The week of March 11, 2019, was “Sunshine Week,” an initiative of the American Society of News Editors to educate the public about the dangers of unnecessary secrecy in government. So it was fitting that on March 13, 2019, the House Committee on Natural Resources held a hearing to get to the bottom of how and why Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments were revoked and replaced in 2017.
It didn’t take long for the real reasons to become clear: mining for uranium and coal.
National Monuments oversight hearing, March 13, 2019, House Committee on Natural Resources.TIM PETERSON
Eyeing uranium deposits in Bears Ears
Before the hearing, new details regarding the influence of uranium company Energy Fuels Resources emerged, including how newly confirmed EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler (then a lobbyist for the uranium firm) sought and took a meeting with Bureau of Land Management (BLM) officials to urge that the boundaries of Bears Ears be shrunk before the 2017 national monuments review even began.
Rep. Mike Levin, D-Calif., referenced recent media reports on Wheeler's lobbying efforts in the hearing:
Valuing coal over dinosaur fossils in Grand Staircase-Escalante
During the hearing, Rep. Jared Huffman, D-Calif., exposed previously unreleased evidence from an internal report by the Department of the Interior’s inspector general wherein a specialist tasked with drawing smaller boundaries for Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument was told to exclude lands previously leased for coal extraction before the monument was designated in 1996.
According to the report, the expert said, "These coal areas are all pretty high dinosaur resources areas. We were told they're out [of the reduced monuments] regardless. …It’s one of the areas that they found several species of dinosaurs that aren’t found anywhere else in the world.” Rep. Huffman added, “The value in that shale was not a little bit of coal, which you can find anywhere, it wasn't some incidental oil and gas, it was these dinosaur fossils that are unique on the planet…”
Watch the exchange:
San Juan County changes position on Bears Ears
When seeking to diminish the monuments in 2017, the current administration often cited local government support to cut or eliminate the monuments. Rep. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., addressed this issue when questioning Utah State BLM Director Ed Roberson, saying, “Recently, the new …San Juan County Commission has passed a resolution supporting [the expansion of Bears Ears] …Given the administration’s commitment to local concerns…will you then recommend that the administration not only reverse its decision to shrink Bears Ears, but also initiate a new review in order to expand the national monument consistent with local opinion that we have just seen [expressed with] San Juan County’s resolution?”
“I can’t answer for the department’s position on that,” replied Roberson.
The Utah delegation told a series of half-truths, leaving out important details that would eradicate the credibility of its arguments in favor of slashing Bears Ears.
“Mr. Curtis …is there any oil and gas in that area?” asked Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah.
“No,” answered Rep. John Curtis, R-Utah., instead referring to uranium. “As a matter fact, Energy Fuels [a uranium company] endorsed my mineral withdrawal for 1.35 million acres. …There’s no uranium.”
Rep. Curtis was referring to his failed bill, H.R. 4532, introduced in the last session of Congress to codify the president’s revocation and replacement of Bears Ears. That bill did contain a mineral withdrawal, but the withdrawal only applied to new uranium claims. Why would a uranium company endorse such a withdrawal? Simple — a withdrawal erases potential future competition. Energy Fuels is the largest shareholder in another company whose subsidiary owns more than 100 active mining claims within the original Bears Ears boundaries.
As for oil and gas, the Bureau of Land Management’s own 2008 resource management plan shows most of the Bears Ears region has either “high” or “moderate” oil and gas potential.
Obfuscation aside, the most moving moments of the hearing were found in testimony from tribal leaders and questions directed to them about the significance of Bears Ears.
For example, take the words of vice chairman of the Hopi Tribe, Clark W. Tenakhongva:
Poignantly, Rep. Deb Haaland, D-N.M., said, “We have heard that this illegal elimination of our national monuments…was for the sake of traditional uses. But I ask, how do we draw the lines around those traditions? Why is grazing considered traditional use, but not subsistence? Why coal and gas extraction, but not tribal religious practices?”
Did President Trump’s monuments review listen to tribes? According to written testimony from Tony Small, vice chairman of the Ute Indian Tribe Business Committee, “There was no back and forth discussion, no further exchange of proposals, no deliberative process as required by Interior’s Tribal Consultation Policy. Interior simply turned its back on the Federal government’s treaty and trust responsibilities and on Coalition Tribes themselves.”
Who did listen to the tribes? Reps. Gallego, Haaland, Sen.Tom Udall, D-N.M., and others in introducing two bills that deserve your support.
