… Friends of Sonoita Creek was founded in 2004. The group monitors the watershed’s quality and biodiversity as South32, an Australian mining company, pursues development of the Hermosa project, a vast zinc and manganese mine backed by the Biden administration. Members are gathering baseline data on the health of both groundwater and the creeks in the Patagonia region, about 175 miles southwest of Phoenix, before the new mine starts operations. The mine benefits from multiple federal incentives because it would extract metals essential for the nation’s clean energy transition, but community members in Patagonia fear it will pollute and dry up the scarce water they rely on. The organization hopes to use the data to hold the mine accountable if it violates its permits, or if its operations lead to degraded water quality or pollution.