Feds: Rosemont Copper behind in paying firefighting bill
10 hours ago • By Tony DavisLoading…
Rosemont Copper Co. and a Rosemont ranch hand haven’t yet paid a
$514,000 debt they have jointly owed the U.S. Forest Service since
August for its expenses fighting a 2011 wildfire started accidentally by
the ranch hand.
The wildfire burned about 1,826 acres on public and private land after
the ranch hand’s welding activity sent a spark onto grassland that
ignited the blaze.
After a lengthy investigation, the Forest Service demanded the $514,000
payment on Aug. 31, 2013, in letters to the mining company and the ranch
hand, Eric Pavolka.
In a Jan. 31 letter this year, Southwestern Regional Forester Calvin
Joyner wrote that the Forest Service’s Claims Office still hadn’t heard
from Rosemont Copper about the debt. The Star recently obtained that
letter and several investigative reports about the fire through the
federal Freedom of Information Act.
But late Friday, in response to follow-up questions from the Star, the
Forest Service took a different stance. A spokesman in the service’s
Washington, D.C., office said that Rosemont Copper had requested
documentation from the service to support its bill — “a standard
practice in these types of cases. The requested records and documents
were recently provided to Rosemont Copper. We are currently awaiting
their review of these records before proceeding further.”
That statement from Forest Service spokesman Lawrence Chambers didn’t
say whether Rosemont Copper sought the documentation before or after
Jan. 31. Service officials said they couldn’t answer such questions
Friday.
Rod Pace, the mining company’s president and CEO, told the Star on
Friday that the Forest Service’s claim “is being handled by our
insurance company and I am unaware there are any issues. We assume the
insurance company is processing the information and will certainly
inquire if it is not handled in a timely manner.”
The fire, in May 2011, started on private property and spread onto
national forest lands, the Forest Service said in its letter last August
to Rosemont Copper. The fire started when ranch hand Pavolka was welding
metal tabs on metal stakes in the bed of a truck owned by Rosemont
Ranch, Forest Service reports say.
The mining company grazes cattle on that 30,000-acre ranch, mostly on
federal land. The ranch southeast of Tucson spans grasslands and oak
woodlands east of the Santa Rita Mountains and west of Arizona 83.
Other service reports said that the ranch hand who set off the fire —
who wasn’t named in those reports — said he tried to put the blaze out
by shoveling dirt on it, and he radioed the ranch for help.
The fire, spread by winds gusting up to 31 mph, didn’t burn structures
but came to within 75 yards of a ranch house on private land, a
Sonoita-Elgin Fire District official said at the time.
The Forest Service’s August 2013 letters to Pace and Pavolka said that
Pavolka and the owners of Rosemont Ranch are “jointly and severally
liable for the full amount of this debt,” because the government doesn’t
attempt to allocate each party’s share.
Pavolka’s actions also violated a federal law prohibiting actions
causing “timber, trees, slash, brush or grass to burn except as
authorized by permit,” said the August 2013 Forest Service letter from
Lisa Lux, branch chief for the service’s claims office.
On May 3, 2012, Pavolka apparently signed a plea agreement in which he
agreed to pay a $100 fine and a $10 special assessment on the charge of
the federal law violation. He was placed on five years’ probation. The
plea agreement obtained by the Star redacted the defendant’s name. But
its description of how the fire occurred matches the Forest Service’s
August 2013 letter to Pavolka that named him as the person who set off
the fire.
Pavolka, who still works for Rosemont Copper, declined to be
interviewed, company spokeswoman Jan Howard said Friday.
In its letters last August to Rosemont CEO Pace and to Pavolka, the
Forest Service wrote that to avoid having to pay interest, having the
debt reported to credit bureaus or having a collection agency called,
the company or Pavolka must within 30 days pay the debt in full, agree
to a payment plan or document that they are in a bankruptcy proceeding
that would place the debt on hold.
Rosemont officials have acknowledged since summer 2011 that one of their
ranch hands started the fire. Pace said back then that the ranch hand
had followed procedures for the welding work that were outlined in the
ranch’s grazing permit.
“If we are found responsible, we are certainly going to” pay a fine,
Pace said back then.
Activists opposed to the proposed Rosemont Mine said at the time that
they believed the mining company was negligent and should pay a fine.
They said they were disappointed that Rosemont Copper hadn’t offered to
pay.