New legislation would protect Bears Ears and Grand Staircase
In the House and the Senate, the ANTIQUITIES Act of 2019 would codify the boundaries of 52 national monuments (including Grand Staircase-Escalante) to protect them from unlawful attacks, and expand the boundaries of Bears Ears National Monument to the 1.9 million acres originally requested by the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition.
As a blanket of snow covers Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments, we’re grateful that some relief from prolonged drought is in store in 2019. While the landscapes rest and the bears and snakes sleep, there’s no repose for the issues surrounding our national monuments.
Ryan Zinke taps out, David Bernhardt steps up
Facing a threat that he must resign or be fired by the end of 2018, Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke’s ceremonial flag has been lowered, and he has left the building. Zinke leaves behind a legacy of scandal and monumental disrespect for Native American tribes and the public lands he oversaw. What’s next for the Interior Department could actually be worse. The president has nominated Deputy Interior Secretary David Bernhardt, a former dirty energy lobbyist, to fill Zinke’s shoes. We’re remaining vigilant for what could be a tough couple years ahead.
Elections have consequences
For the first time in history, a majority Native American county commission has been seated in San Juan County, Utah, home of Bears Ears National Monument. The new commission has already passed resolutions rescinding the county’s previous opposition to Bears Ears and supporting the restoration of monument boundaries. The county will also promptly withdraw from the president’s side of the litigation that tribes and the Trust filed to restore Bears Ears. These are historic developments.
Rep. Deb Haaland, D-N.M., and Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M., along with more than 100 original co-sponsors, introduced HR 1050/S 367, America’s Natural Treasures of Immeasurable Quality Unite, Inspire, and Together Improve the Economies of States Act, or the ANTIQUITIES Act of 2019. The bill would restore the boundaries of Grand Staircase-Escalante, expand Bears Ears to the full 1.9 million-acre footprint proposed by the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition in 2015, and codify the boundaries of the 25 other monuments threatened by the administration’s national monuments review executive order.
Haaland and Rep. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., also re-introduced HR 871, the Bears Ears Expansion and Respect for Sovereignty Act, or BEARS Act, in the House. That bill would also expand Bears Ears to match the tribes’ proposal. Both bills should pass the House. Please urge your members of Congress to sponsor both bills.
State lands department relents, then advances
Each Western state operates their allotment of state lands differently, and in Utah, a body known as the School and Institutional Trust Lands Administration (SITLA) exists exclusively to maximize revenue for the school trust fund. This usually means development without public oversight or accountability, so it was surprising, when in January, it sold, then clawed back, oil and gas leases within the original boundaries of Bears Ears. SITLA is now proposing a 1,000-acre solar farm inside Bears Ears’ original boundaries. While solar energy can be positive, industrial development near or on top of important cultural sites in Bears Ears must be off the table until litigation resolves the legality of Trump’s actions shrinking the monument.
Canadian company abandons plans to mine Grand Staircase-Escalante
Colt Mesa mine shaft, Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. COLTER HOYT
Faithful readers of our blog may recall the alarming news last summer that a Canadian company called Glacier Lake Resources had announced plans to mine for copper, cobalt, and other minerals in lands cut from Grand Staircase-Escalante. In very good news, the company quietly abandoned its plans amid public outrage and slumping financials late last year. We’re keeping an eye out for new claims and plans, but we’re hopeful that heightened citizen attention (along with their remote locations and the marginal economics of mining) will keep our monuments safe until the court rules.
New year, new vision
The bold vision of Bears Ears has made real (if temporarily set back) concepts of intercultural sharing and increased authority for Indigenous peoples and tribal governments over the management of ancestral lands. In response, we’ve created a new focus here at the Trust on cultural landscapes.
Our goal is not only to defend and restore our national monuments, but to advance the debate of how public lands can be more inclusive and their protection more meaningful.
Indigenous peoples have millennia of direct experience with land management. They should be leading the way. We must acknowledge traditional knowledge of land management and how cultural landscapes interact as a whole. More than a collection of disconnected “archaeological sites,” these lands are tied inextricably to people as well as to the past, the present, and the future.
Most importantly, to engage Indigenous communities authentically, we need to weave together public lands protection and the social justice movement and have difficult conversations. Without acknowledging the past, we cannot grow into the future.
The holiday season reminds us to draw near to family, close to the hearth and to all the good things given to us. For many, the good things include a special anniversary today — the designation of Bears Ears National Monument on December 28, 2016.
