Residents urge county to reserve right to file more NEPA comments on Jaramosa mine, cite water, traffic and air risks

Public commenters at the June 17 Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors meeting urged the county to preserve its ability to submit additional responses during the federal NEPA review of the proposed Jaramosa Critical Minerals Project and flagged what they described as gaps in the project’s Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS).

Carolyn Schaffer, mission coordinator for Patagonia Area Resource Alliance, told the board that PARRA and a coordinated team of experts “reserve the right to submit additional comments as the NEPA and agency review process continues” and urged the county to include that sentence in any county comment letter. She said PARRA is coordinating about two dozen experts from 16 organizations on issues including water, soils, biodiversity, air, roads, public health and cultural resources.

Jay Thompson, a 20‑year Rio Rico resident with the Calabasas Alliance, told supervisors the DEIS lacks a…