FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
WASHINGTON, D.C.— Rep. Rob Bishop (R-Utah) is calling for a reversal of federal mining bans enacted during the Obama administration to protect Grand Canyon watersheds, national forests in Oregon, and other pristine public lands.
In a letter to Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue and Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, Bishop says he wants to increase mining industry access to public lands.
“This is a dangerous attempt to sell off our public lands and minerals to corporate polluters at pennies on the dollar,” said Allison Melton, an attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity. “Mining jeopardizes public health, wildlife and wild places. Bishop’s attack on public lands is a gift to mining companies, but he’s completely out of step with the rest of the country.”
Public lands at risk include one million acres in the greater Grand Canyon region. The mining withdrawal enacted there in 2012 protects water and tribal resources from uranium mining contamination. It also safeguards critical regional wildlife corridors and habitat for numerous native species, many of which exist nowhere else on Earth.
“The Grand Canyon mining moratorium is a commonsense and necessary protection for one of the world’s most iconic landscapes,” said Kevin Dahl of the National Parks Conservation Association. “Undoing this moratorium, completed after extensive review and public participation, would only endanger this one-of-a-kind geologic wonder and the indigenous communities that live within the Grand Canyon’s watershed.”
The region has struggled with the toxic legacies from previous uranium mining that has left pollution, health problems, and unsustainable boom-and-bust economies. Nonpartisan polls show 80 percent of Arizona voters and 80 percent of Americans support having the temporary mining ban made permanent.
“We agree with Secretary of the Interior Zinke's belief that ‘some places are too precious to mine,’” said the Grand Canyon Trust’s Roger Clark. “And Grand Canyon is one of those places.”
“The public strongly supports protecting lands around the Grand Canyon from toxic uranium mining. It is outrageous that Representative Bishop is seeking to put at risk one of our nation’s crown jewel national parks, Grand Canyon, the public lands surrounding it, and to ignore the millions of Americans who have stepped up to support protecting this region,” said Sandy Bahr, chapter director for Sierra Club's Grand Canyon Chapter.
Also at risk are nearly 100,000 acres in Oregon’s Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest, including wild and scenic rivers, fisheries, mountains, and meadows. The halt in mining, to protect the region from nickel strip-mining companies, received broad public support from tribes, local communities, conservationists, sportsmen, and elected officials.
“Mining withdrawals were put in place at the urging of local communities who know too well the devastating effects these operations have on public health, wildlife and the environment,” said Katie Davis, western director of Wildlands Network. “No legitimate reason to overturn these withdrawals exists — neither the risks nor public sentiment have changed.”
In 2016, the Obama administration protected 30,000 acres of public land from mining just outside Yellowstone National Park. Earlier this year, the U.S. Forest Service proposed a halt to mining across 230,000 acres of public land in Minnesota’s Rainy River watershed, which feeds clean water into the world-renowned Boundary Waters, Voyageurs National Park, and Quetico Provincial Park.