The San Carlos Apache Tribe and a pair of conservation organizations are suing the Trump administration over its approval of an exploratory drilling project in the Galiuro Mountains northeast of Tucson.
The plaintiffs allege the project will threaten vulnerable species and impact groundwater levels in the Southwest’s last major undammed river.
In June of 2025, the Bureau of Land Management authorized Canadian mining firm Faraday Copper to conduct exploratory drilling at 67 sites on public land near Mammoth in search of what the company says is a massive copper reserve.
At full build out, the proposed Copper Creek Project would include multiple open pits, an underground block mining operation, tailings piles, a heap leaching facility and more. The company says the lifespan of the mine could exceed 30 years.
Copper Creek Canyon. Photo: Russ McSpadden, Center for Biological Diversity
But the tribe, the Center for Biological Diversity and the Lower San Pedro Watershed Alliance say the federal government failed to properly analyze the environmental risks of the project and consult with the tribe, which holds the springs and plant and animal life of Copper Creek as sacred.
After telling the Trump administration back in April that they were planning to sue, they’re now asking a federal judge in Tucson to stop the exploratory drilling.
The plaintiffs say the government is ignoring the risks the project poses to two threatened bird species — the Mexican spotted owl and the western yellow-billed cuckoo — in the project area.
“BLM authorized the Project despite ignoring photographic evidence that the imperiled Mexican spotted owl is found in the area, and refusing to address the impacts of the massive drawdowns of water on the already overdrawn San Pedro River and the threatened western yellow-billed cuckoo that makes its home along the River,” the lawsuit alleges. “Further, BLM authorized the project without consulting with the San Carlos Apache Tribe, which made several written requests for such consultation between 2024 and 2025.”
Faraday Copper has maintained that the owl isn’t found at the site, despite the Lower San Pedro Watershed Alliance providing photographic evidence to the contrary, the complaint says.
Courtesy: Lower San Pedro Watershed Alliance
As such, the lawsuit claims the government violated parts of the Endangered Species Act, the Administrative Procedure Act and other relevant federal law concerning agency decision-making and public consultation.
And though they’re the main focus of the lawsuit, the bird species aren’t alone — the Galiuros, one of the northernmost “Sky Island” ranges, are home to at least six species listed as threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act, according to the plaintiffs.
Courtesy: Sky Island Alliance
As a whole, the San Pedro Watershed supports more than 400 bird species and 180 species of butterflies, making it one of the most naturally diverse places in the country.
Have you any doubts, go out to Copper Creek and feel it for yourself (just make sure to get proper wilderness permits). Traverse through steep, canopied canyons and wade through cool water at thigh-level height under the saguaro-dotted skyline. See heron, frogs, Gila monsters, coati — maybe even a Mexican spotted owl.
Speaking from experience, it is unlike anything else in Arizona — or maybe anywhere.
The lawsuit is about water as much as it is about wildlife. The exploration project would pump as much as 70,000 gallons of groundwater per month per drill rig (or about 173 acre-feet a year in total, for our water nerds). That’s water that feeds Copper Creek, a tributary of the San Pedro River.
Aside from their spiritual significance to Apache peoples indigenous to the area, both the creek and the river in general provide valuable, highly sensitive riparian habitat for all manner of life. The cuckoo in particular is dependent on these rare pockets of desert moisture, the lawsuit says.
But groundwater-dependent development in Southern Arizona is threatening the river, and the plaintiffs say the mine’s pumping would only exacerbate the risks.
“The Lower San Pedro Watershed is one of Arizona’s most important wildlife corridors, yet federal agencies ignored compelling evidence that this landscape is home to threatened owls,” said Melissa Crytzer Fry, chair of the Lower San Pedro Watershed Alliance, in a statement. “We provided trail camera photographs documenting Mexican spotted owls in the project area, but the agencies dismissed that evidence and approved the project anyway. This lawsuit seeks to stop further harm while ensuring these agencies finally follow the law.”
About 18 months have passed since the Tucson City Council signed off on the Community Corridors Tool (CCT) program.
At the time, the program was heralded as a new tool that would allow private developers to use the new zoning rules to build on lots that were hard to develop, or turn empty storefronts into thriving new uses.
As part of the CCT, the city offers incentives to developers to encourage infill redevelopment, such as reducing minimum parking requirements and setbacks.
We heard more than one community member talk about the hope of turning empty Walgreens storefronts into much-needed affordable housing.
We checked with the city to see who has pulled permits under the new program.
So far, only one project has applied — a City of Tucson partnership with El Pueblo Housing Development to build the Amazon Flats affordable housing complex on West Miracle Mile.