Standing with Bears Ears in court
Though opponents have done their best to belittle and threaten Bears Ears National Monument, the land itself remains a powerful testament to healing and unity, despite the president’s attempt to shrink the monument by 85 percent just over a year ago, the same day he slashed Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument by nearly half. His actions were unlawful, and our lawsuits to restore the monument remain in court.
Watchdogging new mining claims
Since the attempted reductions, we’ve remained vigilant to safeguard these remarkable lands. Thankfully, overwhelming public support for continued protection has kept the most dire threats at bay. A planned copper and cobalt mine at Grand Staircase has not broken ground, and a handful of new mining claims filed at Bears Ears remain threats only on paper.
Pushing back on bad management
The Bureau of Land Management has drafted appalling management plans for the shrunken monuments, and we’ll need your help in 2019 to make sure the final plans don’t succeed in eroding protections for Utah’s national monuments.
Still, there is much to be inspired by in the continuing battle to restore Bears Ears and Grand Staircase.
New secretary of the interior
Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke has resigned under a towering cloud of scandal. Zinke led President Trump’s efforts to review and rescind Utah’s national monuments, and Zinke’s potential replacement may not be much better. Though a formal nomination has not yet been made, former Nevada Senator Dean Heller, outgoing Idaho Representative Raúl Labrador, Utah Representative Rob Bishop, and Deputy Interior Secretary David Bernhardt top the list of possibilities.
The new secretary must still be confirmed by the Senate. Until then, the man at the helm of the Department of Interior is Deputy Secretary David Bernhardt. Bernhardt’s long history of advocating for the interests of the fossil fuel industry makes him particularly ill-suited to act as a steward of our nation’s public lands.
But the public loves national monuments
TIM PETERSON
Back on the sunny side, public support for national monuments has been truly inspiring. More than half a million people recently called for necessary protections for Bears Ears and Grand Staircase. Thank you!
Support from elected officials has been uplifting too. More than 100 members of Congress filed a friend of the court brief in support of our lawsuits challenging the president’s actions. Alarmingly, and in an unusual step, the Department of Justice has asked the court to reject the brief and to disregard the views of lawmakers. Why, exactly, is Trump’s Department of Justice seeking to silence elected officials?
According to a recent op-ed by Senator Tom Udall and Representative Raúl Grijalva, “…national monuments enjoy overwhelming public support, and presidents have no power to revoke or shrink them with the flick of a pen. That power is simply not found anywhere in the law. The Trump administration does themselves no favors by claiming otherwise.”
Newly elected officials are offering their support for Bears Ears too. In 2019, for the first time in history, a majority Native American county commission will be seated in San Juan County, Utah, home of Bears Ears National Monument. New Commissioner Willie Grayeyes and returning Commissioner Kenneth Maryboy (both Diné) are both ardent Bears Ears defenders.
New Mexico’s Congressional Representative-elect Deb Haaland, (one of the first two Native women ever elected to Congress) said of Bears Ears, “We should protect lands like that. We should care that our history is embedded in those rocks and on the sides of all of those cliffs. We shouldn’t just decide that it’s time to start drilling and fracking — because some things are more important than money.”
Utah also elected a public lands defender to Congress for the first time in a generation: Representative-elect Ben McAdams. "I grew up hiking those lands, and they definitely need to be preserved,” McAdams has said. We couldn’t agree more. It’s past time to finally lay to rest the falsehood that “locals” don’t support our national monuments.
The last two years have been agonizing for public lands defenders, but the ups and downs have only strengthened our resolve to see Bears Ears and Grand Staircase restored to their original boundaries. Our field staff and our legal team are working hard to defend Utah’s national monuments, and your generosity now will help power our advocacy. Please dig deep for Utah’s endangered national monuments, and make a special year-end gift to the Grand Canyon Trust today.
More monument news
There’s so much to say, and we couldn’t fit it all in this blog post. For more on where things stand now, check out these recent news stories.
Boulder Weekly: This is our land. A year after Trump reduced the boundaries of Bears Ears National Monument, Native voices are louder than ever
November 15, 2018 is the deadline for the public to weigh in on how the Trump administration plans to manage what remains inside the reduced boundaries of Bears Ears National Monument, a monument President Trump slashed by 85 percent late last year.
Protect cultural resources before it's too late
While the administration's management plan contains many worrisome elements, one of the most distressing is the fact that it abandons protecting irreplaceable cultural resources — including rock art, cliff dwellings, ancient road systems, and other archaeological sites. Instead, it proposes waiting for harm to fragile cultural resources to occur and then reacting. But once the damage is done, it may be too late.
