Uranium

 by Amber Reimondo, Energy Director

It's been nearly a year since Energy Fuels Resources, the company that owns a hotly contested uranium mine near the Grand Canyon, officially changed that mine's name, from the revealing "Canyon Mine" to the innocuous-sounding "Pinyon Plain Mine" in an apparent attempt to distance the mine from its namesake. But as Arizona regulators continue to weigh whether to grant the mine a key groundwater permit it needs, concerns remain that contamination from the mine could threaten precious water sources and the surrounding environment mere miles from Grand Canyon National Park.

No one is more concerned about contamination at Canyon Mine than the Havasupai Tribe, which has opposed Canyon Mine since the mine broke ground in the 1980s. The mine sits in a forested meadow in the Kaibab National Forest, near the tribe's sacred mountain, Red Butte, on the Havasupai Tribe's ancestral lands. As legal challenges to the mine continue, risks to the Havasupai Tribe and the Grand Canyon's precious waters loom large.

Uranium mining not worth the risk near the Grand Canyon

Canyon uranium mine hit water while drilling its mine shaft, and over 40 million gallons of water laden with uranium and arsenic have been pumped out of the mine to date. Much of that water has been pumped into an uncovered evaporation pond frequented by birds and other wildlife, or misted into the air to speed up evaporation. The Havasupai Tribe worries contaminated water from the mine could eventually reach groundwater-fed Havasu Creek, which flows through their remote village at the bottom of a side canyon off the Grand Canyon, providing drinking water for people and their livestock. 

"One of the arguments I recall was that, 'Oh, you won't see the contamination until hundreds of years from now,'" Havasupai Tribal Council member Carletta Tilousi told the Arizona Republic this summer. "We're not willing to take that risk. There's only 757 of us left, and we just can't risk that right now for the future of our children." 

"Our traditional use land is being contaminated and the R-Aquifer, which feeds Havasu Creek and provides life to our people in the canyon is at risk," Matthew Putesoy, Sr., vice chairman of the Havasupai Tribe, told a local radio station. "Why take that risk? Once the R-Aquifer is contaminated, Havasu Creek is contaminated and our life in the canyon will then be contaminated."

The tribe hopes to see the mine closed.

"This Mine does more than threaten our only water supply. It has already affected the daily lives of the Havasupai people," Vice-chairman Putesoy wrote in a letter to Arizona regulators urging them to deny the so-called "aquifer protection permit" application the mine owner submitted earlier this year. 

"The Mine rests within the Tribe's Traditional Cultural Property designation of Red Butte,” Putesoy explained. “...Red Butte...is an origin point in the Havasupai creation story and a traditional gathering place for the Havasupai to conduct ceremonies and gather medicinal plants. The meadow where the Mine site is located is sacred and spiritually tied to Red Butte….our Tribal members have been forced to stop visiting this Traditional Cultural Property and have stopped harvesting plants, including the medicinal plants of cedar and sage, near the Mine site.”

The Grand Canyon Trust continues to support the Havasupai Tribe's efforts to protect their homeland from Canyon Mine. In August, the Trust argued a second appeal before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit in a long-running lawsuit involving Canyon Mine.

Strategic uranium reserve could put the Grand Canyon in harm's way

 by Tim Peterson, Cultural Landscapes Director

On October 9, 2021, the day after President Biden restored full protections to Bears Ears National Monument, concerned citizens gathered in a parking lot in the small Ute Mountain Ute reservation community of White Mesa, Utah. Together, advocates from the Diné (Navajo), Gila River, Hopi, Chemehuevi, and Tewa nations, and their supporters, set out on a spiritual walk led by the local Ute community to protest the nearby White Mesa Mill, a notorious uranium mill a mile from the monument's eastern boundary.

With Bears Ears restored, action at White Mesa Mill needed next

Ute youth and elders walked side by side, including lifelong White Mesa resident Thelma Whiskers (at right). TIM PETERSON

"We celebrated yesterday, but today we fight," former Ute Mountain Ute tribal councilwoman, Regina Lopez-Whiteskunk, told the crowd when they arrived at the mill turnoff, Bears Ears National Monument visible in the background.

"As Indigenous people, that's been our every day," Lopez-Whiteskunk continued. "That's been our every day for our ancestors, it's been our every day for our elders...Even when we have a moment to celebrate, the next moment we have to fight for something else."

Lopez-Whiteskunk was speaking from personal experience as a founding member of the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition, whose original proposal led to the creation of Bears Ears National Monument. The next goal Lopez-Whiteskunk sees to ensure long-term protection for this living cultural landscape is to close and clean up the White Mesa uranium mill, which threatens the local Ute community's water, air, health, and culture. 

Tribal concerns about contamination have been magnified in recent years following controversial decisions by the state of Utah to allow radioactive wastes from as far away as Estonia and Japan to be processed and disposed of at the rural uranium mill. The state has also allowed the mill to begin processing rare earth elements. 

Tribal members concerned about kids, water, air quality

"It's hard to live in the community where you're close to a...mill that's contaminated," Yolanda Badback, leader of the local Ute group, White Mesa Concerned Community, acknowledged. "It's hard, but we do it every day. Every day we survive...and we'll continue surviving until we get [regulators] to close this [mill] or get it cleaned up."

