Three Senators are adding their names to the list of lawmakers seeking to block the sale of public land in Arizona to an offshore mining company, saying that the transaction infringes upon American Indians’ rights.
The legislation, introduced by Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisc.), and Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), would repeal a provision jammed into last year’s National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that green-lighted the purchase of portions of the Tonto National Forest Lands and Oak Flat for the purpose of building a foreign block cave mine.
The Senators described the project as “an environmentally-destructive mining style used to maximize profit,” and said Congressional approval of it violated federal protections for Native American cultural areas. The Tonto Apache and other indigenous Americans initially settled the lands and still have sacred ties to it.
“Too many times our Native American brothers and sisters have seen the profits of huge corporations put ahead of their sovereign rights,” Sen. Sanders said in a statement Thursday introducing the Save Oak Flat Act.
The bill states that Section 3003 of the 2015 NDAA never received “majority support from either the House or Senate,” and set a “negative precedent for legislative process and Federal Indian policy.” That part of the bill authorized Resolution Copper, a subsidiary of London-based mining giant Rio Tinto, to purchase the public lands at the heart of the dispute.
The legislation goes on to note that section 3003 was “strongly opposed by Indian tribes nationwide because it sets dangerous legislative precedent for the lack of protection of tribal sacred areas located on Federal lands.”
It adds that stand-alone bills to approve of the land deal were introduced in both the House and Senate, but neither could be moved forward.
An effort to advance the initiative by Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) stalled after authorizing legislation was brought to the floor twice, then pulled from consideration each time. The companion Senate bill introduced by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) never advanced through committee.
Late last year, the land sale was tacked onto the NDAA, a lengthy annual defense policy bill. Amendments to remove it were denied consideration as the legislation advanced. The bill was signed into law by President Obama in December 2014.
“It is wrong that a backroom deal in Washington could lead to the destruction of a sacred area that is so important to so many,” Sen. Sanders added on Thursday. “We must defend the hundreds of thousands of Americans who are standing in opposition to this giveaway of our natural resources to foreign corporations.”
The trio’s legislation also criticized the potential environmental impacts of the copper mining project, saying that it “will require significant amounts of water that will likely affect the local hydrology, including the underlying aquifer, and will result in polluted water that will seep into drinking water supplies.”
In a statement on his website in support of the deal, Rep. Gosar claimed the Rio Tinto mining project “will create thousands of American jobs, will reduce our dependence on foreign sources of energy and minerals, and will generate significant revenues for federal and state treasuries.”
The Senators countered on Thursday in a statement noting that “Resolution Copper says the copper ore mined will likely be shipped out of the United States.”
A companion bill to repeal Section 3003 and preserve the lands’ public status was introduced in the House by Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.). It has 36 bipartisan cosponsors.
