The Coronado National Forest will not release a draft next month as planned of an environmental impact statement to develop the Rosemont Copper Mine in the Santa Rita Mountains southeast of Tucson. In making that announcement Oct. 14, Coronado Supervisor Jeanine Derby said no schedule has been developed for when the draft would be released.

The environmental impact statement is a requirement of the national Environmental Policy Act.

Derby’s announcement comes just before a planned Oct. 24 visit from Jay Jensen, deputy director of the U.S. Department of Agriculture Natural Resources and Environment, which oversees Forest Service policy. Jensen is coming at the request of Southern Arizona’s U.S. Reps. Gabrielle Giffords and Raul Grijalva, both Democrats, for a tour of the proposed mine site and a public meeting.

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Giffords and Grijalva have asked Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to have the Coronado Forest Service consider a “no action” alternative in the environmental impact statement for the proposed mine, which could then lead to a decision to deny permission to start the mine.

The Coronado National Forest has said it doesn’t believe it can take that position under federal law.

Meanwhile, Pima County officials are continuing their efforts to stop the mine. County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry says a study done by the county found that 76 percent of mines on public lands approved under the national Environmental Protection Act had violated the federal Clean Water Act.

And, Huckelberry said Rosemont mine officials dismissed “without reason” the county’s suggestion that they consider an underground mine that would include tunneling through the Santa Rita Mountains and sending waste by rail to the Twin Buttes Mine near Green Valley.