Reality Check

 by Anne Mariah Tapp, Energy Director

In August 2015, we asked the Bureau of Land Management and the Forest Service to make four reasonable changes to better protect the Grand Canyon from uranium mining. The Forest Service gave us a simple answer: no. But we’re not giving up. And we hope you won’t either.

Not on Our Watch 

The Grand Canyon Trust has seen the problems caused by uranium mining in the Grand Canyon region firsthand. We have walked to Horn Creek on a hot day, unable to safely drink from it because the Orphan Mine contaminated this precious water source with uranium. We do not want to see another Orphan happen on our watch.

Crafting A Solution 

We spent two years researching and writing a detailed proposal asking the Bureau of Land Management and the Forest Service to make four reasonable changes to the existing laws that govern uranium mines in the Grand Canyon region: 

1. Put time limits on mine permits
2. Require new environmental review for mines that go dormant for more than 10 years
3. Require inspections and groundwater monitoring at mine sites
4. Require mine owners to clean up sites within a reasonable time 

Rejecting Reason 

After less than two months, the Forest Service summarily rejected all four changes in a two-page letter. 

Reality Check

The Forest Service’s letter is at odds with the facts on the ground.  It claims: “the Forest Service rarely approves Plan of Operation for periods longer than ten years. 

Reality: The Canyon Uranium Mine – located just six miles from the South Rim, in the Grand Canyon watershed – has a plan of operation dated 1986. 

Next, the Forest Service claims that “if during the idle status conditions change, supplemental [environmental review] will be initiated.”

Reality: During the time the Canyon Mine was idle the federal government listed the California Condor as an endangered species and protected nearby Red Butte as a traditional cultural property. The EPA listed radon-222 as a hazardous air pollutant, and, in 2012, the Secretary of the Interior placed a 20-year ban on new uranium mines on nearly 1 million acres surrounding the Grand Canyon. Yet the Forest Service did not conduct a new environmental review for the Canyon Mine; instead it relied on the 1986 review.

And finally, the Forest Service dodged groundwater monitoring completely. The agency did not even address the lack of this essential requirement. What is the Grand Canyon without the water that supports life in the high desert and deep canyons? Are “DANGER: Radioactive” signs the future of the Grand Canyon’s precious springs and seeps?

Next Steps

We are surprised that a federal agency charged with caring for our public lands and waters summarily dismissed a reasonable request to safeguard the Grand Canyon region from toxic and radioactive contamination.

But we are not giving up on this effort – right now, there are three ways that we can rally behind the protection that the canyon deserves:

• Support Representative Grijalva’s legislation designed to permanently protect the Grand Canyon region from uranium mining through a National Monument declaration. Without this permanent protection, new uranium mines will open, governed by the same flawed regulations that the Forest Service refuses to change. Sign the petition ›
• Support Senator Udall’s legislation to bring mining law into the 21^st century. The Gold King Mine Spill proved it is time to unite behind legislation to require the mining industry to pay royalties on the riches they extract from our public lands, and to pay into a reclamation fund to clean up abandoned mine sites.
• Push Arizona decision-makers to protect the Grand Canyon region. Neighboring states – New Mexico and Colorado – have enacted state environmental laws that protect water and land from radioactive and toxic uranium contamination. Arizona could and should do the same thing. When a new administration arrives, expect the Trust to be pushing hard for the Grand Canyon State to live up to its name and require the maximum protections for the Canyon that we all treasure.

Learn more about uranium mining near the Grand Canyon ›