Cultural resources, like the dwellings and rock art found at House of Fire, in Mule Canyon, an area that remains inside the Trump monument boundaries — and that Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke visited in May 2017 — need protections now, not later.
A small glimpse of what's at stake
Dwellings at House of Fire in Mule Canyon, Bears Ears National Monument.MARC COLES-RITCHIE
A closer look at House of Fire, Mule Canyon, Bears Ears National Monument.MARC COLES-RITCHIE
A handprint on stone, House of Fire.MARC COLES-RITCHIE
Cultural resources like these are the visible traces of the complex civilizations that have called the Bears Ears region home since time immemorial. Once destroyed, these resources are gone forever.
Please urge the Bureau of Land Management, the federal agency proposing the management plan, to work with Native American tribes to develop and implement a plan to better manage cultural resources and avoid irreversible harm now.
If you’ve been following developments around the current administration’s efforts to gut Bears Ears National Monument, the following will come as no surprise.
In a rushed and haphazard effort to open monument lands to more mining, more grazing, and more off-road vehicle use, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is leading a planning process for the shrunken units of Bears Ears National Monument that — were it not so distressing — might be considered laughable.
But the draft plan is no joke. It’s set to deliver a crushing blow to fragile and irreplaceable cultural heritage found at Bears Ears that Native Americans and conservationists have sought to protect for generations.
Public comments on the plan are due November 15, 2018
Western Cedar Mesa pictographs slashed from Bears Ears National Monument.JONATHAN BAILEY
The plan presents four possible alternatives for how to manage the monument, but none of them are acceptable. As if cutting the monument by 85 percent and disrespecting the sovereignty of Native nations by slashing their authority over collaborative management were not enough, the preferred alternative selected by the BLM ("Alternative D") would prioritize livestock grazing, mowing down old-growth piñon and juniper forests, timber harvesting, off-roading, and even mineral exploration and development over the protection of cultural resources including rock art, cliff dwellings, ancient road systems, and other “monument objects.”
Draft plan fails to meet basic standards
National monuments are supposed to be managed to protect the values for which they are named. In the case of Bears Ears, those “monument objects” are cultural resources, wildlife, geology, and fossils.
But this draft plan fails to do that. In fact, it fails to even meet basic standards established by the BLM for managing national monuments in its own policies and procedures. It also punts important cultural resource management off to a later date, inviting avoidable damage to unique and revered cultural sites.
Please include specific information on the plan’s shortcomings, and your experiences in and connections to Bears Ears. It’s essential to write your comment in your own words. If you copy and paste, the BLM may ignore your comments.
Wondering what to write? Here are some important points to include:
Apply the most protective measures possible. Alternative D (the preferred alternative) falls short of even the basic requirements for how the BLM is supposed to manage “national conservation lands.” The BLM is supposed to prioritize protecting the monument objects that the monument was designated to protect and apply the most protective measures possible.
Allowing “enhanced” motorized recreation, timber cutting, increased livestock grazing, vegetation removal, and mineral exploration and development are unacceptable inside national monuments. These do not belong in the preferred or in any alternative considered for Bears Ears National Monument.
Stop wasting taxpayer money. The BLM has already spent nearly $1 million on a plan for a shrunken monument that likely won’t stand up to a legal challenge when it’s complete.
Planning in a hurry while the courts determine the legality of the monument reduction is poor public policy. Both taxpayers and the land lose.
Protect cultural resources now, not later. Waiting for harm to fragile and irreplaceable cultural resources to occur and then reacting, as the plan proposes, is unacceptable. The BLM must work with Native American tribes to develop and implement a plan to better manage cultural resources and avoid irreversible harm now.
Increased visitation and the unintended impacts to exceptional cultural resources by otherwise well-meaning visitors must be addressed immediately.
Bolster Native American tribal involvement. Instead of rushing the process, the BLM must meaningfully engage Native American tribes in the development of a management plan for the entire Bears Ears cultural landscape, not just the shrunken monument units.
The BLM seems to be scrambling to complete the plan by year’s end in an effort to beat the courts and/or Congress, either of which could restore Bears Ears National Monument to its original boundaries. For that reason, it’s important they get as much pushback from the public as possible.
If you’d prefer to write a letter, you can mail it to the BLM, Canyon Country District Office, Attention: Lance Porter, 82 East Dogwood, Moab, Utah 84534.
Public meetings
TIM PETERSON
The BLM will also hold three public meetings on the plan. If you live in driving distance, please attend, submit your comments in person, and voice your support for protecting Bears Ears National Monument.
