Chapter 3 of the convoluted story concerning Rosemont Copper Corporation and their attempt to manipulate Elections.

I have researched Mr. Sean Collins and found  a background with discrepancies in relation to the comments he  makes during his campaign. The largest plank in his platform is there is too much government spending and too many government handout programs. He complains that five of the biggest six employers in Pima County are government entities and there are too many federal handouts and programs giving money to the citizens.

His website has changed lately, but something is still on  that bears note:

Quote from website

Sean Collins, a Vail businessman and “2000 recipient of the Military Hero of the Year Award”, is challenging 15 year incumbent, Ray Carroll, in the Republican primary election on August 28th.

Quote ends

Military hero of the year award, how can one get much better than that?

The first time I read that, it gave the impression that I was researching the background of a man who must’ve charged a machine-gun emplacement with a grenade in each hand. Then I found out that the military hero of the year award 2000, was given by the local Red Cross for pulling a woman from a wrecked car. I checked the latest hero awards for 2012 and one of them was for a lady who rescued someone because they were choking on their dentures. Mr. Collins changed his website and if you continue to read, you will find that it says that the award, Mr. Collins received was by the local Red Cross. I do find the statement somewhat self-serving and misleading. As a matter of fact I found it downright deceptive!
I had a communication with Mr. Collins and asked him several questions:
1     Did you retire from the United States Air Force and now have government retirement?
2    Did you file bankruptcy?
3    Did you go over budget on your Dairy Queen?
4    Did you take a special loan from the United States government for veterans?
5    Did your Dairy Queen cost approximately $600,000?
6    Are you taking donations from Rosemont copper?

The answer to all  of the questions is yes. This seems a rather strange background for someone who claims to be fiscally conservative, and concerned about the people in district four. An individual who has trouble running a Dairy Queen does not seem to be fiscally conservative enough to be involved with tthe $1.2 billion budget of Pima County. Mr. Collins  expounds upon the excessive government and excessive government spending. He promises to curb the spending, reduce the budget and  ensure  we have plenty of water.

Well, the facts sometimes are a little different than the promises. He complains about Davis Monthan and all the government employers in Pima County. He retired from the military at Davis Monthan Air Force Base, the base which he says is carrying too much of our employment.

When he went over budget on his ice cream parlor (Dairy Queen),the only thing that saved him was a special Federal Government Loan program that covered loans that were high risk and lower interest rate. Ah yes, he was the first one in Pima County to get that type of loan.

He filed bankruptcy, blaming it on his first wife. He divorced her and remarried.

He is now working at Fort Huachuca military base on a government project and contract.

He is taking contributions from Rosemont copper for his campaign,  yet I don’t know of any meeting that he  had with the opposition to the mine. Many of his desired constituents are very much against the proposed open pit copper mine in the Coronado National Forest.

I have repeatedly asked Mr. Collins for an interview and have been ignored. I suppose I must fall back on the age-old journalism response of, “we offered him an interview and he did not respond.” Perhaps everyone does not find this behavior unusual for a politician but I find it unusual for someone who wants to be my representative. So for a man that derides the federal government and its programs, he does seem to utilize many of them.

On Mr.  Collins website, collins4supervisor.com, there is a paragraph related to an organization named “Tucson Regional Economic Opportunities” (TREO). The following is an excerpt from that web site.

Quote from the Collins website

The economic development organization of the area, Tucson Regional Economic Opportunities (TREO), is primarily funded by the City of Tucson and Pima County. Since TREO’s funding is primarily through these government entities and the County opposes the Rosemont Copper project, they are unable to support Rosemont Copper and the $700 million in economic development the operation will bring to Pima County.

End of quote

 

Reading the paragraph would lead one to believe that (TREO) feels they must knuckle under and kneel before the County Board of Supervisors, so they will not lose their financing when in actuality the paragraph is a contrived and untrue statement. The organization is a public and privately funded organization. Their policy is they do not “endorse” any specific project. They receive 58% of their money from private donations and 42% from various public organizations. Stressing the word various, Pima County contributes only 18% of their finances.

 

Mr. Collins almost makes you believe that the organization (TREO) is ineffective primarily due to a cut in funding. Nothing could be further from the truth. The following are some of the accomplishments of TREO for the year.

 

Metrics                                  one year 7/11 – 6/30/12

total new direct and

indirect job supported      2,964

capital investment             $63.7 million

total economic impact      $350.7 million

number of companies       15 companies

national earned media      3.5 million

These are hard facts, not half true one-sided campaign statements. Mr. Collins should be regretful for his statement concerning such a a hard-working organization.

Another comment from Mr. Collins website is the following:

Quote from Website

Add to this the recent report that Arizona has the second highest average sales tax rate in the nation and it is easy to see why it is too expensive to do business here in Pima County.

