Grand Canyon's Radioactive Residues (Back to Landscapes Program Index)
Radioactive residues from our nation's nuclear policies and practices have been accumulating in and around the Grand Canyon for more than five decades. Starting in 1951, our government began detonating 126 atomic tests in the nearby Nevada desert. Federal officials claimed that there would be no health risks associated with this above-ground atomic testing. According to published reports, within a decade, "an unusually high number" of children living along Kanab Creek in Fredonia, Arizona were diagnosed with leukemia. Eventually, the fallout from atomic testing caused thousands of people throughout the region to became ill or die.
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Orphan Mine located on Grand Canyon
National Park’s South Rim |
Leonard Heaton, the custodian of Pipe Springs National Monument during the 1950s, kept a journal about the lives and events among rural residents living in the Kanab Creek watershed. He noted "...a lot of prospectors going and coming through the monument hunting for that rare metal, uranium.... Several hundred acres have been staked to the west and southwest of the monument."
That first wave of prospectors led to opening six uranium mines above Kanab Creek. In 1984, a flash flood washed tons of high-grade uranium ore down Kanab Creek and into the Grand Canyon. On the South Rim, the Orphan Mine continues to contaminate creeks below it, prompting the park service to post signs warning backpackers along the Tonto Trail not to use water from two drainages.
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Aerial view of Atlas toxic tailings pile on Colorado River
near Moab, Utah |
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The uranium industry walked away from the 16-million ton Atlas uranium-mill tailings pile that will cost taxpayers more than $600 million to remove from the Colorado River's floodplain. The abandoned mill is an imminent threat to Arches National Park in Utah, and a severe flood event would jeopardize Canyonlands and other downriver parks. This is only one example of the poisonous filth left behind during the last big uranium boom. Federal lands surrounding both of these iconic parks are also experiencing exponential growth in new uranium claims. It seems only fair to ask those responsible to clean up previous messes before imposing more risk on those of us who live here.
In 1979, an earthen dam breached, releasing eleven hundred tons of radioactive mill wastes and ninety million gallons of contaminated water into a tributary of the Little Colorado River. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission acknowledges that many additional toxic tailings have been washed into our region's watercourses. Collectively, these events correlate with documented risks and harm to people's health.
"Because the health effects can take so long to materialize, it's difficult to pin down the cause of any particular illness," said the editor of High Country News. "That's one of the frustrating things about dealing with the legacy of the West's nuclear age," he concluded in reference to new research showing that cancer clusters are now appearing among people who live in the vicinity of uranium mines and mills. "They warn us that we still don't know all the costs of the West's last big nuclear push. And until we do, we may want to proceed very cautiously with the next one."
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Kanab Creek, which flows into the Colorado River,
is lined with uranium claims |
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Today, the National Park Service advises against "drinking and bathing" in the Little Colorado River, Kanab Creek, and other waters in the Grand Canyon where excessive "radionuclides" have been found. While it is difficult to attribute contamination to any specific activity, there can be little doubt that the cumulative effects of mining, milling, transporting, and detonating radioactive materials are causing long-term, adverse effects on water and water users within the Grand Canyon region.
Uranium Claims Inundate Canyon
Within five miles of Grand Canyon National Park, there are now more than 1,100 uranium claims (3.6MB PDF*), compared with just ten in the beginning of January 2003. The Kaibab National Forest has reported more than 2,100 claims filed in the Tusayan Ranger District and thousands more claims have been staked on Bureau of Land Management Lands (BLM), north of the Grand Canyon in Kanab Creek drainage and House Rock Valley.
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Staked uranium claim adjacent to
Kanab Creek |
In late 2007, the Kaibab National Forest approved a uranium exploration project without any analysis of its environmental impacts. Vane Minerals began drilling 39 test holes, some within two miles of the South Rim. The Grand Canyon Trust joined with the Center for Biological Diversity and Sierra Club in filing a suit to challenge the "categorical exclusion" granted by the government and its failure to assess effects of the exploratory drilling under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).
