by Amber Reimondo, Energy Director
The Grand Canyon Protection Act, a simple piece of legislation to permanently protect about 1 million acres of public lands around the Grand Canyon from new uranium mining, is finally getting a quick moment in the spotlight in the Senate.
On Tuesday, June 7, 2022 at 3:00 p.m. ET, the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources Subcommittee on Public Lands, Forests, and Mining will hold a hearing on the bill, alongside about 20 other public lands bills.
This is welcome movement for this vital and broadly supported bill to protect the Grand Canyon region, which was introduced in the Senate by senators Kyrsten Sinema, D-AZ, and Mark Kelly, D-AZ, more than a year ago. Senator Kelly serves on the subcommittee that will hear the bill.
Only a few pages long, the Grand Canyon Protection Act ("GCPA" for short) does something very simple: it makes the current temporary ban on new uranium mining on about 1 million acres of public lands around Grand Canyon National Park permanent. It protects the Grand Canyon from new uranium mining forever, as the Havasupai Tribe and other area tribes have urged for decades.
As of 2020, there were over 600 active mining claims, yet to become actual mines, biding their time on public lands around the canyon, waiting for the temporary mining ban to expire. The lands where these mining claims sit are hydrologically connected to the Grand Canyon, and new uranium mines would risk contaminating groundwater in a complex region of fractured rock, where how fast, how far, and by what pathways water travels are poorly understood.
The public lands that the Grand Canyon Protection Act seeks to protect from new uranium mining include hundreds of thousands of acres of national forests around the national park. But before these lands were "public lands" they were the homelands of the Havasupai, Navajo, Hopi, Hualapai, and many other Native American tribes with cultural connections to the Grand Canyon that remain strong and vibrant today.
Grand Canyon region tribes strongly oppose new uranium mines and support the Grand Canyon Protection Act. The Inter Tribal Association of Arizona, a consortium of 21 tribes across the state, passed a resolution supporting the bill, calling the expansion of uranium mining around the Grand Canyon the “greatest risk” to religious, cultural, and traditional land use by Native peoples in the region. The National Congress of American Indians also passed a resolution opposing uranium mining around the Grand Canyon.
Uranium deposits around the Grand Canyon are small potatoes. In fact, the Grand Canyon region contains only 0.2 percent of identified uranium resource areas within the United States. It's not mining, but Grand Canyon tourism that fuels the region's economy.
In 2019 alone, visitors to Grand Canyon National Park pumped $891 million into the regional economy, supporting 11,800 jobs and $1.1 billion (that's billion with a "b") in economic output in local economies.
Uranium mines put the lands and waters of the Grand Canyon region at risk. Look no further than Pinyon Plain uranium mine (formerly Canyon Mine), mere miles from the entrance to Grand Canyon National Park. Miners there hit groundwater six years ago, and more than 49 million gallons of water with high levels of uranium and arsenic have now been pumped out of that mine, left to evaporate, or misted into the air, sometimes blowing onto the surrounding national forest.
The threat introduced by this mine will linger long after it’s closed down and the mining company has moved on.
While hundreds of abandoned mines remain in need of cleanup on the nearby Navajo Nation, the Orphan uranium mine on the south rim of the Grand Canyon, inside the national park, has likely contaminated Horn Creek below.
New uranium mines simply are not worth the risk.
Permanently protecting public lands around the Grand Canyon from uranium mining is popular with voters. In 2018, a bipartisan poll found that nearly two thirds of Arizona voters support continuing the ban on new mining claims near the national park.
There is also strong support for the legislation from hunting and angling groups, local governments, and conservation organizations.
It's good news that the Grand Canyon Protection Act is finally getting a hearing in a Senate subcommittee. The next steps are to see it get a vote before the full Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, pass out of committee, and make its way to the Senate floor.
The Grand Canyon is too precious to mine. It's time to permanently protect public lands around the Grand Canyon from the dangers of new uranium mining.
Act now. You can help protect the Grand Canyon from dams, trams, uranium mines, and other threats.
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