TUCSON, Ariz.— Environmental and community groups have appealed the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality’s decision to grant an air pollution permit to the Copper World mine, the final permit required to begin mining operations in the Santa Rita Mountains southeast of Tucson.

“The Arizona Department of Environmental Quality isn’t requiring Copper World to meet the bare minimum standard to protect our air and the environment. This appeal is trying to change that,” said Jeremy Nichols, a senior advocate at the Center for Biological Diversity. “We need Arizona’s environmental regulator to stop giving the mining industry a free pass to pollute. It’s time for people and communities to come first.”

The state permit, issued Jan. 2, would allow Hudbay Minerals to blast a series of open pit copper mines that will destroy the northern half of the Santa Rita mountain range. The open pit mines will release thousands of tons of harmful air pollution including dangerous particulate matter, heavy metals and other hazardous air pollutants.

The state issued the permit despite widespread opposition from the community, including from 15 Tribes and environmental groups that submitted a detailed, 100-page comment letter challenging the draft permit.

“By issuing this woefully flawed air permit the ADEQ has betrayed its mission to protect Arizonans’ public health and the environment,” said Austin Nunez, chairman of the San Xavier District of the Tohono O’odham Nation. “The Santa Rita Mountains are an irreplaceable landscape of profound cultural and spiritual significance to the Tohono O’odham that mining will destroy. This permit cannot stand.”

The appeal, filed Thursday, seeks to revoke the state’s approval of a Class II air pollution permit, which is less stringent and affords less public scrutiny than a Class I permit. Legally the department was required to issue a Class I permit because of the high amount of particulate matter that will be released.

The permit fails to include advanced controls for particulate matter pollution, such as enclosing mining stockpiles and using state-of-the-art engineering to contain and control pollution from mining waste dumps, including a toxic slurry of tailings.

“The air pollution permit will allow Hudbay to pile massive tailings dumps containing toxic chemicals like lead, cadmium and arsenic very near homes and schools in the Corona de Tucson community,” said Rob Peters, executive director of Save the Scenic Santa Ritas. “Our frequent strong winds will blow this dust into the community. This is already an ongoing problem in Green Valley and Sahuarita, where tailings dust from the Sierrita and Mission mines have repeatedly blanketed the area. Gov. Hobbs should order the ADEQ to protect our health and stop greenlighting this dangerous project.”

The permit focuses only on mining operations. It ignores a major air pollution source that will be caused by Hudbay’s heavy trucks traveling across approximately 6 miles of dirt road bisecting the Santa Rita Experimental Range.

Heavy trucks will travel across the range and through Sahuarita to Interstate 19 every day. The trucks will be hauling sulfuric acid, copper concentrates, molybdenum and other materials needed to operate the mine 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

“Not only does the ADEQ permit fail to adequately control air pollution from the mine site, but it also ignores a huge amount of air pollution that will result from heavy trucks traveling across an unimproved dirt road that was never intended be used for industrial traffic,” said Nan Stockholm Walden of Farmers Investment Co. “The air pollution caused by unrelenting truck traffic will threaten the world-class environmental studies at the Santa Rita Experimental Range and create a public nuisance that must be abated.”

The Santa Rita Mountains include habitat for rare and imperiled wildlife including jaguars and ocelots. They also provide a renewable source of clean water for communities, host sacred Tribal sites and are a vital recreation area for the region.

The appeal was filed by the Center for Biological Diversity, Save the Scenic Santa Ritas and Farmers Investment Co., a Sahuarita pecan operation. The Arizona Department of Environmental Quality must set a hearing on the appeal within 60 days.