This is what Amazon Flats will look like when the doors open next summer.
The development will include 59 new affordable housing units on vacant land adjacent to an old motel the city has already redeveloped into 30 studio apartments.
Koren Manning, the director of the city’s planning and development services department, told us that her department has had some preliminary meetings with developers, but things are still in the early stages.
All jacked up: Democratic U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly blasted the Trump administration during his visit to the Community Food Bank of Southern Arizona in Tucson, Eddie Celaya reports for KGUN. Kelly called for putting people who “don’t jack up prices because somebody told him tariffs were a good idea” in charge of the country. He also took aim at federal cuts that booted roughly 170,000 Arizona children from the SNAP program.
“Twenty dollars for meat? 80/20 was like a ground beef that nobody ate, and now it’s like seven dollars a pound,” Norah Siller, a student, single mother and SNAP recipient, said. “How do I make that work?”
Pushing it to the limit: As the Trump administration ramps up its mass deportation program again, a small ICE detention facility in Phoenix has been holding people for twice as long as it’s supposed to, Jerod MacDonald-Evoy reports for the Arizona Mirror. The facility doesn’t have any beds or medical services, which led to 11 calls to 911 for medical help between December and March, including a pregnant woman who was suffering from severe abdominal pain and was discharging mucus.
Reporters are using the Deportation Data Project to track the recent surge in ICE arrests. The big jump in ICE book-ins in Arizona started in February and reached 2,000 in July.
What we’ll be watching: Bill Buckmaster will have Pima County Administrator Jan Lesher on his radio show Friday, just a few days before the next Pima Count Board of Supervisors meeting. We’re listening in to hear what Lesher has to say about the current issues facing Pima County as well as an update on the search for her replacement.
Possible topics of discussion?: The Trump administration reimbursed Pima County $6.1 million for housing asylum seekers in fiscal year 2023, which Lesher said in a memo made the county whole for that year’s expenses. However, the county is still trying to recoup $3.6 million for fiscal year 2024. In a separate memo, Lesher said the Mosaic Quarter inked a deal for naming rights with Idaho Central Credit Union. When the sports and entertainment complex — which is the result of a public-private partnership with Pima County — opens next year, it will be known as ICCU Mosaic Quarter. The memo didn’t provide any info about how much those naming rights were worth.
How much could we get for our naming rights?Actually, that’s probably not a great idea. We’ll stick with paid subscriptions instead.
Welp, we tried: A little more than a year after the Oro Valley Town Council established a Tourism Advisory Commission, four out of five of its members quit, and now the town is considering scrapping the whole thing, Dave Perry writes for Tucson Local Media. The four resigning members, including right-wing radio talk show host and failed town council candidate Chris DeSimone, all said that they quit because council wasn’t heeding their advice.
“The commission’s role has been advisory since its creation,” Town Manager Jeff Wilkins told Perry. “The town values that input, while recognizing that final decisions remain the responsibility of town leadership.”
Daniel Butierez, the perennial Republican candidate for Congressional District 7, wants voters to believe that the late Congressman Raúl Grijalva would have preferred Butierez take over his seat rather than his own daughter.
The Tucson businessman used a few seconds from this 11-minute interview that Grijalva did with KOLD’s Bud Foster shortly before his death last year.
The clip Butierez used shows Grijalva saying he didn’t want “a careerist who wants to run because that’s her career” to eventually fill his seat in CD7.
That two-second clip is doing a lot of work.
The short Facebook reel implies Raúl was somehow referring to his daughter, Adelita Grijalva — who had already served for two decades on the Tucson Unified School District Governing Board and was, at the time, a Pima County supervisor. And therefore, Butierez argues he is a better candidate — because he isn’t a career politician.
We won’t rehash everything Raúl said about Butierez on the campaign trail back in 2024, but let’s just say none of it sounded much like an endorsement.
Ask what she thought of the ad, Congresswoman Grijalva didn’t mince words.
“This goes beyond politics and is about basic human decency,” she said. “It is disgusting and hurtful to my family, who are still mourning my dad’s loss every day. The video is intentionally misleading and shows a complete lack of respect and class. Ultimately, the voters will decide this November whose values they share, and who they trust to best represent their interests in Washington, D.C.”
As for the identity of the “careerist” Grijalva was referring to, we have a pretty good guess.
Two weeks before the interview with Foster, Democratic state Rep. Alma Hernandez tweeted that “it’s time” for Grijalva to step down after he missed roughly 700 votes during his fight with lung cancer.
Shortly after her tweet made headlines, Hernandez ruled out running for the CD7 seat in the 2025 special election, saying she was happy in the state Legislature.