated separate from water quality permits with the state “superfund” department known as the Water Quality Assurance Revolving Fund.
“The order applies to all drinking water in Bisbee and Naco … (Freeport McMoRan) has been supplying bottled water to some customers of the Naco Water Company in Naco,” Shaffer said. “Other steps (Freeport McMoRan) might take for Bisbee and Naco include treating the water, finding alternative water sources, or mixing or blending water sources so that water intended for drinking meets the specified sulfate level.”
Freeport McMoRan is expected to inventory wells and sulfate levels and complete a report “in about a year” how they will ensure that drinking water standards, including the 250 ppm sulfate standard, will be met. Freeport McMoRan would pay fines of between $5,000 to $8,000 a day per violation of the standard.
About the group:
Members of the advisory group are:
• Russ McConnell, Bisbee public Works director
• Steve Pauken, Bisbee city manager
• Vaira Harik and Alexandra Heth from Cochise County Health Department Environmental Health Division
• Terry Garner of Bisbee
• Peter Campbell and Joe Garcia of Naco
• Fred Schneider from the Phoenix office of Arizona Water Co.
• Bonnie O’Connor of Southwest Utilities Management, manager of Naco Water Co. wells in Naco and Bisbee Junction.
The group will have its first meeting at 9 a.m. on Tuesday at the Bisbee Convention Center/Copper Queen Plaza in Room 204. The meeting is open to the public.
DICK KAMP is Wick Communication Co.’s environmental liasion.
