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May 03, 2023

Documentary film maker urges Arizonans to save Pinto Creek

A recently released 12-minute documentary, sponsored by the Sierra Club Grand

A recently released 12-minute documentary, sponsored by the Sierra Club Grand Canyon Chapter, chronicles the decline of one of the few oases in Tonto National Forest as Capstone Copper began pumping groundwater for its mining operations.

The film by Craig Johnson is the first to spotlight Pinto Creek since The Arizona Republic published a story in April of 2022 revealing that the Forest Service was letting the stream die despite holding a water right designed to preserve enough flows to keep dependent wildlife and vegetation alive.

Pinto Creek is a small but vital channel that cuts through remote mountains near the town of Miami north of Route 60 and then dumps its contents into Roosevelt Lake – where the Salt River Project stores water for customers in the Phoenix area. Losing Pinto Creek doesn't just hamper a once-thriving wild ecosystem – it affects water supply, according to the utility company.

Bruce Babbitt, who served as both Arizona's governor and as Secretary of the Interior for the United States, spoke to the creek's significance in Johnson's film.

"Pinto Creek, as I remember, was really a remarkable place," Babbitt said. "The stream that I saw there was actually ultimately being used by me, and my residents, miles away in Phoenix."

Johnson spent about a year researching how Capstone Copper affects its surroundings before releasing "Every Last Drop" this spring. Along with Babbitt, the filmmaker interviewed retired forest rangers, a mining reform activist and me – Republic investigative reporter Caitlin McGlade.

Watch the film here.

"We need to look at the streams and tributaries – everything that is contributing to our local water supply," Johnson said. "Pinto Creek may be one creek that is small and remote, but all of them are important."

Pinto Creek once fed a ribbon of lush, green vegetation along its path – but water from the ground that feeds the stream dropped by 82% between 2013 and 2018 and a lot of trees that provided a cooling canopy went with it.

The stream began to dry up just two months after Capstone Copper, a Canadian outfit, purchased the mine.

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While the mining company unearthed 277 million pounds of copper over the next two years, the creek flowed only 70 days in 2014 and a mere five in 2015.

Its wells started pumping up to 4,000 gallons – the equivalent of 60 bathtubs – every minute to largely process ore and control dust.

The pipeline from those wells had been issued to the previous owner and had long since expired. The Forest Service let the pumping happen anyway.

In the year following the sale, Capstone officials presented the Forest Service a draft plan explaining its operations. But the Forest Service didn't begin analyzing what the new ownership could mean for the environment until years later.

By then the damage to the creek was well underway.

In 2016, Capstone asked the Forest Service for permission to mine an additional 229 acres of forest land and to extend the mine's life for 19 years.

The Forest Service said "yes" after a lengthy environmental study that indicated the expansion could further reduce flows by about 90% over the next two decades compared with the norm in 2012 – draining more than 5 miles of otherwise year-round flow.

To explain his decision, the forest supervisor wrote that the Forest Service manual calls on the agency to help maintain a healthy minerals industry. Furthermore, he considered the economy: the mine employs 690 people.

Retired forest service employees have argued that the mine could continue functioning without taking so much water. Previous mining companies have operated there without similar impacts.

The Forest Service could have required Capstone to take clear steps to offset its effect on water supply before approving the expansion deal, they said.

They also said the forest service should enforce its water right, which they earned decades ago in anticipation of this type of issue popping up in the future.

The Forest Service and Capstone Copper did not respond to questions by The Republic's deadline. The Forest Service indicated it needed more than a week to reply.

Babbitt, who enacted groundwater policy in the 1980s, said in the film that more needs to be done to protect Pinto Creek.

"I think what's necessary now is for those of us who care to put some pressure on, by going to our members of congress, and senators, asking them to stick up for pinto creek," he said.

Reach Caitlin McGlade at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @caitmcglade.