Bill Would Stop Uranium Mining Near Grand Canyon
National Park
FLAGSTAFF, Arizona, January 26, 2009 (ENS)
Congressman Raul Grijalva, an Arizona Democrat, has reintroduced
legislation prohibiting new uranium claims, exploration, and mining across
one million acres of public lands watersheds surrounding Grand Canyon
National Park.
The lands covered by the bill are the last remaining public lands not
protected from new uranium development around the park, which extends for
277 miles along the Colorado River in Arizona and receives some five million
visitors a year.
The bill protects the Tusayan Ranger District of the Kaibab National Forest
south of the canyon, the Kanab Creek watershed north of the park, and House
Rock Valley, between Grand Canyon National Park and Vermilion Cliffs
National Monument.
Endangered California condor flies over House Rock Valley near Grand Canyon
National Park. (Photo by Evan Buechley)
More than 2,100 new uranium claims, dozens of exploration drilling projects,
and moves to open several uranium mines on public lands immediately north
and south of Grand Canyon have been started due to a rise in uranium prices
since 2005.
"Uranium mining poses one of the greatest risks to Grand Canyon National
Park in decades," said Roger Clark of the Grand Canyon Trust. "It threatens
to contaminate park waters with radioactive waste, poses public-health
problems for local residents and downstream communities dependent upon the
Colorado River, and endangers the park's unique ecosystems."
Concerns about resulting radiological and heavy-metal contamination of
surface and groundwater discharging into Grand Canyon National Park and the
Colorado River have been expressed by former Arizona Governor Janet
Napolitano, who was confirmed earlier this month as Secretary of Homeland
Security.
In a March 2008 letter to former Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne
requesting withdrawal of these lands from claimstaking and an environmental
impact analysis of uranium development around the Grand Canyon, she wrote,
"As you may be aware, the dramatic rise in prices for uranium over the last
three years has created a boom that has the potential to seriously harm the
Grand Canyon National Park and the water quality of the lower Colorado
River."
Objections have also been expressed by the Los Angeles Water District, the
Southern Nevada Water Authority, the Arizona Game and Fish Department,
Coconino County and the Navajo, Hopi, Havasupai, Hualapai, and Kaibab Piute
nations.
Congressman Grijalva's legislation, the Grand Canyon Watersheds Protection
Act, received a subcommittee hearing on June 5, 2008.
Charles Vaughn, chairman of the Hualapai Tribe, told the House Subcommittee
on National Parks, Forests and Public Lands and the House Subcommittee on
Energy and Mineral Resources, "Although we understand that this industry may
provide clean energy for the world market, it is the aftermath of this
endeavor that is of grave concern to my people. We do not want to see the
byproducts of uranium production stored in places like Yucca Mountain for
the remainder of our lifetimes and leave others with the concern of the
potential harm this would bring to our progenitors Grandfather Water and
Mother Earth."
"We as an indigenous people are taught to respect and hold sacred those
elements that provide the essence of our life," he said. "It is out of this
belief that we share our concerns for proposed uranium mining near Grand
Canyon National Park."
Three weeks later the House Committee on Natural Resources passed a
resolution directing the secretary of the interior to withdraw the one
million acres of public lands around Grand Canyon National Park from mineral
entry.
But Secretary Kempthorne continued to authorize uranium exploration in the
emergency withdrawal area after the resolution was passed.
As a consequence, the Center for Biological Diversity, Grand Canyon Trust,
and Sierra Club filed a lawsuit in federal court to compel Kempthorne to
withdraw these lands and stop uranium exploration and development on these
lands.
Now that the Obama administration is in place the conservationists are
hopeful that uranium development on these lands will be halted.
"With the leadership of Congressman Grijalva and a new administration, we
are optimistic that the Grand Canyon area and all who rely on the Colorado
River for their drinking water, downstream from these proposed uranium
mines, will finally get the much needed protections they deserve," said
Sandy Bahr, director of Sierra Club's Grand Canyon Chapter.
If passed, the legislation would cancel the Bush administration's December
rule change written in response to conservation groups' litigation that
eliminated the authority of Congress to enact emergency withdrawals under
the Federal Land Policy and Management Act.
"We're looking to Congress for permanent protections for Grand Canyon," said
Taylor McKinnon, public lands program director at the Center for Biological
Diversity. "Foresighted legislation and rulemaking now will protect Grand
Canyon from shortsighted administrations of the future. Now is the time to
act."
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Environment News Service (ENS) 2008. All rights reserved.
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