"What we're fighting against is, it's a monster," said Ute community member Michael Badback, sharing his concerns about radioactive materials spilling on the highway that runs through town, as has happened in the past. "We have kids that are communicated from school, back and forth on these roads...My grandson rides the bus...What are you going to do when a big accident happens here and the kids go through there on the bus?"

Badback also shared his anxieties about contamination and potential leaks from the mill's waste pits. "I've seen animals killed in that water...our water is precious to us. What's going to happen if our water gets affected by this?" He asked, explaining that community members no longer hunt rabbits in the area, because of fear of contamination.

"When winter comes, when the smokestacks are going, we're downwind from this, and we can smell it...It's got an awful smell. It blows south, to where we live," Badback said, community members nodding in recognition. "It's our kids that are going to get affected...the kids are starting to get asthma. Nobody knows where it's coming from. They never had asthma before." 

Tribal members share messages of resilience, hope

Despite these fears, tribal members pledged to remain committed to protecting their community from the mill.

Silverton House-Whitehorse traveled from the Ute Mountain Ute reservation in Towaoc, Colorado to show solidarity with Ute relatives in White Mesa. He urged citizens to contact their elected officials, saying, "the Congress, the Senate, the United States president do work for us, and we need to remember that and remind them what affects us in these communities. Though we may be out in the middle of nowhere, this middle of nowhere supports an ecosystem of living human beings, of animals, of the air that we breathe, the water that we drink."

Davina Smith shared her own family's experience of working in the uranium industry and drinking water contaminated with uranium on the Navajo Nation, and well as the legacy of cancer that followed. Smith had just completed a prayer run from Bears Ears National Monument to Salt Lake City carrying medicine herbs she had collected. "I carried this on my back for a form of prayer," she explained, removing the pouch of herbs from her backpack. "Look what happened...we got restored for Bears Ears." Normally Smith would return the herbs to the San Juan River, but she felt moved to bring them to the spiritual walk first. "That is my wish, that we either close this place down or we get it cleaned up," she said.

Ute elder and master basket maker Thelma Whiskers encouraged young advocates to remain strong. "Stand on your feet," she told them. "Don't let these white people run over you guys...Let's be strong...I know we can do it...I was so happy to hear about the Bear Ears," Whiskers recalled, smiling. "This is what's going to happen to this place [the mill] up here. They're going to clean this place up. We're going to be living in a good, fresh air...We're going to keep fighting for it, keep fighting. We're not going to give up."

 by Amber Reimondo, Energy Director

Turning a profit — spending less than your business brings in — is fundamental to a business’ bottom line. That’s been a tall order for mining companies near the Grand Canyon, where, for decades, the cost of mining the type of uranium deposit found in the region has often outweighed the market value of uranium. But it hasn’t been so tall as to keep them from trying. Add in the risk of uranium contamination to the people, cultures, animals, and plants that depend on the canyon’s precious waters, and the cost of uranium mining around the Grand Canyon is simply too high.

Right now, we have the chance to permanently protect the Grand Canyon from uranium mining once and for all. Legislation that would ban new mines and mining claims on one million acres of public lands around Grand Canyon National Park has passed through the House and is sitting in the Senate.

To the voting public, this is not a partisan issue. It’s a no-brainer. The majority of voters across the political spectrum, tribes, and stakeholders — from dozens of local businesses, to local governments, to sportsmen, to faith groups — all support banning uranium mining near the Grand Canyon. 

It’s time. We need to pass the Grand Canyon Protection Act, and we need to do it now. 

How did we get here?

In 2007, a decades-long slump in the price per pound of uranium was briefly interrupted. As the price of uranium soared to a short-lived but all-time high, so too did the hopes of uranium mining companies with dreams of mining on public lands adjacent to Grand Canyon National Park. Between 2007 and 2009, mining companies staked more than 10,000 claims on Bureau of Land Management and Forest Service lands, adjacent and hydrologically connected to the Grand Canyon. 

Communities work together to ban uranium mining

Tribes and communities in the Southwest know all too well the dangerous reality uranium mining leaves behind: the possibility of water contamination, radioactive dust, death and disease, and the heavy burden of proof left on impacted communities to hold companies accountable for cleanup. 

In response to the mining claim frenzy in 2007, a broad community came together in a widespread effort to ban uranium extraction in the Grand Canyon region forever. In 2012, the secretary of the interior signed a temporary 20-year ban on new mining claims around the Grand Canyon. Since then, the extraordinary number of mining claims near the Grand Canyon have declined with time and the return of low uranium prices. But one thing that hasn’t faded away is the widespread desire to see this region protected for the good of all, forever.

The Grand Canyon Protection Act is our best chance at securing enduring protection for the Grand Canyon and its life-giving waters.  

Climate change, communities, and water

AMY S. MARTIN

Today, more than 4,900 days since the first piece of Congressional legislation was introduced to permanently ban uranium mining near the Grand Canyon, there is even more reason for urgency on this issue. 

For the first time in history, the federal government has declared a water shortage on the Colorado River. Climate change is upon us. And while we don’t need Grand Canyon uranium to shift to a carbon-free electric grid, we do need every drop of water we have. 

Mines near the Grand Canyon not only threaten the quality of water in the region, but also the quantity. Canyon Mine, for instance, near the south rim of the Grand Canyon, has been taking on millions of gallons of groundwater every year since first piercing the underlying aquifer in 2016. And the operator’s “solution” to the mine-shaft flooding problem? Deplete the aquifer below the mine:

 … [t]he rate of water discharge to the shaft will decrease as the perched reservoir is depleted.

