Comment: State of VA, call Mr. Chabin, he can tell you the true story of uranium mining! No to uranium mining and milling!
by Tom Chabin -
Feb. 28, 2011 12:00 AM
FLAGSTAFF -- I support Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar's proposed 20-year ban on new mining claims on public-land watersheds that drain into Grand Canyon National Park.
Salazar's decision to halt new uranium claims would be consistent with permanent bans by Hualapai, Havasupai and Navajo nations on their lands that surround the park. It would also acknowledge the fact that uranium mining produces miniscule economic benefits for a few years and imposes expensive, long-term health risks and costs to local communities and the federal government.
During nearly four decades of living in northern Arizona, I have seen the uranium industry's devastating effects on the land, water, and people of this region.
While I was serving on the board of Moenkopi Day School, our community's drinking water was threatened by a deadly plume of groundwater from a uranium mill that is costing tens of millions in federal tax dollars to remedy.
And uranium mining's cancerous legacy continues to poison remote wells that Navajo families depend upon for living along the Little Colorado River.
More than a year ago, a Canadian mining company reopened its Arizona 1 mine on the Arizona Strip District of the Bureau of Land Management. Its owners continue to be found operating in violation of state and federal regulations.
Apart from a few temporary jobs, Arizona derives little economic benefit from this mine, although we would pay dearly in the case of an accident or if it permanently polluted aquifers that supply fragile springs in the Grand Canyon.
I served two terms on the Coconino County Board of Supervisors and currently represent District 2 in the Legislature. State and county governments receive little or no direct revenues from uranium mining. No royalties are paid to the federal government for removing millions of dollars worth of uranium ore from public lands.
The only long-term economic benefits that we have from the last uranium boom are jobs related to cleaning up its mess.
Arizonans, please join me in supporting the 20-year ban on new uranium claims around the Grand Canyon. We simply cannot afford the devastating costs of another round of boom and bust by uranium mining.
Tom Chabin, a Democrat, is a member of the state House of Representatives from Flagstaff.
Read more:
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/opinions/articles/2011/02/27/20110227chabin-mining-28.html
