Conservation groups slammed Arizona’s environmental agency on Friday for approving a uranium mine’s discharge permit — a move they claim could threaten groundwater resources at the nearby Grand Canyon National Park.
The groups argued that the “aquifer protection permit” in question, which technically serves to tighten government oversight of a polluter’s operations, could put the area’s aquifers and springs at risk by enabling the mine’s continued operations.
The Pinyon Plain Mine, located about 15 miles south of the Grand Canyon, has a history of flooding as it depletes shallow groundwater aquifers that express just south of the canyon at South Rim Springs, the groups said in a joint press release on Friday morning...