End of  quote

 

Actually, this is an untrue statement as it’s only half true. Arizona is number nine in the nation concerning sales tax, not the second. The following charts will illustrate total tax in Pima County. It can be agreed that the tax is higher than the average citizen would like it to be but what is misleading is to use the term Pima County. Actually Pima County’s tax rate is quite low concerning the sales tax.

 

Pima County, state and local retail sales tax.

State       County      Tucson      total rate

6.60        .50               2.0        9.1 %

Maricopa County

state       County      Tempe       total rate

6.60        .70                2.0         9.3%

Santa Cruz County

state       County      Patagonia   total rate

6.60        1.00             3.0        10.600%

Tucson as an example, has a combined total rate of 9.1% of which only .5% is County tax. Mr. Collins has grandiose statements concerning balancing the budget, one wonders what he intends to change about the sales tax to accomplish that

Quote from campaign website

Learn more about my involvement with the Vail Community Action Board

VCAB Statement

I have been asked a few times about my participation in the VCAB

(Vail Community Action Board)

and I would like to clear up any misconceptions regarding my membership.

After I saved a pregnant woman from a catastrophic accident, I hurt my back, requiring surgery and physical therapy. The physical therapy and recovery time from this surgery prevented me from being able to attend the requisite number of meetings as required in the by-laws of the organization. As a result of these missed meeting, I was not able to sustain my membership but was told, once ready I could return to being a full time member. The VCAB is very important to me and I look forward to returning as mutually agreed at some point in the future.

End of  quote

 

Now for the analyzing of the statement; this incident occurred, as far as I can research, in the year 2000. When he pulled a woman from the wrecked car the local Red Cross and I stress the word local, awarded him Military Hero of the Year 2000. The reason being military hero, is he happened to be in the military at the time working in the weather department.

The surgery and physical therapy, as far as I can tell and research, since Sean Collins will not give me an interview, occurred last year. Over a decade after the incident he has to have surgery and therapy. Not to make light of it but I would’ve understood it better if it had occurred closer to the time period.

Now we get to the Vail Community Action Board: Mr. Collins only attended two or three meetings, and he was told that he would have to reapply for membership, but it was not the guaranteed return that he tries to imply. He failed to attend the meetings and he failed to perform his duties. The bylaws of the Vail Community Action Board are quite specific about missed meetings, either excused or not.

 

Chapter 2 of the convoluted story concerning Rosemont copper Corporation and their attempt to manipulate County, State and Federal Government Elections. More unusual than it would seem,  the positions of County supervisors are very important in monitoring the Rosemont copper (Augusta resource) permit applications. Understanding this it appears that the Rosemont copper mine’s intention is to try to remove Supervisor Ray Carroll from office because he will not bend to their will.

 

It’s amazing how the children’s game of “rumors” can be applied so closely to real life.

The rules of the game are:

Rumors

The first person has a rumor of 3 to 4 sentences whispered in his ear.  he whispers this rumor in the next players ear and this is repeated several times. What is the outcome after all players has gotten the rumor? The resulting story is always different.

The PR work being spread and performed by the representatives of Rosemont copper are somewhere in the same pattern. Spread a rumor, watch it grow and mutate as it goes from organization to organization.

I will give 2 simple examples:

1. Rosemont pays for advertisements that  tries to convince the public that Rosemont copper is the number two tourist attraction in Arizona.

2. Rosemont claims 2100 jobs will be produced from the proposed open pit mine.

Who amongst the organizations has tried to verify that number? Large major corporations operating mines in the Tucson area (Sierrata) claim a number of less than 2.2 indirect to direct. Rosemont copper is claiming in excess of 4.18. How is it that a working mine (with accounting procedures in place) is only able to produce a little over 50% of the percentage Rosemont claims?

 

My answer to those two examples has to be the organizations really don’t want to admit the truth to those they are responsible to. Union leaders hang on the number, like magic they believe that it will hold the members in the union. Those whose jobs it is, and responsibilities it’s supposed to be, to generate new employment for Pima County jump on the number and then point at the Pima County Board of Supervisors and say, “it’s their fault, it’s their fault. If it weren’t for them we would have these jobs” …. Misdirection, half-truths and sometimes just a lie.

 

Rosemont Copper Corporation, child company of Augusta resource has on file at this moment in time over 3000 job applications. Does everyone think they’re going to run out to the National Forest and get a job with Rosemont Copper? On the other side of the coin, Sierrata Mining has at least 40 jobs open. This is employment they cannot find qualified workers for.

