• February 19, 2024 E-Digest of the Green Party of Pima County (GPPC)

GPPC Statement

“Anyone supporting U.S./Israeli GENOCIDE of Palestinians is automatically disqualified from holding or running for office.”

Join us at the Historic Y Conference Room, 738 N. 5th Ave. and on Zoom Tuesday, February 20th at 7:00 PM for our February General Meeting discussions on:

Free Palestine!
Peace Fair - Saturday, February 24th
ADEQ Public Meeting about Copper World water permit
2024 Candidates - Timeline
GPPC Precinct Captain filings for 2024-2024 2-year terms
AZGP Presidential Preference Election - February 21st through March 19th

https://www.thehistoricy.com/

Email us for details on how to join  via Zoom Meeting

Alert! ADEQ public meeting next Tuesday, Feb. 20 about Copper World water permit

The Arizona Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) is holding an in-person public meeting:

Tuesday, February 20 at 6-8 pm
Corona Foothills Middle School
16705 S. Houghton Rd., Vail, AZ 85641

This will be the only public meeting where you can ask questions and where ADEQ staff can respond. Please come if you can. It’s important to have as many people there as possible to show ADEQ that you care about what they are doing.

The head of the Aquifer Protection Program and other staff will be present. ADEQ will make a presentation and then answer questions.
SSSR is stepping up. SSSR has contracted with a mining engineer and two hydrologists who are reviewing the draft permit to see whether the environmental protections in the permit will be adequate. We expect to have preliminary results of their review to share with you over the weekend so you can use their information to help form your own questions at Tuesday’s meeting.

If you would like to help with some of the payments we’re making to the experts, please click here.

As you think about what you might say or ask at the meeting, please remember that ADEQ will only consider comments focused on the substance of the permit and does not consider things like whether someone is for or against the mine or whether the mine is a good or bad idea.
Background: Hudbay has applied to ADEQ for an Aquifer Protection Permit that will allow mining to go forward so long as the company takes certain steps prescribed by ADEQ to safeguard public water. ADEQ has released a draft of the permit that it proposes to grant Hudbay.

Here is a link to ADEQ’s webpage that has both the draft permit and an executive summary of the permit. Here is a link to the page where you can submit your own comments. You may submit more than one comment at different times, so if you think of something else to say later, you can.

We are now in a 61-day period where the public can review and submit comments on the permit. The comment period ends March 11, 2024. This is a very tight window to review such a complicated, technical document and to make substantive comments. We need to figure out whether the provisions in the permit adequately safeguard your health and water. Will they?

SSSR will be submitting formal comments on your behalf when the experts have reviewed the APP. But we also will be calling on you again soon to submit individual comments. Don’t worry; we don’t expect you all to digest this technical document. We will provide you with the points you’ll need in your comments so that you can let ADEQ know that they’ve got to protect your air and water.

Terminology: ADEQ’s notice of the meeting reproduced below is a bit confusing because it mentions the Aquifer Protection Program, which is abbreviates as “APP,” and then it references the “draft individual ADEQ APP for Copper World Inc.” I spoke with our ADEQ’s community liaison who told me that the program is abbreviated APP and the Aquifer Protection Permit is also abbreviated APP. To avoid confusion, when SSSR talks about the APP, we’re always referencing the permit. We call the program by its full name.

ADEQ will hold a formal “hearing,” on March 5 6-8pm, at the same location as the February 20th meeting (Corona Foothills Middle School). The public can make comments at this formal hearing, but the ADEQ staff cannot answer them. So, if you want to get answers, please come to Tuesday’s meeting on the 20th.
Thanks!
Thanks to the many of you who asked the Arizona Departmentof Environmental Quality to extend the 50-day comment period for Hudbay’s draft Aquifer Protection Permit (APP). We all asked for a comment period of at least 180 days because 50 days is much too little for our group and the public to review this highly technical document.

