Calabasas Alliance - Mothers Against the Mine

05/05/2026

Good info

Most people think Arizona is just desert, cactus, heat, and endless highways… but the real story is hiding underground. 🌵💧

Beneath Phoenix, Tucson, the Sonoran Desert, dry washes, highways, farms, and neighborhoods lies one of Arizona’s most important hidden lifelines — **groundwater.**

While everything above the surface feels dry, hot, and wide open… water is quietly stored below in layers of **sand, gravel, sediment, clay, and fractured rock.** It doesn’t look dramatic from the road, but underground, Arizona has entire aquifer systems that help support cities, rural communities, farms, springs, and desert ecosystems.

That’s the part most people never think about.

You can drive past saguaros, mountains, and dry desert washes and assume there’s nothing there but dust and rock… but below your feet, water may be moving slowly through basin-fill aquifers that have been collecting and storing water for years.

Arizona’s water story is different from places like Florida.

Florida has limestone, springs, and wetlands.
Arizona has desert basins, mountain recharge, dry washes, deep wells, and groundwater hidden under some of the driest-looking land in America.

That’s why Arizona has:

• Wells that reach deep underground 💧
• Springs and seeps in canyons 🌄
• Desert plants surviving where water is closer than it looks 🌵
• Dry washes that can suddenly come alive after monsoon storms ⛈️
• Huge water debates that are really about what’s happening below the surface 👀

Even in a place known for heat and drought, water is still moving — just slower, deeper, and quieter than most people realize.

And that’s what makes Arizona so fascinating.

Because the desert may look empty…
but underneath it, there’s a hidden system working every single day.

In Arizona, the real story isn’t just in the Grand Canyon, the cactus, the sunsets, or the highways…

It’s flowing silently beneath the desert —
right under your feet. 🌵💧

04/25/2026

Exciting news today in the world of rare Sky Island kitties. Recently, Sky Island Alliance and Phoenix Zoo published a study describing the remarkable journey of a male ocelot across four mountain ranges in the Sky Islands of Arizona, the longest-known trek by a single member of the species.

This ocelot — recently named “Himdam” or “Traveler” by the San Xavier District of the Tohono O'odham Nation — covered at least 111 miles and crossed I-19, AZ-82, and AZ-83 (at least twice) as it moved among the Atascosa Highlands, Whetstone Mountains, Patagonia Mountains, and Santa Rita Mountains. It also did so in the shadow of border wall construction, mine expansion, and I-11 corridor exploration, underscoring the fragility of our region and the threats wildlife face.

One of the more fascinating aspects of this story is that the ocelot was detected in four separate ranges by four organizations (Phoenix Zoo, Center for Biological Diversity, Sky Island Alliance, and The Wild Cat Research and Conservation Center), who then collaborated to tell the story.

Get that full story with photos and videos in our blog: https://ow.ly/Zyae50YJ6lo

Then sign up for our virtual Coffee Break on May 14, where we’ll be joined by our partners to discuss this intrepid cat and what’s next for ocelot conservation: https://ow.ly/OslP50YJ6lj

Learn more in this press release: https://ow.ly/Muew50YMQjO

Map showing the four locations where Himdam was spotted in 2024-2025 courtesy Sky Island Alliance and Phoenix Zoo. At right, a collage from the four organizations’ footage, showing the rosettes that helped scientists know it was the same cat.

/ Phoenix Zoo / Center for Biological Diversity / Sky Island Alliance / The Wild Cat Research and Conservation Center / Tohono O'odham Nation

04/20/2026

What this article really means for Arizona is that the Colorado River system is now being kept functioning through emergency “water shuffling,” not stable supply. Federal officials are draining up to ~1 million acre-feet from upstream reservoirs like Flaming Gorge just to keep Lake Powell high enough to avoid losing hydropower—or even risking structural problems at Glen Canyon Dam.

That water ultimately feeds Arizona through the Colorado River and the Central Arizona Project, so in the short term it helps prevent sudden delivery cuts and keeps the system from crashing; but it doesn’t create new water — it borrows from future reserves and leaves less backup for the next drought year.

So what does this mean for larger water users like South32 Hermosa and others?

Flaming Gorge release = “move water around to keep the whole system alive.” Hermosa pumping = “new extraction from a local aquifer that doesn’t get replaced quickly.”

The real connection (this is the important part)
Where they intersect is "risk stacking:"
1. The Colorado River system is already being propped up with emergency actions
2. Arizona will likely face deeper shortages and reduced recharge water
3. At the same time, projects like Hermosa rely on groundwater as a backstop - adding to risk

So, as river water becomes less reliable, groundwater becomes more valuable — and more stressed. That makes any large new groundwater use (like a mine) more consequential than it would have been 20 years ago.

