FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
FLAGSTAFF, AZ — A new 2-minute whiteboard video released today by the Center for Western Priorities and the Grand Canyon Trust, in partnership with the Havasupai Community, explains the risks of mining uranium in the Grand Canyon region.
The animated video highlights the risks of water contamination, particularly for the Havasupai Tribe. The tribe’s blue-green waterfalls at the bottom of Havasu Canyon are fed by a spring that flows from the same deep groundwater that feeds many seeps and springs inside the Grand Canyon. The Havasupai Tribe has led efforts to protect their ancestral homelands in and around the Grand Canyon from mining for decades, and the video urges Congress to permanently ban new uranium mines on public lands in the region.
“The Havasupai Tribe calls for a permanent ban on any uranium activity near the Grand Canyon,” said Havasupai Tribal Councilwoman Carletta Tilousi. “We all need to work together to protect the waters in the Grand Canyon. Especially for human and animal life in the region.”
A bill to permanently ban new uranium mines on about 1 million acres of public lands around the Grand Canyon passed the House with bipartisan support in 2019. A similar bill, the Grand Canyon Centennial Protection Act, has stalled in the Senate.
“Voters have made their opinion clear time and time again,” said Aaron Weiss, deputy director of the Center for Western Priorities. “Westerners, and Arizonans especially, know that the Grand Canyon is no place for uranium mining. It’s long past time for Congress to step up and permanently protect the canyon, its residents, and the ecosystem that’s threatened by radioactive contamination.”
Concerns about water contamination have risen since the Canyon uranium mine, near the Grand Canyon’s south rim, hit groundwater. Since 2016, more than 30 million gallons of floodwater with high levels of uranium and arsenic have been pumped out of the mine.
“If water contaminated with uranium migrates down into the deeper groundwater, it could very well travel to the seeps and springs that support life inside the Grand Canyon,” said Amber Reimondo, energy director for the Grand Canyon Trust.
Members of the Havasupai Community, whose ancestors have lived in the canyon since time immemorial, worry that uranium mining on the rims could contaminate their sole source of drinking water. The Havasupai Tribes has opposed Canyon uranium mine since the 1980s and has repeatedly challenged the mine in court.
“Please call on your representatives in Congress to support a permanent mining ban for the protection of all mankind,” Tilousi urged.
