Bill Would Stop Uranium Mining Near 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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