Residents, conservation groups press city leaders over South32’s Hermosa draft EIS and local water impacts

Carolyn Schafer, a board member with the Patagonia Area Resource Alliance, told the Nogales City Council on Aug. 6 that the U.S. Forest Service’s draft environmental impact statement (DEIS) for South32’s proposed Hermosa Minerals Project fails to analyze key baseline and cumulative impacts and must be reissued.

The comments came during a 40‑minute presentation and an extended public comment period focused on water, air and public‑health risks from the Hermosa proposal. ‘‘Mega‑drought is real and species extinction is real,’’ Schafer said, summarizing the alliance’s review of the DEIS.

Why it matters: The DEIS is the federal government’s primary technical record under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). Schafer and a coalition of local, regional and national organizations — which she said produced a 221‑page comment package — told the council the DEIS understates or omits evidence on water availability, groundwater modeling, air emissions, biodiversity and tailings management.

Schafer said water is a…