Blanding, Utah Tuesday, October 2, 2018, from 5 to 8 p.m., San Juan High School, 311 N 100 E.
Bluff, Utah Wednesday, October 3, 2018, from 5 to 8 p.m., Bluff Community Center, 190 N 3rd St E.
Montezuma Creek, Utah Thursday, October 4, 2018, from 5 to 8 p.m., White Horse High School, State Highway 162.
Thanks for your continuing efforts to protect and defend Bears Ears, we appreciate it, and we know the land does too. We can’t do our work without you.
The Grand Canyon Trust helps you amplify your voice to defend our public lands. Your support helps thousands speak up and take action now. Please donate to the Trust today ›
on
September 11 2018
Tim Peterson
by Tim Peterson, Utah Wildlands Director
The 2016 proclamation establishing Bears Ears National Monument protected a living cultural landscape. Despite more than a century of archaeological study, much of how ancient peoples lived at Bears Ears remains shrouded in mystery.
The current administration’s 2017 assault on Bears Ears cut the monument by 85 percent, and in doing so, removed the focus on the proper care and management of important cultural resources found within the original boundaries. In addition to cutting out what may be the oldest known sample of rock art in North America, a particular set of features — Chaco — lost big in the decimation of the boundaries.
No, not your Chaco sandals. The Chaco Culture, as archaeologists call it, was a particularly vibrant and prominent cultural influencer centered on Chaco Canyon, New Mexico at around A.D. 1000. Chaco Canyon itself is home to some of the most elaborate ceremonial structures built by Ancestral Puebloans.
Flourishing from the ninth to the 13th century, the profound influence of the Chaco Culture spread across the present-day boundaries of the Four Corners region. The northwestern-most Chacoan outposts are found in and around the original boundaries of Bears Ears National Monument. These features include great houses (community gathering spaces), great kivas (religious structures), and great roads.
The great roads aren’t roads simply in the way we think of them today — a way to get from point A to point B quickly and efficiently — they are much more than that. They often extend perfectly straight for many miles, running up and down cliffs, across ravines, and through deep canyons. Utah’s great roads vary slightly from the core Chaco Canyon standard, curving gently here and there along canyon rims as terrain dictates. Chaco Canyon’s broad, open plains made perfectly straight roads more readily achievable.
In Bears Ears, these roads may predate the zenith of the Chacoan period by two centuries, as evidence shows they were formalized and built by around A.D. 800. Some may even be as old as 500 B.C. and may have been built on top of earlier roads used since the Basketmaker period. Since the Bears Ears roads are older, they may in fact have influenced the Chacoan societies, not the other way around.
Since they weren’t designed exclusively for transportation or trade, these roads are thought to hold spiritual and metaphysical value. Ancestral Puebloan oral history reasons that the roads draw the spiritual significance of the surrounding cultural landscapes into the great house and great kiva sites, and allow the spirits of newborns to arrive and the departed to travel to another plane. The great roads may connect distant great houses and great kivas, or they may unite with significant regional landforms. For example, one road in Utah may connect the great house at Bluff with the Bears Ears buttes themselves.
The great roads were massive public works projects that required enormous investment of labor from a society that did not have the wheel or beasts of burden to assist with construction. The great roads include waypoint markers or shrines — called herraduras by archaeologists — along their course, often where they change direction. Many were built near or through earlier settlements, perhaps as a way to honor ancestors.
Bears Ears is also replete with mesa-top signaling stations that were used to communicate between farming and living areas. These are indicators of a sophisticated and highly organized society. Today, no one lives permanently on the public lands of Bears Ears; a thousand years ago, the region was bustling with a network of population centers and connected farming and hunting grounds. Thousands of significant sites have not been documented, studied, or excavated, and perhaps they never will be. Pueblo people today want these sites, particularly burial sites, left undisturbed so that their ancestors may rest peacefully.
Study and modern identification of Utah’s great roads is still in the early stages. The roads can be difficult to discern and can only be properly photographed with low-angle light — just after sunrise and just before sunset. Archaeologists have documented about a dozen road segments in the Bears Ears region.
Scientists are also just beginning to record fascinatingly precise solar, lunar, and constellational alignments present within the construction of Chacoan structures, giving rise to a relatively new field of scientific study known as archaeoastronomy. Previously unknown to researchers, modern scientific means of measurement are finally catching up with what the Ancestral Puebloans knew and implemented in their construction more than a thousand years ago — all without GPS satellites and computers. These things yet to be rediscovered are exactly why national monument designation is so important — to ensure protection, promote contemplation, and allow stories of our shared human history to be told.