– Final Environmental Impact Statement, Canyon Mine

The bottom line

Tribes and a broad spectrum of stakeholders have worked for years to see that the Grand Canyon region and the people and economies that depend on it are never endangered by another uranium mine. It’s true that change often takes time, but time has passed. Communities living on the frontlines of current and potential future uranium contamination have already been patient. They deserve to never again worry about the safety of the water they drink or the air they breathe. 

Now it’s more important than ever that the Grand Canyon Protection Act becomes law. 

If you’re in Arizona, join us in thanking Sens. Sinema and Kelly for introducing the Grand Canyon Protection Act in the Senate, and let them know they have your support as they move it forward. If you’re not in Arizona, please urge your senators to support and co-sponsor this important legislation.

 by Amber Reimondo, Energy Director

It’s one thing to make commitments to learn and do better by those who have been wronged. It’s quite another to actually follow through. 

Under the Trump administration, a so-called “strategic uranium reserve” was proposed with the support of mining companies, including one that operates near the Grand Canyon and Bears Ears National Monument. That company, Energy Fuels Resources, would potentially pocket millions in taxpayer dollars for selling uranium to the federal government at above-market prices. The concept is so ill-conceived that in December 2020, a Government Accountability Office report found that the justification for requesting the funds was inadequate. 

Nevertheless, seed money for the project in the amount of $75 million was tucked away and passed in a massive government spending bill at the end of 2020. It’s since been up to the Biden administration to decide whether to pursue that program further. The Biden administration is now considering a path that is counter to the promises it made to frontline communities, especially Indigenous communities, and the consequences are likely to be especially steep across the Grand Canyon and Bears Ears regions. 

This is concerning because the U.S. has no shortage of uranium. Until recently, the government was actually getting rid of excess uranium. And even if we did have a shortage, a uranium reserve wouldn’t do much to address it. While keeping existing and problematic uranium facilities afloat at taxpayer expense, the actual amount of uranium that the government could obtain each year would be a fraction of what existing nuclear utilities use annually. And the reason for that is the same reason that U.S. uranium producers aren’t doing well to begin with: U.S. uranium deposits are poorer quality and thus more expensive to mine than, for instance, deposits in Australia and Canada.

Putting the Grand Canyon, Bears Ears, and Native communities on the frontlines of uranium mining operations at risk simply to pad the pockets of multinational uranium companies — at taxpayer expense — is clearly at odds with the Biden administration’s avowed commitment to environmental justice. 

Take action. Urge the Biden administration not to subsidize the uranium industry ›

Biden administration asks for public input 

Despite a brief moment of hope when the administration omitted the program from its 2022 budget proposal in May, in a Senate hearing on June 15, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm revealed that the Department of Energy would soon be starting a process to create a reserve. And on August 10, the department took the first step by opening a 30-day “request for information” to gather public input on the creation of a uranium reserve.

What a reserve means for the Grand Canyon, Bears Ears

BLAKE MCCORD

If a uranium reserve is created as the Trump administration proposed, it could mean spending $1.5 billion over a decade to subsidize new uranium production from existing facilities in the United States. While it’s a good thing that the Biden administration seems uninterested in spurring new operations, existing uranium facilities are already environmental and environmental justice nightmares. 

One of the companies most excited about the concept of a reserve is Energy Fuels Resources. The company lobbied to slash Bears Ears National Monument and owns the White Mesa uranium mill in southeastern Utah, just outside the original monument boundaries. The company also owns Canyon Mine (newly renamed “Pinyon Plain Mine”), a uranium mine near the south rim of the Grand Canyon that the government currently treats as exempt from a temporary mining ban — a ban that tribes and local communities are working to make permanent. 

The White Mesa Mill is the only conventional uranium mill in the country. It has also pivoted its business model to become a commercial radioactive waste disposal site. The mill sits just a few miles north and upslope — as groundwater flows — of the White Mesa Ute community, which has long been concerned about the impacts community members will face now and after the mill closes, leaving behind hundreds of acres of toxic and radioactive waste. There is confirmed shallow groundwater contamination beneath the mill, and monitoring wells around the mill have been showing increasing levels of contamination.

A uranium reserve would undoubtedly mean more business for the mill since no matter where uranium is mined, the mill would likely have a hand in processing any conventional ore into a more concentrated form called “yellowcake.” The Department of Energy has also stated that it plans to accept uranium produced from “alternate feed” material, which is the substance of the mill’s radioactive waste processing and disposal business.

Canyon Mine was permitted in the late 1980s, but despite ongoing groundwater flooding and the resulting threat of uranium contamination problems, it has yet to produce any ore commercially. That’s because the cost of mining the ore is higher than what the company can sell it for. A uranium reserve could lead the government to buy uranium from Canyon Mine that no one else would otherwise buy. Canyon Mine sits within the Red Butte Traditional Cultural Property, a site sacred to the Havasupai Tribe. The groundwater problems at the mine also pose a threat to the Havasupai Tribe’s sole water source in their remote village of Supai, inside a side canyon of the Grand Canyon. 

