The long-delayed draft environmental impact statement for the Rosemont Mine will be released in time for the first of six public meetings on Oct. 22, the U.S. Forest Service said Monday.

But the agency said it still can't predict the date the report will be released. It is under final review and then will be printed, said Heidi Schewel, a Forest Service spokeswoman in Tucson.

"While we would like the document to be available to those who await publication, we do not want to rush the process," Schewel said. "We want to provide a quality document for the public to review, as has been the case from the beginning of the process."

The proposed copper mine would put an open pit in the Santa Rita Mountains southeast of Tucson. The mine and its associated tailings and waste rock areas would lie on more than 4,400 acres of federal land, state and private land.

Release of the environmental report was originally set for April 2009 by the Forest Service. It was repeatedly delayed due to technical and scientific disputes and issues.

The service's preliminary draft environmental report on the mine, a precursor to this next document, said in June that the mine would cause a host of environmental problems. But it said the service can't legally say "no" to the mine due to the 1872 Mining Law. That law was passed to ensure mineral exploration in the West.

After the next document is released this month, there will be a 90-day public comment period. Then the service will prepare a final environmental impact statement and make a decision on whether the mining company, Rosemont Copper, can use federal land.

IF YOU GO

Two of the upcoming meetings on the Rosemont Mine's potential impacts will be in Tucson, two in Sahuarita, one in Benson and one in Elgin.

The public meeting schedule:

• Oct. 22, Desert Diamond Conference Center, 1100 W. Pima Mine Road in Sahuarita.

• Nov. 5, Elgin Elementary School in Elgin.

• Nov. 12, Palo Verde High School, 1302 S. Avenida Vega, Tucson.

• Nov. 19, Empire High School, 10701 E. Mary Ann Cleveland Way, Tucson.

• Dec. 7, Benson High School, 360 S. Patagonia St., Benson.

• Jan. 7, 2012, Desert Diamond Conference Center, 1100 W. Pima Mine Road, Sahuarita.

All but the Dec. 7 meeting will run from 1 to 5 p.m. The Dec. 7 meeting at Benson High School will run from 5:30 to 8 p.m.

Read more: azstarnet.com/business...z1ZomtLL8C

Now the POWERLINE is set to destroy our Ghost Town:

Arizona Daily Star wrote:

An important historic resource known as the Helvetia Townsite will be negatively affected, and the line will have significant visual impacts from vegetation clearing, with scars on the land lasting many decades if not hundreds of years, wrote Fonseca, the county's environmental planning manager. Read more: azstarnet.com/business...z1gtbXdnzK

ROSEMONT UPDATE:

NOV 29,2013:Rosemont IMPACT statement with hypothetical pictures

DEC 13, 2013:Forest Service will allow Rosemont, but mine is still not a sure thing

azstarnet.com wrote:

Gayle Hartmann countered that the Forest Service is saying the mine proposal meets federal law without the final sign-off on that point from other agencies. She noted that the EPA has said repeatedly that the mine proposal doesn’t meet the Clean Water Act and that mitigation plans are inadequate. “The Forest Service was trying, probably as much as anything, to wash its hands of this project and let other agencies take over,” said Hartmann, president of Save the Scenic Santa Ritas.