The December 2017 proclamation shrinking Bears Ears claims that the cultural resources cut from the monument are “not unique” and “not of significant scientific or historic interest.” Highlighting the slapdash nature of Secretary of the Interior Zinke’s national monuments review, President Trump’s proclamation removed national monument protection from at least two dozen highly significant Chacoan sites — the majority of the Chacoan outlier sites in the region. Those living near Bears Ears a millennium ago put their personal stamp on the Chaco building model; variations and anomalies in these sites make them different from those in New Mexico, Arizona, and Colorado. Sites like these are found nowhere else on Earth. Calling them “not unique” and “not …of interest” is not accurate.
These Chacoan sites are a very small sample of the tens of thousands of significant, unique, irreplaceable, and fragile cultural sites left vulnerable by President Trump’s shrinkage. These sites, which preserve a 13,000-year span of human history, now face real threats from oil and gas drilling, uranium mining, and gravel-pit expansion. That’s a grave injustice. The original Bears Ears National Monument must be restored and expanded. We owe it to our past; we owe it to our future.
The Grand Canyon Trust and the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance have appealed a decision by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to allow a massive expansion of the contentious Daneros uranium mine on public lands on the doorstep of Bears Ears National Monument.
Back in February, the BLM gave the mine’s owner, Energy Fuels Resources (USA) Inc., the green light to expand the mine from 4.5 acres to 46 acres and truck up to half a million tons of uranium ore through Bears Ears National Monument to the company’s White Mesa uranium mill. We appealed, and filed a statement of reasons backing up our appeal on Friday, August 10, 2018.
We filed this appeal because we believe that the BLM did not take a hard look at the mine expansion’s potential impacts, and did not consider any alternatives other than keeping things as they are and the expansion as proposed by Energy Fuels. The BLM now has until mid-October to respond.
Why care about the Daneros Mine?
The wild landscape surrounding the Daneros Mine is too rich in cultural, historic, and scientific resources to imperil with more poisonous mining. The mine is located on lands proposed for national monument status by the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition in 2015, and it’s just three miles from Bears Ears National Monument as designated by President Obama in 2016.
During busy periods, the mine could run nonstop, broadcasting dust and noise from exhaust fans, generators, trucks, and other activity, and sullying an especially dark night sky. Up to 15 truckloads of uranium ore each day would be driven along steep and narrow roads from the mine to the highway, then through the south side of Natural Bridges National Monument and through the Shash Jaa’ monument unit of the shrunken Bears Ears designated by President Trump in 2017.
The ore would be milled at the White Mesa uranium mill near the Ute Mountain Ute tribal community of White Mesa. The White Mesa Mill is already plagued with contamination that threatens the water, air, and public health of southeastern Utah, and this must be addressed before it is allowed to process any more toxic and radioactive material.
The Daneros Mine is currently mothballed, idled since 2012 when three reactor-core meltdowns at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant put the nail in the coffin on already nosediving uranium prices. Though low uranium prices made the mine unprofitable, in 2013 Energy Fuels proposed expanding the footprint of the mine tenfold, boosting production from 100,000 tons to half a million tons of uranium ore, adding two new mine portals and numerous new ventilation shafts, and extending the life of the mine from seven to 20 years. In February 2018, the BLM approved a modified plan of operations greenlighting all the company’s plans. Even if Energy Fuels decides not to resume mining, this approval could end up delaying the costly cleanup of the existing mine for two decades or more.
Taking a hard look at the Daneros Mine
Without adequately analyzing the mine expansion’s potential impacts, we believe the BLM violated federal law approving the expansion and concluding that the project would not have a significant environmental impact. We’re asking the BLM to comprehensively analyze the mine expansion’s impacts on surface water, groundwater, and other resources, in part by conducting a more in-depth environmental review known as an environmental impact statement. We also aim to prevent surface water and groundwater contamination by requiring stricter standards for cleaning up the mine and additional monitoring and response procedures to detect and mitigate potential contamination.
The Daneros Mine is within the ancestral lands of several tribes, including the Ute Mountain Ute, Hopi, and the Navajo Nation. Diné (Navajo) people know uranium from a traditional story. The creator gave them a choice between yellow corn pollen and yellowcake uranium dust. The Diné chose corn pollen, and it is a fundamental aspect of traditional culture to this day. The creator then warned the people that if uranium was disturbed, it would unleash destruction. The destruction came to pass, sickening many who worked in the mines and mills during the Cold War.
