Bureau of Land Management Sued for Withholding Records on Uranium Mines That Threaten Grand Canyon

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 11, 2010
1:13 PM
CONTACT: Center for Biological Diversity
Taylor McKinnon, (928) 310-6713, tmckinnon@biologicaldiversity.org

Agency Ignores Obama's Freedom of Information Directive

GRAND CANYON NATIONAL PARK - February 11 - Today the Center for Biological Diversity sued the U.S. Bureau of Land Management for illegally withholding public records relating to uranium mines immediately north of Grand Canyon National Park. The suit asserts that the Bureau violated the Freedom of Information Act by refusing to disclose records pursuant to a July 30, 2009 request submitted by the Center. The Bureau is withholding the vast majority of eight linear feet of responsive records despite directives from the Obama administration requiring the agency to respond to information requests "promptly and in a spirit of cooperation" and to adopt a "presumption of disclosure."

"The chasm between Obama's policies and the Bureau's practices are as wide as the Grand Canyon itself," said Taylor McKinnon, public lands campaigns director with the Center. "We've spent months giving the Bureau every opportunity to fulfill our requests, but this is an agency that, even with the Grand Canyon and endangered species hanging in the balance, refuses to voluntarily comply with open government or environmental laws."

Some of the records being withheld relate to the Arizona 1 mine. In November, the Center for Biological Diversity and other plaintiffs sued the Bureau of Land Management for refusing to undertake new National Environmental Policy Act and Endangered Species Act reviews prior to allowing Denison Mines to resume mining. The Bureau insists that 1988 compliances are adequate for the mine, which operated for a short period prior to closing in the early 1990s. Despite a host of new circumstances since 1988, including the listing of threatened and endangered species, Bureau officials refuse to update analyses for any of the mines near Grand Canyon National Park.

"The Bureau of Land Management has painted a caricature of itself at the Grand Canyon," said McKinnon. "The agency is acting as a secretive surrogate for the mining industry that views open government, endangered species, and environmental laws as a nuisance rather than a priority."

The Bureau of Land Management has failed to produce any documents demonstrating the establishment of valid existing rights for the Arizona 1 mine or other mines around Grand Canyon.

Bureau officials have stated that many of the records requested by the Center for Biological Diversity would be made available on a Bureau Web site relating to the segregation order and proposed mineral withdrawal. However, to date the Bureau has only posted Federal Register notices, a few maps, fact sheets, and - perhaps speaking to its orientation toward Interior's proposed mineral withdrawal - an antiquated video promoting uranium mining that the Bureau developed in conjunction with the uranium industry in the late 1980s.

"The legacy of past uranium mining still lingers as deadly radiological contamination of land and water near and within Grand Canyon National Park," said McKinnon. "To think that new mining will yield different results is foolish and irresponsible."

Amy Atwood, senior attorney and public lands energy director at the Center, wrote and will argue today's lawsuit.

Background

The Park Service warns against drinking from several creeks in the canyon exhibiting elevated uranium levels in the wake of past uranium mining.

These threats have provoked litigation; legislation; public protests and statements of concern and opposition from scientists, city officials, county officials - including from Coconino County - former Governor Janet Napolitano, state representatives, the Navajo Nation, and the Kaibab Paiute, Hopi, Hualapai and Havasupai tribes, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, and the Southern Nevada Water Authority, among others. Polling conducted by Public Opinion Strategies shows overwhelming public support for withdrawing from mineral entry the lands near Grand Canyon; Arizonans support protecting the Grand Canyon area from uranium mining by a two-to-one margin.

At the Center for Biological Diversity, we believe that the welfare of human beings is deeply linked to nature - to the existence in our world of a vast diversity of wild animals and plants. Because diversity has intrinsic value, and because its loss impoverishes society, we work to secure a future for all species, great and small, hovering on the brink of extinction. We do so through science, law, and creative media, with a focus on protecting the lands, waters, and climate that species need to survive.

Read more:
http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2010/02/11-5