PHOENIX— A federal judge approved an agreement today between conservation groups and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that requires the EPA to set pollution limits for Queen Creek unless Arizona does so first. Today’s agreement is the result of a September 2022 lawsuit filed by the conservation groups.

The lawsuit was filed to protect Queen Creek from Resolution Copper’s proposed mine, which would discharge copper and other pollutants into the important desert stream. The mining operation would also destroy Oak Flat, an Indigenous sacred site in the mountains east of Phoenix.

“The Arizona Department of Environmental Quality has failed to implement a plan to clean up pollution in Queen Creek due to mining activities for more than 20 years,” said Roger Featherstone, director of the Arizona Mining Reform Coalition. “We’re pleased that the EPA has agreed to write the plan should the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality continue to stall. Our nation’s laws to protect Arizona’s water, especially in light of our continuing severe drought, must be followed to protect Queen Creek for our communities and the environment.”

Today’s agreement sets a deadline of July 2028 for the EPA to set pollution limits for the creek if the state fails to do so by January 2027. In 2002 the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality said Queen Creek failed to meet federal water-quality standards because of dissolved copper, and later it added lead and selenium to the list. But despite the creek’s formal listing as impaired, the agency has failed for decades to come up with a plan to protect this vital stream.

“We’re pleased the EPA has agreed to uphold its Clean Water Act duties and ensure that pollution limits will finally be set for Queen Creek,” said Russ McSpadden, a conservation advocate at the Center for Biological Diversity. “This beautiful watershed provides habitat for hundreds of bird species, but it’s in real peril. Years of neglect by the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality have starved the creek of required protections from deadly mining pollution. If left unchecked, Resolution Copper’s proposed mine at Oak Flat will worsen the degradation of this fragile desert creek.”

The Clean Water Act requires states to identify polluted waters and limit pollution dumped into them. Impairment designation triggers a state agency’s duty to measure pollutants and identify potential reductions to ensure the water is safe for people, plants and animals. The EPA is required to step in if states fail to implement pollution standards for impaired waters.

“It's great that the EPA is setting limits for the Queen Creek water,” said Henry Munoz of the Concerned Citizens and Retired Miners Coalition. “The creek has been impaired for too long by copper mining neglect. The residents of Superior deserve clean water running in their creek. This is long overdue.”

Queen Creek runs north and west of Oak Flat through rugged, spire-filled Queen Creek Canyon toward Superior, Arizona. The creek provides wetland and riparian habitat within the Boyce Thompson Arboretum, a designated “important birding area.”

“Far too many of Arizona’s streams and rivers have water quality that exceeds Clean Water Act standards, including Queen Creek,” said Sandy Bahr, director Sierra Club’s Grand Canyon (Arizona) Chapter. “The Arizona Department of Environmental Quality has failed to address cleaning up these waters and limiting additional impairment and until recently even failed to ask for the funding it needs to do so. Sierra Club is pleased that the EPA is taking this seriously and will take action to clean up Queen Creek if ADEQ continues to fail to act.”

Although the state does not have a plan to improve water quality in Queen Creek, the Department of Environmental Quality renewed Resolution Copper’s pollution discharge permit in 2016 and has proposed another renewal this year. The San Carlos Apache Tribe challenged the 2016 renewal and won in state appeals court. The state and Resolution Copper have appealed to the Arizona Supreme Court.

"It’s more important than ever for agencies to implement the basic protections we have as we see an increased push to mine for certain metals used in new technology,” said Ian Bigley with Earthworks. “This failure of agencies to address pollution for so long shows how we desperately need to avoid cutting corners through the current mining boom."

Oak Flat is listed on the National Register of Historic Places in recognition of its irreplaceable cultural, historic and religious importance for the Western Apache and other Tribes. It is part of the ancestral homelands of the Apache, Yavapai, Hopi, Zuni and other Tribes of the Southwest.

A 2021 Arizona Auditor General’s report cited a number of problems at the state Department of Environmental Quality, including the agency’s failure to reduce the number of polluted waters by implementing water-quality standards.

The conservation groups are represented by Roger Flynn with the Western Mining Action Project, Allison Henderson with the Center for Biological Diversity and Susan Montgomery of Montgomery & Interpreter, PLC.