Ask President Obama to protect the Grand Canyon’s sacred waters from uranium mining.
Three things you should know about the Grand Canyon and why the proposed national monument is needed:
1. Grand Canyon springs are being permanently polluted by uranium mining.
Contaminated water from an abandoned uranium mine on the canyon’s south rim is poisoning a spring-fed creek deep within the canyon. Another mine on the North Rim was re-opened in 2009, with more than two million gallons of highly contaminated groundwater discovered in its deep shaft. Water samples taken by the U.S. Geological Survey show that 15 springs and five wells within the Grand Canyon’s watershed contained dissolved uranium concentrations “related to mining processes” in excess of standards for safe drinking water. The National Park Service reports that the “regional aquifer groundwater wells at the Canyon, Pinenut, and Hermit [uranium] mines as well as the sumps at the base of Pigeon and Hermit mines have all exhibited dissolved uranium concentrations in excess of drinking water standards (30 micrograms per liter), with sump concentrations at Hermit Mine exceeding 36,000 micrograms per liter.”
2. Grand Canyon-associated tribes and a broad coalition of citizens want to protect Grand Canyon’s springs and sacred waters from uranium pollution.
In 2012, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar ordered a 20-year ban on thousands of new uranium claims on public lands that surround the canyon. This hard-won halt on new uranium claims took more than five years and one of the broadest coalitions ever aligned to protect the Grand Canyon. Havasupai villagers, whose sole source of drinking water is at risk, led the way. They were joined by ten other tribal communities, county supervisors, chambers of commerce, ranchers, hunters, scientists, Arizona’s governor, game and fish commissioners, and business owners. All united to stop uranium mining from permanently polluting the Grand Canyon and undermining the region’s tourism-driven economy.
3. The Grand Canyon needs your help to make the current 20-year ban on new uranium claims permanent.
The National Mining Association and Nuclear Energy Institute are suing to block the ban in federal court. International uranium prices are once again rising. The moratorium on new claims is temporary. We need to make it permanent, and there’s no reason to wait – President Obama can protect it with the stroke of a pen—now!
Please join tribal leaders, Grand Canyon Trust, and millions of citizens in keeping the canyon grand ›