The Grand Canyon is one of America's most precious national icons. It's immense in size: it is over 277 miles long, 18 feet wide, and 5000 feet deep. Few, if any of the 5 million visitors would guess that the ecosystem of the Canyon and the surrounding National Park is being threatened by mining operations. Many visitors would probably be surprised to find out, as I was, that mining is even legal on land protected by the National Park System.
Fueled by skyrocketing uranium prices, drilling and requests for approval for drilling operations have increased. Since 2003 alone, more than 2000 claims have been approved to mine for the radioactive material. Most of those claims have been on land within 10 miles of the park itself.
In January, 2008, The Forest Service approved drilling at 39 sites just 3 miles from the southern rim of the Grand Canyon Park. The approvals were granted to VANE Minerals, a British mining firm. The purpose of the drilling is to evaluate the sites to see if they are loaded with uranium, and if it would be profitable to mine the material there.
According to the plan which was approved, the radioactive residue extracted from the drilling process will be stored adjacent to each site in either a storage pond or contained tank. Storage ponds will be netted to keep larger wildlife out. Environmentalists argue that such nets won't prevent contamination to species able to pass through the nets, or wildlife that eats the radioactive vegetation growing in the storage ponds.
The Forest Service claims that under the Mining Law of 1872, refusing such exploration is not possible. The Mining Law of 1872 was created primarily to promote settlement of the western part of the United States. Briefly stated, the law declared that the mining of minerals was the highest and best use of the public lands in the western part of the country.
The one hundred plus year old law doesn't address the threats to the environment or to human health and safety which are created by modern day mining operations. There are also no provisions for clean up of the mining sites after the mineral extraction. According to estimates, there are over 100,000 abandoned mines in Arizona alone.
Under the 1872 Law, only one method exists to limit mining: withdrawing the land. Land withdrawal is a rarely used option, but it has happened in the past. Land can only be withdrawn from the mining law if it is agreed that the land has a special public purpose and therefore should be closed to prospecting and mining.
In March, 2008, Rep. Raul Grijalua sponsored legislation called the Grand Canyon Water Shed Act of 2008. This legislation would prohibit mining claims on the more than 1 million acres of public land that surround the park. While this legislation is needed to prevent future mining operations, previously approved claims will still be permitted to operate under the old law.
On June 25th, due largely to mounting pressure from environmental groups, the U.S. House of Representative's Committee on Natural Resources voted 20-2 in favor of a resolution to require the Secretary of the Interior, Dirk Kempthorne, to withdraw the public lands surrounding the Grand Canyon from uranium claims and mining exploration. The Secretary has so far refused to do so.
In late September, The Center for Biological Diversity, Grand Canyon Trust and Sierra Club Grand Canyon Chapter filed suit against Secretary of Interior Dirk Kempthorne for authorizing uranium exploration near Grand Canyon National Park in defiance of the congressional resolution prohibiting such activities.
By filing this suit, the groups are hoping that U.S. District Court Judge Neil V. Wake will force the Interior Department to stop the mining, to protect the land immediately and to prevent other projects from happening on the land in the future.
"The Grand Canyon is a national treasure and something we should protect not just for today, but for future generations," said Sandy Bahr, chapter director for the Sierra Club's Grand Canyon Chapter. "It is irresponsible for this administration to sacrifice this area, threaten the Park, and risk the water supply for millions of people, all for a few narrow special interests."
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