A reserve is counter to Biden’s promises to Indigenous communities

COREY ROBINSON

The Biden administration has established policies, made plans, and created advisory councils directed at environmental justice and properly engaging sovereign Indigenous tribes and nations. One such policy created a White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council — a council comprised of 26 individuals with a variety of experiences and expertise in environmental justice. The council is charged, in part, with offering recommendations to the administration for ensuring that 40 percent of federal climate investments go to disadvantaged communities (referred to as “Justice40”). 

Among the council’s final recommendations is a call to “ensure that 100% of the investments do no harm to frontline communities. Using funds to add to cumulative pollution only to use other funds to mitigate the impacts is a losing proposition...” The council also advises the administration to take “bold action to sunset investment by 2030” in nuclear energy. Yet, the Department of Energy claims that “[r]evitalizing the U.S. nuclear fuel supply infrastructure...would support environmental justice initiatives, prioritize addressing long-standing and persistent racial injustice by targeting 40 percent of the benefits of climate and clean infrastructure investments to disadvantaged communities…” It’s difficult to see how, especially given the disturbing legacy of contamination and human health risks the uranium industry has left across the Navajo Nation and numerous other Indigenous nations and communities across the country, which are still dealing with the consequences of uranium contamination left over from the last time the federal government subsidized a uranium boom. In fact, creating a uranium reserve would subsidize uranium companies who are perpetrating environmental injustices toward Indigenous communities, including at Canyon Mine and the White Mesa Mill.

This is backward, but you can help

You can help by letting the Biden administration know that a uranium reserve is counter to the commitments the administration has made to Indigenous and other frontline communities and to the requests of the very advisory council it appointed to guide federal investments that are environmentally just. 

Send your comments to the Biden administration before the September 10, 2021 deadline.

 by Tim Peterson, Cultural Landscapes Director

We all use rare earth elements in our modern lives. While not actually rare, rare earth elements (the 15 elements on the periodic table known as the lanthanides, plus two others) are used in products ranging from electric car batteries to military weapons systems. China produces the bulk of the world’s supply, and investors and U.S. government officials would like to spur more domestic production. What does that have to do with an old uranium mill on the doorstep of Bears Ears National Monument and a few miles from the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe’s White Mesa community? Glad you asked. 

To avoid closing down, uranium mill seeks out rare earths

Energy Fuels (the Canadian company whose American subsidiary owns the White Mesa uranium mill) is getting into the rare earth element business, having begun small-scale production of what it calls “an intermediate rare earth product” in March 2021. The new venture has received no specific environmental analysis, and regulators haven’t accepted public comment. The hype around the effort has grown primarily in publications aimed at investors, and an Energy Fuels executive explained why: 

[The] White Mesa [Mill] barely makes money. It’s always at risk of permanent closure. –Curtis Moore, VP of Marketing and Corporate Development for Energy Fuels Resources (USA)

The mill opened in 1980, having acquired permits based on a plan to process uranium ore from around the region for about 15 years then shut down and clean up. More than 40 years later, the mill is still operating. Why? 

Making millions by accepting low-level radioactive waste

When local uranium became too cheap to keep the mill running profitably, the mill’s owners began to seek new sources of income. In the late 1980s, the White Mesa Mill began accepting what it called “alternate feeds,” often for a fee. These feeds are, in reality, toxic and radioactive waste streams from around the nation and Canada that contain some uranium. These wastes have come from former defense production facilities, uranium conversion plants, and (you guessed it) from rare earth element processors. After Energy Fuels Resources extracts whatever quantity of uranium these waste streams contain, usually in small amounts, the company dumps the rest of the materials in waste pits near the mill. Energy Fuels disclosed in 2020 that this alternate feed business makes the company between $5 and $15 million per year.

Deals signed with companies in Georgia and Tennessee

Now, seeking to extend the working life of its old uranium mill even further, Energy Fuels Resources announced in 2020 that the mill would begin producing mixed rare earth carbonate from monazite sands shipped from Georgia. The company has also signed an agreement to purchase monazite sands from a yet-to-be completed mining project in Tennessee.

Energy Fuels Resources says it will process 5 million pounds of monazite sands in 2021 and ramp up to 30 million pounds a year if it can find the supply. The company has received taxpayer money from the U.S. Department of Energy to subsidize its rare earths business to the tune of $1.75 million.

Putting Utah’s environment at risk without public input

TIM PETERSON

Why haven’t you heard about an opportunity to weigh in on this new business? Because in addition to rare earths, monazite sands also contain uranium, and the mill’s owner has asserted that those sands are “uranium ore,” with Utah regulators’ blessing, as long as the mill extracts uranium from the sands. 

Before granting their blessing, however, state regulators raised an important point: the mill is licensed to produce uranium, vanadium, and, if profitable, copper, not rare earths. “The process of extracting a rare earth mineral concentrate has not been environmentally evaluated for the White Mesa Uranium Mill,” regulators said. Utah regulators ultimately acquiesced to Energy Fuels Resources’ plans without giving the public a chance to have its say.

There’s another wrinkle. An “intermediate rare earth product” is not actually what manufacturers need to make their products. Because the mill cannot separate individual metals from the concentrate, another facility must complete the process to produce useable rare earth elements. Where will that product go? Halfway across the globe to Estonia — to NPM Silmet OÜ, the same metals processing plant already looking to ship its radioactive waste to the mill. Energy Fuels Resources announced the first container (approximately 40,000 pounds) of an expected 15 containers holding rare earth carbonate was on its way to Estonia in July 2021. 

