Grand Canyon Issues
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Call your congressional representatives and ask them to support the Grand Canyon Watersheds Protection Act.
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“Because the health effects can take so long to materialize, it’s difficult to pin down the cause of any particular illness,” said the editor of High Country News. “That’s one of the frustrating things about dealing with the legacy of the West’s nuclear age,” he concluded in reference to new research showing that cancer clusters are now appearing among people who live in the vicinity of uranium mines and mills. “They warn us that we still don’t know all the costs of the West’s last big nuclear push. And until we do, we may want to proceed very cautiously with the next one.”
Radioactive residues from our nation’s nuclear policies have been accumulating in and around Grand Canyon for more than five decades.
Starting in 1951, our government began 126 atomic tests in the nearby Nevada desert. Federal officials claimed that there would be no health risks associated with this aboveground testing. However, according to published reports, within a decade “an unusually high number” of children living in Fredonia, Arizona, were diagnosed with leukemia. Eventually, the fallout caused thousands of people throughout the region to became ill or die.
Impacts of nearby uranium exploration
In 1979, an earthen dam breached, releasing 1,100 tons of radioactive mill wastes and 90 million gallons of contaminated water into a tributary of the Little Colorado River. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission acknowledges that many additional toxic tailings have been washed into our region’s waterways. Collectively, these events correlate with documented risks and harm to people’s health.
The first wave of uranium development resulted in dozens of claims and mines to be located in and around the Grand Canyon. In 1984, a flash flood washed tons of high-grade uranium ore from Hack Canyon Mine into Kanab Creek, which drains into Grand Canyon. Located within the Park ’s south rim, the Orphan Mine continues to contaminate creeks, prompting the National Park Service warn backpackers along the Tonto Trail not to use water from two drainages.
Current status
Within 5 miles of Grand Canyon National Park, there are now more than 1,100 uranium claims, compared with just 10 in January 2003. The Kaibab National Forest has reported more than 2,100 claims filed in the Tusayan Ranger District; thousands more have been staked on BLM lands north of the Grand Canyon in the Kanab Creek drainage and House Rock Valley.
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Today, the NPS advises against “drinking and bathing” in the Little Colorado River, Kanab Creek, and other Grand Canyon waters where “excessive radionuclides” have been found. Although it is difficult to attribute this contamination to any specific activity, there can be little doubt that the cumulative effects of mining, milling, transporting, and detonating radioactive materials are causing long-term, adverse effects on water resources in the Grand Canyon region.
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