The U.S. Forest Service has approved a fast-tracked critical minerals mine in Southern Arizona despite years of pushback from nearby communities The $3 billion South 32 Hermosa project will unearth deposits of zinc, manganese, lead and silver. … Already, discharged water from the mine has been flagged by the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality for exceeding allowable levels of heavy metals. … Each year, it’s expected to remove 2,790 acre-feet of water from the aquifer, amounting to 195,000 acre-feet over the course of its operations. Though some water will be recharged, the final environmental impact statement notes that net water loss from the aquifer will be 34,000 acre-feet, equivalent to over 1 billion gallons. Nearby residents in the project’s 50-mile cone of depression worry that groundwater pumping could cause their wells to run dry and that the overall dewatering could affect the surrounding ecosystem.

Other water and mining news:

• Arizona Daily Star (Tucson): Forest Service signs off on southern Arizona mine as cost skyrockets
• SFGate: A new crop of treasure-seekers are betting it all on the Calif. desert