The mill owner says it is evaluating the potential to further refine its intermediate product “at the White Mesa Mill, or nearby,” and has hired a French consultant to help “begin designing rare earth separation capabilities at the White Mesa Mill.” But profitable American rare earth separation has proven elusive; much larger companies have tried and failed. Specific to White Mesa, Dr. Kristin Vekasi, a professor at the University of Maine who studies the geopolitics of supply chains, said, “it will be hard for Energy Fuels to justify building a facility to further process the metals without China limiting exports or new government subsidies.” 

Does this all seem like an elaborate house of cards? An investment website offered its take on the new rare earth endeavor: “Yes, we can think of this as an attempt at a Hail Mary pass by an old uranium mill.”  

Like the proverbial cat, the White Mesa Mill seems to have nine lives. The new rare earths venture may breathe more life into a uranium mill that should have closed long ago, and a longer life means even more waste for the mill’s pits. Transforming an old uranium mill into a new rare metals processor without substantial analysis or public comment deserves scrutiny, as does the potential impact of rare metals processing on groundwater and the White Mesa Ute community. Right now, the public has no say. But we should.

 by Amber Reimondo, Energy Director

A uranium mine near the south rim of the Grand Canyon continues to endanger precious and limited water supplies. Today, the public has a rare chance to speak up about it. The Arizona Department of Environmental Quality has released a draft groundwater permit for the mine, which is currently open for public comment until midnight August 7, 2021, followed by a virtual public hearing on August 9, 2021. 

TAKE ACTION. Urge regulators to deny the permit ›
RAISE YOUR VOICE. Register for the virtual public hearing on August 9 ›

Ongoing flooding at Canyon Mine

Canyon Mine, recently renamed “Pinyon Plain Mine," has been permitted since the late 1980s, but despite being 35 years old, it has yet to commercially produce uranium ore. The mine operator has, however, dug a nearly 1,500-foot-deep mine shaft that has exposed uranium ore to the elements. The shaft also has been consistently taking on water — 40 million gallons of groundwater and counting — since the company first sunk the shaft deep enough to hit significant groundwater in the Coconino Formation in 2016. The result is an ongoing environmental hazard, requiring constant action by the mining company to pump out water contaminated with high levels of uranium and arsenic into an on-site wastewater pond, where the company sprays it into the air, too often allowing it to drift beyond the mine’s fence line and into the Kaibab National Forest. 

The Havasupai Tribe strongly opposes the mine

Canyon Mine is especially concerning to the Havasupai Tribe. For starters, the mine sits withing the Red Butte Traditional Cultural Property, a sacred site for the tribe. Tribal members have reported that they no longer collect medicinal plants in the area for fear of exposure to radionuclides. The turquoise-blue waters of Havasu Creek that flow through Supai Village and create magnificent waterfalls are the product of Havasu Spring, which flows from the Redwall-Muav Aquifer. The aquifer underlies Canyon Mine along with much of the Grand Canyon’s north and south rims and it’s the source of a number of precious Grand Canyon springs in addition to Havasu Spring. These waters are critical to the people of Supai; they’re the village’s primary source of water and the tribe’s namesake — Havasupai or Havasu ’Baaja means “people of the blue-green water.” The creek also creates a world-renowned destination for outsiders who pay fees to the Havasupai Tribe every year for coveted permits to visit, camp, and swim in the falls. 

MIKE POPEJOY

Water is precious, especially with climate change and drought

As climate change unfolds, the Southwest is only getting hotter and dryer. Frivolous threats to fragile water resources, like those posed by an unnecessary uranium mine near the Grand Canyon, should not be tolerated. 

Please urge the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality to deny the groundwater permit for operation of the newly renamed Pinyon Plain Mine, and to issue a groundwater permit only for the immediate closure and cleanup of the mine. At a minimum, any permit that is issued should require: 

• Installation of at least three monitoring wells up and down gradient in both the shallower Coconino (C) Aquifer and the deeper Redwall-Muav (R) Aquifer to monitor groundwater contamination.
• Groundwater monitoring in perpetuity, even after the mine is closed. Plugging groundwater flow into the mine to prevent the spread of contaminants should not be assumed effective.
• A detailed plan for stopping and cleaning up any groundwater contamination in the event that contamination is detected in monitoring well(s) before, during, and/or after the mine is closed.
• Immediate preparation of a detailed closure and post-closure monitoring plan, to replace the outdated plan the mine owner developed in the 1980s.
• A surety bond (insurance policy for cleanup) that accounts for the possibility of subsurface water contamination. Managing subsurface contamination can be the most expensive part of mine cleanup and should not fall on taxpayers.

 by Tim Peterson, Cultural Landscapes Director

As the Bureau of Land Management makes plans to mitigate a large pile of abandoned toxic and radioactive mine waste inside the original Bears Ears National Monument, Utah’s Abandoned Mine Reclamation Program is doing award-winning work cleaning up lands in and around the original monument. So far, the program has sealed dozens of abandoned mine shafts and removed toxic materials in the Fry Canyon and Red Canyon uranium districts. Now, it’s turning to work on the White Canyon and Deer Flat uranium districts (both within the Bears Ears’ original boundaries) to enhance public safety. It’s part of a 400-square-mile project to begin to heal the land from a Cold War uranium boom that took place in the Bears Ears region from 1947 to 1970, when the U.S. government was heavily subsidizing uranium mining to build its nuclear weapons stockpile. 