Bottom line: The Flaming Gorge move matters, but it’s a temporary life-support measure for Arizona’s main water supply. It does not solve scarcity — it signals it’s getting worse. We need planning to help make better water use decisions.

Record-breaking heat and historically low snowpack have reduced water storage on the Colorado River system to 36%, officials say.

04/10/2026

03/02/2026

The approach to mitigating impacts from S32's Hermosa mine — drawing inspiration from Colombia's declaration of its entire Amazon as a no-go zone for mega-mining and hydrocarbons — can be addressed by focused, multi-pronged strategy emphasizing precedents, local mobilization and regulatory pressure.

1. Keep advocating for designating sensitive "sky island" watersheds and biodiversity hotspots in the Patagonia Mountains as protected zones off-limits to large-scale mining, citing Colombia's rezoning to prioritize ecosystem services, carbon storage, and community guardianship by Indigenous and local groups.

2. Build community alliances among Tohono O'odham members, ranchers, residents and advocacy groups to petition Arizona officials and the U.S. Forest Service for stricter "no-go" policies or moratoriums on new permits in water-scarce areas, highlighting ongoing concerns like elevated antimony discharges (e.g., above state alert levels in late 2025) and groundwater strain despite South32's claims of reduced water use and dry-stack tailings.

3. Leverage the Colombian model in public campaigns, media, and legal challenges under NEPA, the Clean Water Act or State environmental laws to demand enhanced community consultations, independent monitoring of air / water data, and just transition alternatives like eco-tourism — while pushing State / Federal reforms for zoning reforms that balance critical minerals needs with long-term ecological protection, especially as they try to expand with Barksdale, etc.

Many have been doing these, but this shows continued education, community engagement and advocacy can work.

Colombia declares its entire Amazon region off limits to new mining and oil, creating a vast protected reserve.

01/04/2026

The Center is under attack.

The most extreme, anti-conservation Republicans in Congress just launched a sham investigation into the Center for Biological Diversity.

Why? Because we’ve been an outspoken — and successful — force against a massive foreign-owned mine that threatens the pristine Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.

This “investigation” by Reps. Pete Stauber and Paul Gosar is an alarming abuse of power and doesn’t name a single unlawful act — because the Center hasn’t committed one. The representatives claim to be seeking evidence of “collusion” between us and the Biden administration to reintroduce a ban on mining within the same watershed as the Boundary Waters.

The corruption that should be investigated is that of Twin Metals and its Chilean parent company, Antofagasta plc.

Twin Metals launched a multimillion-dollar lobby campaign to overturn the protection of the Boundary Waters, one of America’s most beloved wilderness areas and home to endangered gray wolves, Canada lynx, and northern long-eared bats. The Chilean owner of Twin Metals bought a $5.5 million mansion in Washington, D.C., as soon as President Donald Trump was elected and arranged to rent it to Ivanka Trump before the purchase was even finished. Meanwhile the companies’ executives donated money to the very same two members of Congress who launched this fraudulent investigation, both leaders of the House Committee on Natural Resources.

This bogus attack proves that our work matters. And we’re hitting a nerve.

The Center’s executive director has offered to help the House committee investigate the real scandal — Twin Metals’ ties to Trump bureaucrats and family members, as well as its congressional donations — by publicly testifying before it.

But the committee won’t turn from its bogus, weaponized intimidation attempt to an investigation of the real problem without hearing from you.

Tell the House Natural Resources Committee to investigate the suspiciously close ties between Twin Metals, the Trump administration, the Trump family, and members of the House Committee itself ➡️ https://bit.ly/44k3AMp

[Image description: An adult lynx at Yukon Flats National Wildlife Refuge looking into the camera. The background behind him is white, possibly snow.]

11/16/2025

Banning books on Water Issues from selling in National Park bookstore?

The Trump administration's censorship directive has reportedly targeted Obi Kaufmann.

11/16/2025

PFAS can make us sick and kill us - too. We have them in our water - so please filter what you use...

So-called forever chemicals are both harmful to our health and are everywhere. Studies have found them in women's breast milk and even in rain falling in Tibet. A new book tells the story of how these extremely durable chemicals became so ubiquitous through the eyes of a small community that decided...

10/07/2025

We all should let our Arizona Corporation Commissioners what we think about our captive market utility services - especially when the increase rates. Sadly only a few of us show up for those hearings...

If Tucson Electric Power truly wants to be a partner in this community, then it can start by proving that its commitment runs deeper than annual profit reports. Until then, every claim of hardship from their press releases rings hollow and offensive.

10/07/2025

Mining has many health impacts that we keep learning about - regardless of what we are pulling from the ground.

A major pollutant from fossil fuels has been linked to an increased risk of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), according to new research.