Radiation is particularly insidious because you can’t see it, smell it, or taste it, and yet it can be harmful to human health for a thousand generations or more. Instead of opening new and expanding old uranium mines, our society should be doing our best to clean up our toxic legacy for the thousand generations yet to be born. We’re working to make sure that this mine does not add to that legacy.
The answer is probably yes. Scott Pruitt’s replacement doesn’t seem to have the same penchant for first-class travel or tactical pants, but he’s a well-connected Washington, D.C. operator, and could be much more effective than Pruitt at pushing an anti-conservation agenda.
Pruitt’s replacement is Andrew Wheeler, and in addition to being acting EPA administrator until the president nominates a permanent successor, he’s a former lobbyist for the white-shoe K Street lobbying firm FaegreBD Consulting. According to FaegreBD’s website: “Wheeler served as co-leader of FaegreBD’s energy and natural resources industry team,” before being confirmed by the Senate as the EPA’s second-in-command in April 2018.
A former lobbyist for the uranium industry
Wheeler’s name should ring a bell for those following the Bears Ears National Monument issue, and his ascension to EPA chief could be cause for concern. Wheeler was the principal lobbyist for FaegreBD on behalf of Energy Fuels Resources (USA) Inc., the uranium company that heavily lobbied the Trump administration to reduce the boundaries of Bears Ears National Monument.
According to Energy Fuels’ letter to the Department of the Interior during the national monument review process, Bears Ears contains: “many known uranium and vanadium deposits located within the newly created BENM [Bears Ears National Monument] that could provide valuable energy and mineral resources in the future.”
EFR respectfully requests that DOI reduce the size of the BENM [Bears Ears National Monument] to only those specific areas or sites, if any, deemed to need additional protection beyond what is already available to Federal land management agencies.
– Energy Fuels Resources (USA) Inc.
The issue of modifying Bears Ears’ boundaries was so important to Energy Fuels that the company enlisted Wheeler and his firm as paid lobbyists to advance its agenda. All in all, Energy Fuels paid Wheeler’s firm $30,000 for “…a concerted lobbying campaign to scale back Bears Ears National Monument, saying such action would give it easier access to the area’s uranium deposits and help it operate a nearby processing mill.”
Working on behalf of Energy Fuels, Andrew Wheeler joined two other lobbyists in a July 17, 2017 meeting with top administration officials at the Department of the Interior, including staffer Downey Magallanes — the official tasked with national monuments review. Bears Ears and uranium came up, and according to the Washington Post: “Zinke's deputies ‘were pretty positively disposed to’ the idea of spurring future domestic uranium production.”
Desire to see Bears Ears reduced
Energy Fuels and Wheeler’s sentiments were backed by the Utah State Legislature’s Commission on the Stewardship of Public Lands, which argued in the monuments review comment period that Bears Ears: “threaten[s] national security and energy independence due to its negative impact on the United States’ uranium industry.”
The uranium industry and the state of Utah are linked by their desire to see Bears Ears reduced or rescinded.
Beyond lobbying for uranium interests at Bears Ears, Wheeler is the former chief of staff for Senator James Inhofe (R-Oklahoma) who has made a name for himself as a showman in circles of denial of human-caused climate change, even throwing a snowball on the Senate floor in 2014.
When Wheeler was confirmed as deputy EPA administrator earlier this year, Inhofe remarked: “Andy Wheeler is the most competent and qualified person for the job he’s been asked to fulfill.”
Dispensing with environmental protections
Mr. Wheeler has spent his career passing through the revolving door between industry and government, representing fossil fuel and mining interests when not working to make policy. Because he’s far more likely to quietly advance the administration’s agenda of dispensing with environmental protections than to draw the attention of late-night talk show hosts by seeking to acquire used mattresses or chicken franchises for family members, Andrew Wheeler has the potential to be far more dangerous to the environment than Scott Pruitt.
Six of Pruitt’s major initiatives have been struck down by the courts due to inattention to detail, but Wheeler is a skilled D.C. operator, and that should be cause for concern for all of us.
Public relations in politics can be a tricky business. Talking points for the media and voters are important and savvy politicos say what they must to win in the court of public opinion. The message presented to the public, however, can sometimes be a threat to assertions made in a court of law, where one’s genuine arguments must be stated clearly in court filings.
Last week provided a prime example of Utah politicians’ conflict between talking points voiced in the court of public opinion and their actual positions as pleaded in a court of law.