New uranium mine planned in Bears Ears

Though most active uranium mining in the region ended when government subsidies ended, former President Trump’s unlawful reduction of Bears Ears in 2017 opened a door to new uranium mining. In spring 2021, a plan of operations was filed for a new uranium mine in the original Bears Ears National Monument on Deer Flat, in exactly the area that is the subject of ongoing cleanup. That’s why it’s so important for President Biden to act now to restore and expand Bears Ears. 

TAKE ACTION. Urge President Biden to restore and expand Bears Ears ›

The plan for the new mine calls for digging out a mine portal, constructing vent shafts, disturbing ground for a man camp, and widening roads before gating at least one of them to lock out the public on Deer Flat above Natural Bridges National Monument and inside the original Bears Ears. That’s exactly the disturbance that the multiyear, multimillion-dollar Abandoned Mine Reclamation Program is trying to reverse. 

We know that uranium was a key driver behind Trump’s unlawful 2017 reduction of Bears Ears National Monument, and when the former president slashed the boundaries by 85 percent, the bulk of the region’s uranium deposits were cut from the monument.

Mining public lands, paying zero royalties into public coffers

Hardrock mineral extraction (including uranium) is governed by the General Mining Act of 1872, an antiquated law meant to encourage colonization and westward expansion. It allows anyone to stake a mining claim on federal lands, then if the claimant proves a profit can be made, to mine publicly owned minerals without paying royalties. 

This differs from oil and gas leasing (also in the news in June when industry nominated more than 40,000 acres of lands cut from Bears Ears) which requires royalty payment, agency review, and public involvement before leases are let and before drilling can begin. The Bureau of Land Management can simply say “no” when asked to offer a parcel for an oil and gas lease, but the 1872 mining law has no such provision. According to Earthworks, “[f]ederal land managers are on record declaring that the 1872 Mining Law gives them no choice but to permit mining… If you hold a mining claim, the federal government treats that claim as a right-to-mine.”

Uranium mining and new mining claims in Bears Ears

Easy Peasy mine shaft. TIM PETERSON

When national monuments are designated, no new mining claims can be staked on national monument lands. When former President Trump gutted Bears Ears, he also allowed for mining claims and oil and gas leasing on lands he cut from the monument. That has led to the filing of new uranium and vanadium claims at Bears Ears — at least 14 since the monument was slashed, six of them just since March 2021.

One such claim led to the excavation of the Easy Peasy Mine in 2018. There, 30 tons of ore were excavated, and now, due to low uranium prices, the mine sits idle. The miner at Easy Peasy is the same one who recently filed the plan of operations for the new mine on Deer Flat, and he told the Washington Post in April 2021 that “a restored Bears Ears monument would make Easy Peasy hard — if not impossible. ‘There is layer after layer after layer of red tape and regulation in this country,’ [the miner] said. ‘And that monument will be one more big blanket of red tape.’”

An Indigenous take on uranium — leave it alone

When Bears Ears National Monument was designated in 2016, it became the first national monument in America to honor Indigenous traditional knowledge. “Such knowledge is, itself, a resource to be protected and used in understanding and managing this landscape sustainably for generations to come,” reads President Obama’s proclamation.

While there are many knowledge systems at play at Bears Ears, one stands out for its specific understanding of uranium. Diné (Navajo) people know uranium as “leetso” (literally translated as “yellow brown” or “yellow dirt”), but it’s more than that. Leetso is a being that interferes with one’s ability to enjoy a successful life. Leetso is also a reptile, a monster, buried and not to be disturbed. 

The uranium boom on the Colorado Plateau from the 1940s to the 1970s disturbed leetso, and the consequences continue in the form of cancers among those who mined uranium, and elevated health risks for those whose land, air, and water still bear contamination from unearthing and spreading this monster. In response, the Navajo Nation banned uranium mining and processing within their borders in 2005, and the nation supports the restoration and expansion of Bears Ears National Monument, in part to keep the uranium found there buried. In Diné cosmology, monsters can be slayed with a plan and action. Doing so restores hózhó, or balance. The plan and action here should be to bury leetso again, forever, by restoring and expanding Bears Ears National Monument.

 by Amber Reimondo, Energy Director

The Havasupai Tribe has long known that uranium mining doesn’t belong near the Grand Canyon. After decades of work by tribal leaders, it’s high time that the federal government listen.

For years, the Havasupai Tribe has led the campaign for a permanent ban on new mines near the Grand Canyon. The tribe has also opposed an existing mine in the region called Canyon Mine (renamed “Pinyon Plain Mine” in 2020 in an apparent attempt to obscure its connection to the Grand Canyon) since it was first proposed in the 1980s. 

Former Havasupai Tribal Council chairman, Rex Tilousi, who passed on in June 2021, was a tireless voice against uranium mining in the region, including Canyon Mine, which threatens the Havasupai’s ancestral homelands and sacred sites, wildlife, and springs in and around the Grand Canyon. One of the springs of highest concern feeds the waters of Havasu Creek — a turquoise-blue ribbon that flows through the Havasupai village of Supai and creates world-renowned waterfalls. 

