Members of LSPWA understand how incredibly unique the Lower San Pedro River is … and why, as the last free-flowing river in the southwest, it is worth protecting. Of deep concern is the fact the watershed and surrounding hydrology of the adjacent Galiuro Mountains remain largely unstudied.
Threats. It’s that simple. The Lower San Pedro is facing its biggest challenge yet, with a potential full-scale mine knocking on the door. Our hydrologist and geochemist advisors, Keith Nelson and Chris Eastoe, along with our partners at Earthworks, Center for Biological Diversity, Western Mining Action Network, Partners for Dryland Planning, Arizona Mining Reform Coalition, and other conservation landholders, agree with the proactive strategy of gathering additional scientific groundwater data about the watershed so that we can:
Respond with hard facts to future federal and state environmental reviews and dispute bad science
Understand the health of the watershed, as well as impacts of mining, as we continue to provide legal standing for the community
Provide water-related educational workshops that help our local communities understand mining and associated groundwater-pumping impacts to better protect the San Pedro as an informed community
Pair our study with complementary water studies currently being conducted by Arizona Mining Reform Coalition and through a Catalyst Fund grant within the Lower San Pedro Collaborative
Share, in public campaigns, with other Arizonans the very-real threats to one of the state’s most biodiverse areas, including Aravaipa Canyon
We are currently meeting with a team of hydrologists to determine study parameters, costs and timelines. As the mining industry is enjoying new proposed laws and executive orders that favor foreign extractive industries (chanting “get your shovels in the ground now, with this Administration!”), time is of the essence.
"The Lower San Pedro River and the extremely rare Aravaipa Creek – a perennial desert stream that supports one of the most diverse ecosystems in the American Southwest – are facing unprecedented challenges,” says LSPWA advisor Keith Nelson, retired Arizona Department of Water Resources hydrologist, who spearheaded development of the Arizona Department of Water Resources’ Groundwater Flow Model of the Willcox Basin. He notes the following:
A direct hydraulic connection between the Aravaipa and Willcox Groundwater basins: Pumping in the Willcox Basin is likely lowering groundwater levels in the upper Aravaipa Watershed.
The potential for devastating dewatering impacts: Because half of Aravaipa Creek’s initial base flow originates from recharge in the Galiuro Mountains, the proposed open-pit series of copper mines in the Galiuros, located between the Aravaipa Canyon and Lower San Pedro Groundwater Basins, pose significant threats to watershed health.
Long-term reduction in natural recharge: Altering surface hydrology through open-pit mining will likely exacerbate already-declining recharge caused by rising temperatures and changing precipitation patterns.
A new long-term, regional-scale study of anticipated human impacts – including mining – would capture data from the adjacent Lower San Pedro Groundwater Basin and the downstream portion of the Aravaipa Canyon Groundwater Basin (not currently in the Willcox model) and enable hydrologists, water managers and stakeholders to evaluate future/potential impacts of groundwater development at regional and local scales. “This knowledge would allow for the objective analysis of potential solutions, based on the best available science, in order to protect the Lower San Pedro and Aravaipa's extremely rare, desert base flow," says Nelson.
To undertake such a necessary, rigorous, scientific study, we will need to raise substantial funds. As we determine study parameters, we plan to seek grants to cover a portion of the costs—and we have already partnered with two organizations on complementary water studies. We hope we can count on you to support this critical research, as a linchpin of our strategy to save the San Pedro. Please consider making a donation, as your help is needed so that we can conduct this critical work.
On Dec. 15, LSPWA, along with 181 other organizations, Tribes, companies and elected officials, signed on in strong opposition to this harmful legislation that would allow mining companies to claim indefinite numbers of millsites on public land, without meaningful limitations, where multinational mining companies can permanently dump toxic waste and construct infrastructure like pipelines and roads.
On June 30, 2025, despite heavy public opposition (7,500 public comments), the Bureau of Land Management quietly approved Redhawk/Faraday Copper’s 67-site exploration project in the Galiuro Mountains near Mammoth, authorizing round-the-clock operations for the next two to three years.
Just three days after LSPWA submitted its appeal letter, the State BLM Director, Raymond Suazo, issued an immediate refusal to even review our comments.
See our appeal letter to BLM, which outlines our concerns regarding a lack of meaningful public participation with the BLM Safford Field Office, as well as overlooked and inconclusive responses to substantive comments, and a FONSI unsupported by evidence and analysis. Review the San Carlos Apache Tribe and Center for Biological Diversity’s joint appeal letter here – which we and a dozen other organizations signed.
A quick email to BLM, in support our appeal letters, will send a message that mining does not belong this close to the San Pedro River. Click the button below for paragraph samples.
In April 2025, LSPWA joined partner efforts to protest the holding of a University of Arizona summit on Earth Day, the purpose of which was to enable the mining industry to better manage and manipulate public opinion. The coalition faulted the University, in particular, for failing to include the voices of those who stand to be most impacted by mining's depredations, namely, local communities and Tribal nations.
http://mining-social-license-protest
In April 2025, LSPWA submitted comments to the Bureau of Land Management on its Draft Environmental Assessment (EA) of the Faraday Copper/Redhawk "Copper Creek" exploratory mining project. Among the many deficiencies we were able to discover, the EA failed to take account of the impact of exploratory drilling on protected species.
In October 2024, LSPWA and the Cascabel Conservation Association together issued a joint response to the Draft Environmental Impact Statement issued by the U.S. Air Force in regard to the "Regional Special Use Airspace Optimization to Support Air Force Missions in Arizona." Our comments focused in proposed proposed plans for the Outlaw and Jackal Military Operation Areas (MOAs) that would permit up to 30 daily sorties, involving cadres of low-flying supersonic aircraft, over vast portions of the San Pedro River Valley and nearby Native Tribal lands.
For over 13 years, LSPWA worked, alongside the Cascabel Conservation Association and other partners, to educate policy makers and the public, as well as undertake legal actions to prevent the construction of a 33-mile corridor of behemoth transmission lines through the most remote and ecologically sensitive portion of the San Pedro River ecosystem. Read the Dec. 12, 2022 filing related to that effort.
The need for an infrastructure corridor along the San Pedro was obviated by the fact that existing industrial-infrastructure corridors could have well served the purpose. While the last court of judgment did not find in our favor, the battle continues as a lawsuit brought by San Carlos Apache Tribe and Tohono o'Odham Nation is being given new life. Learn more.
The Lower San Pedro Watershed Alliance is an independent nonprofit organization funded by and large by Lower San Pedro stakeholders, with vital pro-bono support provided by nationally active conservation organizations such as Earthjustice and the Center for Biological Diversity. Our financial independence from corporate interests and government agencies allows us to speak our minds freely to policy makers and to pursue legal remedies when agencies fail to follow through on their mandates. We have thus become a watershed-wide voice for volunteer conservationists in legal and other advocacy efforts.