The counties are represented by the Mountain States Legal Foundation, a law firm that bills itself as fighting for “individual liberty, property rights, limited government and the free enterprise system.” By seeking to intervene in the lawsuits, the counties want to back up the president’s monument cuts.
Let’s take a look at talking points delivered by Utah politicians for the public, and then contrast them with lines delivered last week to the judge.
“Greedy energy tycoons”
The media spin: “…some on the Left and in the media have attempted to portray supporters of this [monument reduction] as greedy energy tycoons…” –Utah Senator Orrin Hatch
The court filing: “The most obvious economic harm caused by the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument is the impact from its prohibition on mining. The land on which the Monument sits contains Utah’s largest source of coal — 62 billion tons worth, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.”
Coveted mineral wealth
The media spin: “Mineral resources beneath Bears Ears are scarce. There is no developable oil and gas… The integrity of the Bears Ears landscape, long kept intact before the creation of the monument, will almost certainly remain intact after Trump’s announcement.” –Utah Governor Gary Herbert
The court filing: “The area in and around Bears Ears is rich in oil, gas, coal, and uranium deposits.”
Mining, logging, grazing
The media spin: "This idea that somehow there will be some wholesale development" in the reduced monuments is a myth. "There is a lot of scaremongering." –Governor Gary Herbert
The court filing: “[San Juan] county is enjoying the economic and cultural benefits of increased access to federally controlled land for productive uses such as mining, logging, and livestock grazing…”
Try as they might, anti-monument Utah politicians can’t have it both ways. Say what you will in the court of public opinion; in the court of law, you’re legally bound to tell the truth.
Are you ready for the buried lede? The court filing reads: "Upholding President Trump's modification of the Bears Ears National Monument will prevent the sorts of job losses and other harms suffered by neighboring Kane and Garfield counties under the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, safeguarding San Juan County's economy, community and culture."
But has Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument really led to job losses?
Not according to the data. The local economy actually grew after the monument’s 1996 designation, per capita personal income is on the rise, and jobs in mining, timber, and agriculture are all holding steady.
Last week’s legal filings touting drilling and mining as reasons to slash Utah monuments are not an isolated data point. Reporting by the New York Times revealed that oil and gas were on the minds of Utah officials as early as March 2017 as justification to remove protections, and the Washington Post exposed lobbying by a uranium producer to cut Bears Ears as well.
There is legislation in the United States Senate that would quash this back-and-forth and solve these issues once and for all, and it needs your support. Senator Tom Udall’s S. 2354, the ANTIQUITIES Act of 2018, would restore Grand Staircase-Escalante, restore and expand Bears Ears, and secure 25 other national monuments still under “review” by Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke. Call your senators today and let them know that you support S. 2354, and that you want them to take action to preserve our irreplaceable national monuments. Don't have your senator on speed dial? Find your senator's phone number ›
Building the strongest cases possible to restore Bears Ears and Grand Staircase in court, conducting necessary research in the field, and sharing information and opportunities to take action with supporters like you are among our top priorities at the Grand Canyon Trust. Thank you for your continued support.
Meanwhile, 2,000 miles to the west, it's spring time, and while the legal cases defending Bears Ears against President Trump's December 2017 attempt to reduce the monument to just 15 percent of its original size wend their way through the courts, the cacti, wildflowers, grasses, and shrubs of Bears Ears wait for no man. From the pink tissue-paper blooms of prickly pear to blood-red claret cups and orange globemallow, the lands of the original Bears Ears National Monument are flying their spring colors.
Indeed, the original proclamation establishing Bears Ears National Monument calls attention to dozens of plants that support the animals, insects, and people who visit the area, including the memorably named straight bladderpod, monkey flower, and hedgehog cactus.
Here's a look at some of the natural beauty you might see on display:
Aster. TONY FRATES
Beeflower.MARC COLES-RITCHIE
Cave primrose.STEVE HEGJI
Columbine.PATRICK ALEXANDER
Globe mallow.AL SCHNEIDER
Yarrow.MARC COLES-RITCHIE
If you're headed to southeastern Utah, don't forget to take a free copy of this handy guide to the plants of the Bears Ears region.
It was a long road to protection for the cultural and natural resources of Bears Ears before the original monument proclamation was finally signed on December 28, 2016, and we haven't reach the end of it yet. As the five tribes of the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition, outdoor industry, and conservation groups including the Grand Canyon Trust stand up for Bears Ears National Monument in court, we're counting on concerned citizens like you to make your voices heard to protect Bears Ears.