Thanks to your letters, we got an 11-day extension that we’ve used to enlist the expert hydrologists who will be reviewing the draft permit and helping us point out flaws. Our experts’ first impressions are that there are many ways the permit isn’t up to snuff. Also, we have filed an additional formal request to ADEQ for a longer extension so we and our experts can do the best job possible in reviewing the draft permit.

Rob Peters, Executive Director, SSSR, Save the Scenic Santa Rita’s

Below is ADEQ’s official notice for Tuesday’s meeting

On January 26, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) released its order to grant provisional measures in South Africa’s case against Israel for genocide. The same day, the US District Court for the Northern District of California heard arguments alleging the United States’ complicity in genocide against Palestinians in Gaza in violation of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (“Genocide Convention”) and US law. While the case was dismissed on procedural grounds, in the decision released on January 31, Judge Jeffrey White invoked the ICJ’s order: The “undisputed evidence before this Court comports with the finding of the ICJ and indicates that the current treatment of the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip by the Israeli military may plausibly constitute a genocide in violation of international law.”

To Precinct Committeemen Candidates:

As we continue to receive guidance from the Secretary of State’s Office and review the emergency legislation (HB2785) signed by the Governor on Friday, February 9, 2024, we want to provide an update to address the concerns raised by candidates over the last couple of days.

New Deadlines

The Primary Election is scheduled for Tuesday, July 30, 2024.

Candidate Filing begins on March 2, 2024, which is a Saturday. The Pima County Elections Department is closed on Saturdays and Sundays. We are open Monday-Friday from 8:00 AM – 5:00 PM, excluding holidays.

The last day for Candidate Filing is on Monday, April 1, 2024 at 5:00 PM.

The Precinct Committeemen Write-in Deadline is Monday, April 15, 2024 at 5:00 PM.

Nomination Petitions and Nomination Paper Guidance

As the filing officer, Pima County Elections will accept all completed forms, however, any candidate filing can be subject to court challenge. We cannot provide legal advice.

We will not reject any nomination petition forms that have the August 6th petition date regardless of whether the petition signatures are dated before or after February 9th. Petitions with the August 6th Primary Date in the header are grandfathered in and will be accepted as valid during the upcoming filing period. If you are collecting additional signatures, candidates should use the July 30th date on all supplemental petition sheets moving forward.

The Nomination Paper (Declaration of Qualification) will be accepted if all the fields are completed (excluding the post office address section).

Again, we appreciate your patience as our team works to update our website and all relevant documentation with the new dates and deadlines. We will reach out with additional guidance as needed.

If you have any questions, please call the Pima County Elections Department at 520-724-6830 or by email at [email protected].

Thank you,
_________________
Alex Du Pont
Administrative Assistant II
Pima County Elections
(520) 724-6874

AZGP 2024 Online Presidential Preference Election ("PPE")

As a result of not officially qualifying for statewide party recognition until after the December 11th, 2023 candidate filing deadline for the State of Arizona's 2024 Presidential Preference Election ("PPE"), the AZGP will be holding our 2024 PPE internally via an online ballot that will be made available on our website on the first day of early voting for the PPE (February 21st), and will close for submissions when the polls close on the day of the PPE (March 19th at 7PM).

In order to participate in the AZGP's 2024 PPE, you must;

A.) Be a resident of the State of Arizona.

B.) Be legally eligible to vote in the State of Arizona.

B.) Be registered to vote with the Arizona Green Party.

C.) Provide your first and last name, and your county of residence in the fields provided on the online ballot, ensuring that the information you provide matches the information on your AZ voter registration card exactly.

Arizona voters who would like to participate in the AZGP's 2024 PPE must be legally eligible and registered to vote with the Arizona Green Party by the PPE voter registration deadline of February 20th, 2024.

If you have a valid Arizona Driver's License, you can register to vote online through the AZ-MVD website using the button below.

Register Green

For more information about AZGP's 2024 PPE, and to access the online ballot when the voting period begins, please visit: https://www.azgp.org/ppe_2024/