 

In today’s marketplace of advertising it appears there is someone, somewhere who will take money to spread these rumors. I don’t really believe I need to list every Corporation that is doing so, either information radio or news broadcast who are slaves to the Rosemont PR dollar.

 

In District 4 of the Pima County Board of Supervisors we have a representative in Ray Carroll who honestly cares about his constituents and the effects of some of this misleading advertising. Because of this, and because he truly wants to represent his constituents Mr. Carroll is being ambushed and attacked by coalition after coalition. These groups are the same organizations and coalitions that will not take the time to actually research out the Rosemont copper project.

 

One example of this attack and ambush is from the radio talk show on KNST during the morning of the 25th. One small part of the audio was utilized on the 27th during the talk show with Southern Arizona Business Coalition organizers Rick Grinnell and Bill Assenmacher. That portion of the audio from the 25th was edited by the talk show host to make it appear that supervisor Carroll was more contentious and rude than he actually was.

 

When I started this blog in the Tucson citizen. I was told one of the primary rules was not to edit comments, I could delete a comment, but I could not change it. I would have thought the talkshow host, Garrett Lewis, would have also been under the same restrictions. Garrett Lewis is scheduled to be the moderator of a debate between supervisor Ray Carroll and challenger Sean Collins on August 2. From what I’ve seen so far, Mr. Lewis will not be what one could consider neutral.

 

Supervisor Carroll, thank you for representing your constituents and thank you for being an honest politician.

 

 

 

 

 

May 2, 2011 a fire was started in the Greaterville area by an employee of Rosemont copper. The fire investigation should have been a straightforward short process. The president and CEO of Rosemont copper, Mr. Rod pace, admitted the fire began by a welder employed by Rosemont. From the information available that welder was working by himself during one of the worst fire seasons in Arizona’s history. The report from Rosemont copper stated that welder was working on a broken bracket at a well site, why did not the welder use the water available to pre-soak the work area. That fire consumed approximately 2200 acres before being extinguished.

I began my request for information from the United States Forest Service Law Enforcement Division and was told they could make no commentas it was an active investigation. That was five months after the fire. My next contact was Mr. Jim Upchurch, Forest supervisor of the Coronado national Forest. He referred me to the Phoenix office of the United States Attorney’s office with the comment “The case that you mentioned is at the US Attorney’s Office for review.  We would not release any information concerning this case without their approval. ”

After several days of trying to contact Phoenix office, with little success, I was told by an employee that the United States Attorney’s Office could neither confirm nor deny that such a case existed. Eventually I was able to contact Mr. Manuel Turango, the Public Affairs Officer in the Phoenix United States attorney’s office. Initially his response was that he would have to give me the same response the previous employee had given me, “We can neither confirm nor deny that such a case exists.” When I informed him that I had been referred by Mr. Jim Upchurch his response was “who is Mr. Upchurch?” I told Mr. Turango he was the Forest Supervisor of the Coronado national Forest and the head of the office that submitted the case to the United States Attorney’s office. Mr. Turango Then informed me that he would have to check into it. Mr. Turango contacted me one time to inform me that he was checking it out.

That was the last contact I had with Mr. Turango despite several phone messages and e-mails.

Many of us are aware of the term Catch 22, this seems to be a fine example of Catch 22 as you can find no information from the forest service nor from the United States Attorney’s office because of the continuing investigation. It would seem to be less nefarious and suspicious if someone, anyone associated with our Federal Government simply said “Rosemont started the fire.”

The granting of the permits for the proposed open pit copper mine is contingent upon many requirements. One of those requirements is to follow and obey all relevant state and federal regulations. Is this an example of how Rosemont will follow regulations and also an example of how our federal government will treat violations, to simply ignore it and sweep it under the rug?

The wheels of justice are said to turn slowly but I would think there is a difference between turning slowly and what is happening with the investigation of the fire started on May 2 by Rosemont copper in the Greaterville area. Today marks six months since the fire and no information is available from either the United States forest service or the United States Attorney’s Office in Phoenix. The date is November 2, 2011 which makes it an extraordinary example of a slow process in our legal system.

For perspective this fire burned the equivalent in acreage of a square that would extend from Speedway to 22nd St. going north and south and from Kolb to Craycroft going East to West.

TENORM, an acronym for a process as dangerous as it is mysterious. The entire name of it is, ” Technologically Enhanced Naturally Occurring Radioactive Material”. A well-known phenomenon by the agencies that are supposed to protect the citizens from environmentally hazardous material.

The subject was brought to the attention of the forest service during the scoping comments on the proposed open pit Rosemont copper mine in the Santa Rita mountains. An example was also pointed out in relation to the uranium plume in the Green valley neighborhood. So far I can find no example of the subject being discussed in any of the freedom of information act documents released by the forest service.

