Ray Mine Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement

SWCA was contracted by ASARCO, to complete the Ray Land Exchange/Plan Amendment Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) under the guidance of the BLM Tucson Field Office and BLM Arizona State Office. Under the proposed exchange, ASARCO would be able to expand its current Ray Mine operations near Kearny, Arizona, through the acquisition of approximately 10,976 acres of lands around the existing mine, presently under BLM jurisdiction (the “Selected Lands”), in exchange for granting to the BLM approximately 7,304 acres of private lands that contain unique resource values that the BLM had previously identified as desirable for federal acquisition within Arizona (the “Offered Lands”). Most of the Offered Lands are located within four parcel groups in the vicinity of Kingman, Arizona.

This land exchange has a complicated history, with the original project proposal dating back to 1993. SWCA conducted this environmental analysis as an Supplement to the original EIS issued in 1999. The basis of the SEIS analysis compared environmental impacts from mining “with” BLM 3809 surface management regulations applied and “without” these regulations, as would occur if the lands were privately owned. This work allowed our Project Team to develop an intimate knowledge of how the BLM 3809 regulations relate to potential impacts across all resource areas.

Through our firsthand knowledge of BLM mining policies and expertise in NEPA requirements, SWCA was able to identify nine key resource areas that would require reanalysis in the SEIS to address the core basis for the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal’s remand of the 1999 Ray Land Exchange FEIS. This SEIS included two Resource Management Plan Amendments on how to manage the lands. SWCA assisted the BLM with public involvement, Section 7 ESA consultation; Section 106 NHPA consultation, Tribal engagement, and protest resolution.

The project timeline dealt with several Federal workforce challenges, which SWCA was able to overcome through proactive scheduling, maintenance of key milestones, and responding to the BLM’s requests for schedule updates. The 35-day long government shutdown from December 2018 to January 2019 prevented BLM ID Team involvement during key points in the development and finalization of the Draft SEIS, as well as the work necessary following the scoping meetings that took place in fall 2018. Despite this, SWCA maintained the schedule uninterrupted for the Final SEIS release and Record of Decision signed in 2019.