In early 2008, the court issued a preliminary injunction halting any further drilling. The case was subsequently settled to the satisfaction of all parties when the Forest Service agreed to prepare environmental assessments for public review in full compliance with NEPA before authorizing any new drilling activities.
Legislative Withdrawal
To stem the tide of even more uranium prospecting, the Grand Canyon Trust launched a campaign to withdraw federal land surrounding the Park from future mining and mineral leases. In early 2008, Arizona Congressman Raul Grijalva introduced the Grand Canyon Watersheds Protection Act (H.R. 5583) to withdraw federal lands adjacent to the Grand Canyon from mineral exploration under the 1872 Mining Law.
When asked to comment on the legislation, Grand Canyon Superintendent Steve Martin said:
"There should be some places that you just do not mine. Uranium is a special concern because it is both a toxic heavy metal and a source of radiation. I worry about uranium escaping into the local water, and about its effect on fish in the Colorado River at the bottom of the gorge, and on the bald eagles, California condors and bighorn sheep that depend on the Canyon's seeps and springs. More than a third of the canyon's species would be affected if water quality suffered."
In 2005, the Navajo Nation outlawed uranium mining and processing on its 27,000 square-mile reservation. At Chairman Grijalva's recent field hearing in Flagstaff, Navajo President Joe Shirley said:
The tragedy of uranium's legacy extends not only to those who worked in the mines, but to those who worked and lived near the mines that also experienced devastating illnesses. Decades later, the families who live in those same areas continue to experience health problems today. The remnants of uranium activity continue to pollute our land, our water, and our lives. It would be unforgivable to allow this cycle to continue for another generation.
Hopi, Kaibab Paiute, Hualapai, and Havasupai leaders joined President Shirley in testifying to support legislation that would withdraw from new mineral development most of the remaining federal lands surrounding the Grand Canyon.
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Elves Chasm in Grand
Canyon National Park |
Abe Springer, Professor of Hydrogeology at Northern Arizona University, stated in a letter to the hearing committee, "Because there is potential harm to one of the most important natural wonders in the world, and to tribes which count on the water from the aquifers as a sole source of water, it makes good sense to exercise the precautionary principle."
Using precaution in this case would mean preventing more damage, even though we are uncertain how water winds its way through regional aquifers. It would require proponents to bear the burden of proof to show that mining uranium will not contaminate springs in the Grand Canyon or risk the well-being of lives they support.
The Arizona Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) recently denied Denison Mines permits to operate two mines on the Tusayan Ranger District because it "proposed using outdated, 20-year-old liners and impoundment ponds to capture uranium mine-related runoff." The company is moving quickly to reopen the controversial mines that threaten ground and surface waters of the Havasupai and Grand Canyon. ADEQ director Steve Owens said, "The burden is on them to prove to us that there will not be an impact on groundwater."
We have learned enough about the uranium industry's dismal record to reject their current claims that "uranium mining is much cleaner now." We should not permit these companies to continue to plunder our drought-stricken region's sources of clean water, nor should we risk poisoning our children or the Grand Canyon. It's just not worth it.
Thanks to the extraordinary efforts of Congressman Raul Grijalva (D-AZ), the House Natural Resources Committee approved an emergency resolution that requires the Secretary of Interior to withdraw from mineral entry approximately one million acres of federal lands surrounding Grand Canyon National Park. Passed by a vote of 20-2, the Committee's resolution will prevent thousands of unvalidated claims from exploration and development and allow time for Congress to pass the Grand Canyon Watersheds Protection Act of 2008 (H.R. 5583).
For more information, please see the following links:
HR 5583 Briefing Paper and map
Copy of HR 5583
Arizona Game and Fish report on Uranium Mining
Advocate Article
Testimony on H.R. 5583
Joint Subcommittee Oversight Field Hearing On "Community Impacts Of Proposed Uranium Mining Near Grand Canyon National Park"
Subcommittee On National Parks, Forests And Public Lands: Legislative Hearing On H.R. 573, H.R. 3702, H.R. 3809, H.R. 4199, H.R. 4828, And H.R. 5583
Press Clippings (*PDF)
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