GOP Lawmakers Launch Grand Canyon Uranium Mining Assault
Point Sublime, Grand Canyon North Rim
GRAND CANYON NATIONAL PARK—Today GOP lawmakers led by Senator John McCain (R-AZ) and Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) announced legislation that would open one million acres of public lands forming Grand Canyon National Park’s watershed to new uranium mining. The bill would overturn an existing moratorium on new mining and mining claims and block Secretary of the Department of Interior Ken Salazar’s proposal to extend those protections for the next 20 years.
“We are disappointed in this jobs-killing legislation. Uranium mining threatens thousands of tourism-related jobs in northern Arizona,” said Roger Clark, air and energy program director at Grand Canyon Trust. “Salazar has found the right balance between protecting Grand Canyon and the $700 million tourism industry while leaving promising mining areas further from the national park open to exploration and mining.”
There is widespread public support for Salazar’s proposed mining ban, which is to be decided in December; that includes American Indian tribes, local governments, independent scientists, elected officials, businesses, hunting and fishing organizations, scientists and conservation groups. About 300,000 members of the public commented in support of the ban.
“It is unconscionable that Senator McCain and Representatives Flake, Gosar and Franks are seeking to undermine protections for Grand Canyon and its watershed and showing so little regard for the people of Arizona, including all of those who expressed strong support for protecting these lands from uranium mining and the pollution it produces,” said Sandy Bahr, chapter director, Sierra Club – Grand Canyon Chapter.
The Grand Canyon and Four Corners region still suffer the pollution legacy of past mining. American Indian tribes in the region — Havasupai, Hualapai, Kaibab-Paiute, Navajo, and Hopi — have banned uranium mining on their lands. Water in Horn Creek, located in Grand Canyon National Park just below the old Orphan uranium mine, exhibits dissolved uranium concentrations over 10 times the health-based standards established by the Environmental Protection Agency for drinking water, while groundwater sumps below old mines north of Grand Canyon have measured dissolved uranium more than 1000 times allowable for drinking water standards.
“Neither mining corporations, lawmakers nor public agencies can guarantee that uranium mining wouldn’t further contaminate aquifers feeding Grand Canyon’s springs and creeks. Such pollution — as we see in Horn Creek today — would be impossible to clean up,” said Taylor McKinnon with the Center for Biological Diversity. “A decade ago Senator McCain was a defender of Grand Canyon. Today he’s one its greatest threats.”
