New Arizona law set to close loophole allowing mines in neighborhoods

Less than a year after Yavapai County residents spent months fighting against a proposed mine in their neighborhood, Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs signed a bill on May 6 that aims to prevent the situation from happening again.

The new law, in part, broadens the power of the State Mine Inspector to consider site-specific circumstances — like the proximity to residences and schools — when reviewing new aggregate mining applications.

It will not affect any existing mining operations.

The law "is designed to protect residents from the development of new aggregate mining units near existing residential communities," Rep. Selina Bliss, R-Prescott, told the House Natural Resources, Energy and Water Committee in February.

With seemingly no legal recourse after they learned of the proposed mine, residents of the Cedar Heights community in Chino Valley quickly began to fear they wouldn’t be able to stop the operation. They worried neighbors with health problems would suffer needlessly and home values would plummet, resident Vickie Niesley explained to legislators on behalf of her neighbors.

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The mine was stopped after Attorney General Kris Mayes filed an injunction against Rock Supply LLC, the applicant for the mine, citing Arizona’s public nuisance law. Before the case could be heard in court, a neighbor bought the land and signed an agreement with Mayes' office that he would never put a mine on the site.

Still, residents of the Cedar Heights neighborhood worried it could happen again to them and countless residents across the state — which is why Niesley traveled to the state Capitol to speak in favor of the bill.

Before this legislation, the state mine inspector only had the authority to review the mining operation’s reclamation plan outlining how they would care for the land when all mining at the site had eventually ceased.

In the proposed plan in Chino Valley, that reclamation work was about two decades away. By that time, after 20 years of noise, dust and more, many residents believed the damage would already be done.

“We have to give something to the state mine inspector to work with that takes into account the situation as it starts, not as it ends,” Yavapai County Supervisor Craig Brown told legislators as he too spoke in favor of the bill earlier this year.

When submitting a proposed reclamation plan, aggregate mining applicants must now include the distance of the proposed mining facility to existing occupied residential structures. At least 15 days before submitting the reclamation plan, applicants will also be required to notify each residential property owner within a half-mile radius of the mine site.

The state mine inspector would also be allowed to consider comments from the state geologist or any elected official when deciding whether to approve a new aggregate mine.

The new law also requires the Arizona Geological Survey to establish an inventory and map of all active aggregate mine sites and all areas known to contain aggregate resources by county. The list will be updated periodically at the direction of the State Mine Inspector's Office.

Bliss, who represents a majority of Yavapai County, was the primary sponsor of the bill alongside Rep. Quang Nguyen and Sen. Ken Bennett, the area's other state legislators. This issue was first brought to her attention around Labor Day last year, just a short time after Cedar Heights residents were first notified by signs posted throughout the neighborhood.

“A shoutout to the citizens of Cedar Heights and Twin Knolls for closing the loophole in the law that allows a new aggregate mine to be established in an existing neighborhood,” Bliss said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, after the bill was signed into law. “A true example of citizen-led legislation that directly affects the quality of life in Arizona!”

Reach the reporter at LLatch@gannett.com.

The Republic’s coverage of northern Arizona is funded, in part, with a grant from Report for America. To support regional Arizona news coverage like this, make a tax-deductible donation at supportjournalism.azcentral.com.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: New law closes loophole permitting mining operations in Arizona areas