By APRIL REESE of Greenwire
Published: April 19, 2010
Uranium mining redux
Of all the problems facing the Grand Canyon, uranium mining may be the most pressing. "That's the biggest one right now," said Grijalva.
During the 1980s, several mines operated on the canyon's north and south rims, including one about 13 miles from the Havasupai Indian reservation in a side canyon near the park boundary. As the uranium market waned in the late '80s and '90s, the canyon mines were mothballed -- until the renewed interest in nuclear energy and a subsequent rise in uranium prices focused new attention on the old mines.
The uranium issue flared publicly in 2008, when the Forest Service allowed exploratory drilling for uranium within a few miles of Grand Canyon National Park's south rim, the most popular area of the park. After environmental groups sued, a federal court halted the drilling, concluding that the service had failed to consider the environmental impacts of mining before granting its approval.
Exploratory drilling is still taking place on Bureau of Land Management lands on the north rim of the canyon, but the Interior Department has imposed a two-year moratorium on new mining claims while it studies the potential impacts of new uranium mining in the area. A draft environmental impact statement (EIS) is scheduled for release in August, Frost said.
Critics, including the Havasupai and Hualapai tribes, environmental groups and some members of Congress, fear that mining uranium so close to the Colorado River will contaminate springs and groundwater that the tribes rely upon for drinking and agriculture. "Uranium mining ... has potentially direct impacts to the water in this region," said Abe Springer, a hydrogeology professor at Northern Arizona University.
Robert Arnberger, a former superintendent of Grand Canyon National Park who is now retired from the Park Service and lives in Tucson, said uranium mining could also have a chilling effect on Grand Canyon tourism, which generates $300 million a year for local economies.
Nikki Cooley, a Navajo forester and river guide whose grandfather died from cancer after working in a uranium mine in Utah, urged the congressional members to stop the "looming threat" of uranium mining near the canyon. "Uranium was never supposed to be removed from the earth. It's a poison. It comes out at a great cost to the people who live here," Cooley said.
"We depend on that water," added Carletta Tilousi of the Havasupai tribe. "For this reason, we are greatly concerned for human life and animal life in the bottom of the canyon." She then asked members of her tribe attending the hearing to stand. "These are the people of the Grand Canyon," she said, motioning to the dozen or so people who stood. "These are the lives that are at stake."
Bill Hedden, head the Grand Canyon Trust, an environmental group based in nearby Flagstaff, Ariz., said the federal government is still spending billions of dollars to clean up old uranium mines, including one from the 1960s in an inholding within the park that is now a Superfund site, and there are other places in the Southwest to mine uranium besides the Grand Canyon.
However, the study found uranium and arsenic consistently exceeded natural levels in soil samples taken from six sites that underwent uranium mining in the Kanab Creek area north of the national park.
Andrea Alpine, head of USGS's Southwest Biological Science Center in Flagstaff, told the hearing that the study relied partly on data from old water samples and USGS is working to finish another study using more recent data. Furthermore, she said, USGS is studying whether the uranium in the water is from natural sources or unnatural sources such as mining.
"The administration has some tough choices to make," Grijalva said during the hearing. "We will continue to advance the idea of permanent withdrawal."
Read more:
http://www.nytimes.com/gwire/2010/04/19/19greenwire-iconic-status-cant-spare-grand-canyon-from-myr-86051.html?pagewanted=all