So you see, water to us, to the Havasupai People, is life. Hav’su Baa’ja in our language means ‘people of the blue-green water.’ We are the water people. We were made from the springs, the water, the rays of the sun, the earth. So we feel our environment — the earth, the sun, the waters, the air — this is us. It’s very hard for us to put it in the way where courts will understand …maybe this is why we are being denied the rights that we feel should be considered as a people. . .We’re trying to protect not only the Grand Canyon, not only the Havasupai, but all people. 

– Rex Tilousi, Havasupai elder and former chairman of the Havasupai Tribe 

A long road to permanent protection

The effort to protect the region from uranium mining has been multifaceted, from pursuing administrative and legislative avenues to ban new mining, to advocating for the reform of a 150-year-old settler-era mining law, to addressing the threats from individual mines in the region. 

The most recent piece of protective legislation — the Grand Canyon Protection Act, a bill that would permanently ban new mines or mining claims in the region — has been supported by many Grand Canyon-affiliated tribes in addition to the Havasupai. Tribes have been joined by hunting and fishing enthusiasts, outdoor recreationists, faith groups, business representatives, local governments, and NGOs like the Grand Canyon Trust. 

Today, progress toward that end has advanced farther than ever. After a previous version of the bill passed the House and but languished, and eventually died, in the Senate, in the 116th Congress (2019-2020), Congressman Raúl Grijalva, D-AZ, reintroduced the Grand Canyon Protection Act in the House in February 2021. It passed days later as part of a larger public lands package. The Biden administration also voiced its support for the package, noting that “[t]he Grand Canyon is a majestic national treasure, drawing Americans from across the country to visit, and numerous Tribal Nations regard it as a sacred place.” Senators Kyrsten Sinema, D-AZ, and Mark Kelly, D-AZ, followed suit and introduced their version of the bill in the Senate shortly after it passed the House. And that’s where we are today. Tribes and their allies await a hearing before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, chaired by Senator Joe Manchin, D-WV. 

Religious, economic, and scientific reasons to say “no more”

AMY S. MARTIN

Promises of a uranium-fueled regional economy should have died when even an all-time price spike in the early 2000s failed to jump-start a mining boom. But today, companies continue to fight land protections with empty promises of jobs in rural towns that could genuinely use them, and of public revenue from an industry exempt from paying federal royalties. 

Meanwhile, as Rex Tilousi said, uranium mining near the Grand Canyon carries consequences that will be felt by all, not the Havasupai Tribe alone. Groundwater flow near the Grand Canyon is incredibly complex and difficult to predict, making uranium mining little more than a gamble with precious resources and a natural wonder. Inherent realities of mining uranium, like piercing groundwater aquifers and exposing uranium ore to the elements, pose health and economic risks for the Havasupai, for plants and wildlife, and for people and economies that rely upon a healthy Grand Canyon for their spiritual, economic, and physical wellbeing. Regional impacts are only the start of the larger ripple effects for communities along the full uranium supply chain: from mining to transport, processing, use, and disposal — for which the world has no truly safe solution. 

It’s time to permanently ban new mines

The reasons that uranium mining has no place near the Grand Canyon are many and they are no-brainers. Leaders like Rex Tilousi and others at the Havasupai Tribe, and everyone else who has fought to make the federal government understand reason over the chimera of a uranium-fueled economy deserve to have their vision of a Grand Canyon region safe from toxic and radioactive exploitation come to fruition. 

What can you do?

Contact your senators. Tell them the Grand Canyon Protection Act (S. 387) deserves a Senate hearing. Ask for their cosponsorship alongside Arizona senators Kyrsten Sinema and Mark Kelly, and ask them to vote for the bill. 

 by Travis Bruner, Conservation Director

Earlier this year, the Biden administration committed to conserving 30 percent of our nation’s land and water by 2030. With the Conserving and Restoring America the Beautiful report, the administration lays out a vision for the next four years of environmental justice, conservation, and climate policy. 

But the one thing we need more than hope is action. Once we start to act, hope is everywhere.

— Greta Thunberg 

In addition to putting forth the so-called 30x30 goal, the White House has prioritized tribal sovereignty, science-driven decision-making that includes traditional knowledge from Indigenous communities, place-based processes that include local communities, and expanded collaboration. The Trust shares a commitment to these principles, and it’s inspiring to see these ideas voiced from the Capitol, albeit long overdue.

We aim to help our nation reach the goal of 30 percent land protection, while holding the federal government to its promise to deliver environmental justice across land management and environmental agencies.

30x30 on the Colorado Plateau

So what does 30x30 mean for the Grand Canyon and surrounding public lands? The Grand Canyon Trust resolves to turn the 30x30 concept into on-the-ground action for the landscapes and communities of the Colorado Plateau. We’re devoted to conserving and restoring millions of acres on the plateau. Here are some of our current large-scale projects:

Grand Canyon region 

• Grand Canyon Protection Act — If passed, this would permanently protect one million acres of public lands around the Grand Canyon from uranium mining. Ask your senators to support the bill › 
• Closure and cleanup of Canyon Mine (recently renamed Pinyon Plain Mine) — We are pushing for closure and cleanup of an operating uranium mine near Grand Canyon National Park in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals and before the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality. Help protect the Grand Canyon’s waters from uranium contamination › 
• North Rim Ranches — The Trust is reducing livestock grazing impacts and advocating for forest restoration that protects ecological and cultural resources on 830,000 acres of public lands north of the Grand Canyon. 
• Little Colorado River — In partnership with tribal communities, we seek long-term legal and regulatory safeguards for several miles of the Little Colorado River near its confluence with the mainstem Colorado River. 

Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument

TIM PETERSON

We continue to advocate for the restoration of Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. Once its original boundaries are restored, 1.9 million acres will be off-limits to mining, destructive pinyon and juniper removal, and other damaging resource extraction. Urge President Biden to restore the monument › 

Bears Ears National Monument 

We are supporting tribes as they push the Biden administration to restore and expand the boundaries of Bears Ears National Monument to between 1.35 and 1.9 million acres. This cultural landscape will be collaboratively managed by tribes and the federal government for the benefit of plants, animals, and people. Ask President Biden to expand Bears Ears › 

Northern Arizona Forests

DEBORAH LEE SOLTESZ, U.S. FOREST SERVICE

We, alongside dozens of partners, are working with the Forest Service on the Four Forest Restoration Initiative. All said and done, this effort will restore 2.4 million acres of ponderosa forest in northern Arizona and protect communities from ever-increasing risk of severe wildfires in the face of ongoing drought and climate change.

The time to act is now

With severe drought across the Colorado Plateau, record temperatures in the Pacific Northwest, and rising seas in Miami, the urgency for implementing momentous change is here. The time to act in ways that will create hope is yesterday. And, so, while we’re encouraged by the words in Conserving and Restoring America the Beautiful, we insist on more than words. We’re not waiting for science-based management to keep pinyon and juniper forests and soils intact, sitting back to see whether traditional knowledge drives collaborative management of national monuments, or wondering whether the federal government will protect precious groundwater at the Grand Canyon from uranium mining. We’re demanding action — in writing, in person, and in court — to protect our beloved landscapes on the Colorado Plateau. We hope you’ll join us. Action spawns hope, like Greta says. 

Find opportunities to protect the places you love. Take action ›

 by Sarana Riggs, Grand Canyon Manager

Greetings, friends. It is with deep respect that we honor the life of former Havasupai Tribal Chairman Rex Tilousi, who passed away on June 19, 2021. Here at the Grand Canyon Trust, we highly respected Mr. Tilousi’s passion and advocacy on cultural and environmental issues impacting his homeland and lands and waters beyond the traditional borders of the Havasu 'Baaja – the People of the Blue-green Waters. 

Traditional knowledge-keeper

We, the Havasupai, believe that we lived within the Mother Earth. The place of emergence where we came out to the surface of our Mother Earth is within the Grand Canyon Area. We emerged from the Grand Canyon, from within the earth. We migrated up to the rims of our Canyon home. There we lived in peace, in harmony with plantlife and wildlife, our Mother Earth, the waters, the air, the sun, the moon. These we regard as our relatives. We lived within the Grand Canyon area with the waters, the springs that we have in our Canyon home. We lived in the Canyon in the summer, we migrated up to the plateau areas in winter. This is how we lived within the aboriginal lands we once roamed, where we once prayed, the mountains, the beauties that we regard as very sacred. – Rex Tilousi

Mr. Tilousi spoke highly about his upbringing and the teachings he received from his elders. This wealth of knowledge was information that had been passed down through the generations. This knowledge could not be found in textbooks or on websites, but could only be heard in prayer, song, ceremony, and lessons which were learned daily. This knowledge could only be found within the confines of one of the most beautiful places in the world, a place like no other, a place surrounded by tall red-mauve walls, blue-green waters with majestic waterfalls, and lush gardens, and, on the canyon’s rims, in a forest which supplied food, warmth, and supplies for the Havasupai people. 

If you had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Tilousi, you know he will always be remembered as a well-respected leader who spoke eloquently and passionately about the true history of the Grand Canyon and what that meant to the Havasupai people. 

He reminded us of a time when the people lived peacefully above the canyon in their vast traditional lands. He also stressed the importance of water and how it sustained life in the Grand Canyon for all living beings. There was beauty, strength, and resiliency in his words as he spoke about the land he grew up on. 

Leader and staunch advocate for protecting the Grand Canyon

We were given a responsibility to protect and preserve this land and water for those yet to come. We have a job to do. The ancient rock writing in our canyon tells us to protect this place. The canyon doesn’t belong to us. We belong to the canyon, to the earth, to the water. It created us and gave us life. We are fighting for our lives and for those who are yet to come. – Rex Tilousi

He testified before Congress, interpreted the canyon for tourists, and served as an elected and respected cultural leader. At gatherings at the South Rim, Red Butte, and public hearings, he sang “No More Uranium Mining” accompanied by drumming and round-dancing. He spoke up for protecting springs, the Little Colorado River, and the entire Grand Canyon, serving as one of its most powerful guardians. Mr. Tilousi was an honored elder who contributed to intertribal conversations and collaborations. 

Whenever Rex left the canyon to pursue education or work, the canyon and the people always called for him to return home and that is where he is now — Mr. Rex Tilousi has returned home. Thank you, for everything you have taught us. We will miss your grace and good humor. You leave behind future generations who will continue to carry your teachings and voice with them to ensure the safety and legacy of the Havasu 'Baaja.