"Like many Americans on summer road trips through the Southwest, Sierra Club Executive Director, Michael Brune, and his family recently visited the
Grand Canyon. While they no doubt enjoyed the majesty of the Canyon and its surroundings, Brune also had an ulterior motive.
Located just six miles south of Grand Canyon National Park is the site of Canyon Mine, a proposed uranium mine that could negatively impact the area’s cultural values, wildlife, and waters.
The
Sierra Club has stated that, “Originally approved in 1986, the Canyon Mine has long been the subject of protests by the Havasupai Tribe and others objecting to potential uranium mining impacts on regional groundwater, springs, creeks, and cultural values associated with Red Butte, a Traditional Cultural Property.”
By Larry Karl
Can you imagine one major mishaps on the scale of the BP "accident" a few summers ago? The problem is unlike an oil spill, which with time nature will clean it up, uranium contaminates into the soil and water will be around for eternity.
Leonardo A. Gem
"The Obama administration has taken steps to protect one million acres around Grand Canyon from new uranium mining, but Canyon Mine has been permitted to move forward as an existing claim even though the last environmental review of the project is over two decades old.
“Mining has a history of taking precedence over other important issues due in part to the outdated Mining Law of 1872 and the significant political influence of large multinational mining corporations,” says Brune..."
“However, the area around the park, much of which contains Native American spiritual sites and amazing old-growth forests, is still at risk from uranium mining.”
