Freeman's correspondence with President Obama regarding protection of Oak Flat:
Letter of March 26, 2011
Nancy Freeman
P. O. Box 934
Green Valley , AZ 85622
March 26, 2011
President Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington , DC 20500
Respected President Obama,
I realize that you are very busy with 1,001 important items. However, will you please just take a moment to consider the plight in Arizona . A foreign mining company is going to destroy dozens of 200-year-old oak trees here. The land that they are on is protected by PLO 1229.
Surely, putting some U.S. dollars in hands of British stockholders is not as important as saving these trees and campground for our children, not to speak of the problems with watershed, destruction of an historic site of Native Americans (should be made a national monument), loss of habitat of dozens of birds and animals, and climate change due to devastation of the region—yes, people make deserts by removing trees that attract and hold rain.
Thank you for your time and attention to this matter,
s/Nancy Freeman
President Obama's reply on July 18, 2011 (He thinks it's important that I recycle when he is not going to stop the destruction of thousands of trees!!)
Freeman's reply on August 11, 2011:
Nancy Freeman
P. O. Box 934
Green Valley , AZ 85622
August 11, 2011
President Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington , DC 20500
Dear President Obama,
I am shocked and dismayed that you would send me a boilerplate letter on general environment issues when I had written you specifically about protecting Oak Flat Campground and its hundred year-old-oak trees from destruction.
What specifically are you doing on this issue? The destruction will be such that the campground will be at the bottom of a crater the size of our Arizona Meteor Crater ( 550 feet deep and nearly 2 1/2 miles in circumference ). [See www.mining-law-reform.info/RCCMap.htm .] The underground pit at 7,000 ft. will totally disrupt the watershed in a totally non-predictable manner.
All I have asked is that you honor the PLO 1229 of Pres. Eisenhower, and later affirmed by Pres. Nixon. They saw the danger of destruction of this national treasure—how many oak groves are there in Arizona —and specifically sought to protect the campground from mining.
I have been an active environmentalist in Arizona for 10 years. I saved my retirement community from having to drink mining slurry from a local mine in our drinking water. I have not been paid one dime for my thousands of hours of work. Because I now know how mining companies operate, I feel obligated to help other communities, so they won't have to suffer the thousands of hours (and dollars) to get the mess cleaned up. [See www.SavetheSantaCruzAquifer.info and www.Mining-Law-Reform.info .]
For your information, Rio Tinto, which will perform the Oak Flat mining operation, also owns Kennecott near Salt Lake City . They have produced the largest underground toxic plume in the U.S.A. EPA has been after them for years to clean up their mess, yet Congress wants to give them more public land to destroy and pollute.
Your claim to secure millions of acres of wilderness must be held in question as the Forest Service is now in the process of permitting another mine in Arizona for a Canadian mining that will destroy at least 40,000 trees, many of them mature oaks that are over 100 years old in the Santa Rita Mountains .
It's hard to believe that you tout recycling the small bag of garbage I produce weekly when you refuse to stop the destruction of thousands of acres of forest lands! Did you ever conceive of where the mining company is going to put 110,000 tonnes of waste rock daily ?!! Using the figures of Resolution Copper, they will mill some one billion tons, which have only some 3% copper. The other 97% has to be dumped somewhere. If the tailings are stacked, they will cover 2,389 acres at a height of a 20 story building. If you get informed [ www.mining-law-reform.info/Congressional Report.htm ], you will surely see the wisdom of supporting PLO 1229.
Sincerely,
Nancy Freeman
cc: Rep. Gabrielle Giffords
Rep. Raul Grijalva