At a recent meeting in Corona De Tucson a representative from Pima County Department of environmental quality stated his primary objective was to evaluate dust control. References were also made to the limited number of personnel available. If their primary concern with the Rosemont copper proposal is a dust control then who is going to evaluate the potential effects of radiation enhancement? We are now at the beginning of public comments concerning the Pima County permit for the proposed open pit mine, perhaps we should inquire of the Pima County Department of environmental quality who is studying and evaluating this potential problem.

Following are some excerpts from that report compiled by the United States EPA and the Arizona Department of environmental quality. The data show that dump leaching operations and solvent extraction – electro winning procedures, as well as the practice of recycling raffinate at copper mines may extract and concentrate soluble radioactive materials,  the results show increases of up to two orders of magnitude over background levels for all radio chemicals tested except R– 222.

Nearly all rocks, soils, and water contain small amounts of radioactive materials such as uranium, thorium, radium, radioisotopes of potassium, lead, polonium, and their decay products. When naturally occurring radioactive materials in their undisturbed natural state (NORM) become purposefully or inadvertently concentrated either in waste byproducts or in a product, they become technologically enhanced naturally occurring radioactive materials (TENORM). TENORM is defined as any naturally occurring radioactive materials whose radionuclide concentrations or potential for human exposure has been increased above levels encountered in the natural state as a result of human activities.

The EPA and other regulatory entities have become increasingly aware of the immense volume of TENORM produced annually throughout the United States. The potential threat posed by these wastes cannot be dismissed as below radiological concern or below exempt concentration levels. TENORM concentrations often reach levels comparable to typical low-level radioactive waste.

At the dead center of the patented mining claims owned by Rosemont copper, and more specifically dead center of the proposed open pit, there is an abandoned mine, the King mine. It is located in section 24, Township 18 S., range 15 E. and this mine is specifically noted in the report concerning TENORM.

The King mine is an old silver and copper underground operation south of Tucson. The mine is situated in a contact alteration zone, where pitchblende occurs with sulfide ores in quartz-calcite gangue in pockets along a limestone/quartz monzonite contact. Assays show uranium ranging from 0.14 to 0.93 percent. This number is it’s (NORM) natural state. The TENORM numbers after processing will be much higher.

The regulation of radioactive waste has generally been limited to the atomic energy act, the clean air act, the safe drinking water act, and the comprehensive environmental response, compensation and liability act

EPA has been working with the Arizona Department of environmental quality to assemble the available data on TENORM and metal mining sites in Arizona. As part of its groundwater and surface water  protection programs, they require mining companies to submit aquifer protection permit applications that include facility specific radiological characterizations. As a result, ADEQ and EPA have accumulated in excess of 3200 analysis of radionuclides at 15 mining sites in the copper industry.

Levels in excess of the federal maximum contamination level and state guidelines were found in groundwater and surface water samples, as well as soil and sediment samples and abandoned and active copper mines. TENORM exceedances were also found in groundwater at active and inactive copper mines.

The solvent extraction process acts to concentrate TENORM. Technological advances in SX – EW procedures have created new waste streams that were not assessed in earlier EPA studies. The natural leaching process tends to extract and concentrate radioactive materials in the acid mine drainage at waste dumps. Dump or heap leaching operations also extract and concentrate the soluble radioactive materials.

The impacts of copper mining are noteworthy because of the unique conditions, such as the presence of trace uranium minerals and the mining and extraction methods that unintentionally extract radioactive materials and enhance its environmental mobility.

Several Arizona copper ore bodies are either too deep or are too low-grade to be mined by conventional surface or underground methods. There are several in-situ solution copper mines in the Arizona copper mining belt. High levels of TENORM have been found in the PLS of two in-situ leach operations in Arizona.

Typically, an in-situ copper mining company will be required to undergo a joint ADEQ-EPA permitting process. EPA issues a federally-administered Class III Underground Injection Control (UIC) permit and an aquifer exemption permit that focus on the subsurface injection and restoration activities. ADEQ initiates an APPA process that focuses on both subsurface activities and the surface facilities and impoundments.

A proposed operation must meet both of the following two criteria for an aquifer exemption: 1) the aquifer must not currently serve as a source of drinking water and 2) the permit applicant must demonstrate that the deposit contains minerals that are expected to be commercially producible. The permit covers the construction, operation, and eventual closure of the injection and recovery wells system and surface facilities and impoundments. The permit also defines the lateral and vertical boundaries of the proposed aquifer exemption.

This information and much more, a total of 124 pages, is available to the general public in report number EPA 402 – R – 99 – 002 .The US Environmental Protection Agency released report number EPA 402 – R – 99 – 002 in October of 1999.