GOP pushes for uranium mining around Grand Canyon

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GOP pushes for uranium mining around Grand Canyon

Posted on October 13, 2011 by Bob Berwyn

A new bill proposed by the GOP would open lands around the Grand Canyon to uranium mining. PHOTO VIA WIKIMEDIA AND THE CREATIVE COMMONS.

Latest Republican public lands attack aimed at Interior Secretary Ken Salazar’s efforts to protect Grand Canyon watershed

By Summit Voice

SUMMIT COUNTY — Republican lawmakers this week continued their frontal assault on the Obama administration’s public land policies by proposing legislation to open 1 million acres of public lands aournd the Grand Canyon National Park to new uranium mining. The bill would overturn an existing moratorium on new mining and mining claims and block Interior Secretary Ken Salazar’s proposal to extend those protections for the next 20 years.

“We are disappointed in this jobs-killing legislation. Uranium mining threatens thousands of tourism-related jobs in northern Arizona,” said Roger Clark, air and energy program director at Grand Canyon Trust. “Salazar has found the right balance between protecting Grand Canyon and the $700 million tourism industry while leaving promising mining areas further from the national park open to exploration and mining.”

There is widespread public support for Interior’s proposed mining ban from American Indian tribes, local governments, scientists, elected officials, businesses, hunting and fishing organizations, and conservation groups. About 300,000 members of the public commented in support of the ban, which is expected to be decided in December.

“It is unconscionable that Senator McCain and Representatives Flake and Franks are seeking to undermine protections for Grand Canyon and its watershed and showing so little regard for the people of Arizona, including all of those who expressed strong support for protecting these lands from uranium mining and the pollution it produces,” said Sandy Bahr, director of the Sierra Club’s Grand Canyon Chapter.

The Grand Canyon and Four Corners region still suffers the pollution legacy of past mining. American Indian tribes in the region — Havasupai, Hualapai, Kaibab-Paiute, Navajo and Hopi — have banned uranium mining on their lands. Water in Horn Creek, located in Grand Canyon National Park just below the old Orphan uranium mine, exhibits dissolved uranium concentrations more than 10 times the health-based standards established by the EPA for drinking water; groundwater below old mines north of Grand Canyon has measured dissolved uranium more than 1,000 times allowable for drinking-water standards.

“Neither mining corporations nor lawmakers nor public agencies can guarantee that uranium mining wouldn’t further contaminate aquifers feeding Grand Canyon’s springs and creeks. Such pollution — the kind we see in Horn Creek today — would be impossible to clean up,” said Taylor McKinnon of the Center for Biological Diversity. “A decade ago Senator McCain was a defender of Grand Canyon. Today he’s one of its greatest threats.”

Filed under: energy, Environment, federal government, national parks, public lands, Summit County news Tagged: | Center for Biological Diversity, Environment, Grand Canyon, Grand Canyon National Park, John McCain, Ken Salazar, uranium mining

24 Responses

Norman, on October 13, 2011 at 8:56 am said:

What has overtaken the GOP today?

Reply
- SocrFem, on October 15, 2011 at 3:07 pm said:
  
  Seriously! Have they made it their mission to go against everything the Obama Administration is trying to do, even when it hurts the entire country?
  
  Reply
  - terri blakley, on October 15, 2011 at 8:49 pm said:
    
    I would say that is a “yes” — anything and everything Obama thinks is good, they are opposed to. That is why they are called the party of “no” or “the obstructionists.”
    
    Reply
- Warren Nakisher, on October 16, 2011 at 5:05 am said:
  
  Which mining companies are financing this GOP “concern”?
  
  Reply
  - Bob Berwyn, on October 16, 2011 at 7:27 am said:
    
    The usual suspects – giant multinational mining companies accountable to nobody.
    
    Reply
  - Norman, on October 16, 2011 at 7:45 am said:
    
    It appears that everything in Washington D.C. is “KABUKI”, regardless of which party does what. As far as the GOP goes, well, as I said, what has taken hold of them, holds true for the other party as well. You are right that it’s the mining interests, but why destroy the country in the process? Perhaps the answer is quite simply, “because they can”!
    
    Reply
- Shelia, on October 16, 2011 at 3:19 pm said:
  
  GREED!!
  
  Reply
- Thomas Carlisle, on October 17, 2011 at 9:00 am said:
  
  The Entire world More Like!
  
  Reply
Lucy Skibinski, on October 15, 2011 at 12:36 pm said:

what??? how can we allow this?

Reply
Tom Rugg, on October 15, 2011 at 1:21 pm said:

So what’s the deal? Iran can’t get enough uranium on the world market?

Reply
Dottie Tunstall Ferrara, on October 15, 2011 at 1:56 pm said:

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

Reply
Dottie Tunstall Ferrara, on October 15, 2011 at 2:13 pm said:

Noooooooo!

Reply
Andrea, on October 15, 2011 at 2:25 pm said:

Let’s ALL SAY IT TOGETHER: GREED!!!!!

Reply
cassie, on October 15, 2011 at 2:39 pm said:

This is disgraceful and madness ruining our beautiful planet, tourism and people’s livelyhood for distructive mining, mad humans like this need blasting off the face of the planet, they serve no purpose on this earth other than looking for money and getting rich

Reply
Bill, on October 15, 2011 at 2:48 pm said:

Enough! How far will greed go, they can’t pass a bill to put people back to work, but have no problem raping our lands so corporate can make more profit, they haven’t done anything to help america, just take all the programs and rights away, but give everything to the top 1%, they all need to loose their positions in Washington!

Reply
- Sandra, on October 15, 2011 at 7:11 pm said:
  
  You really think the jobs bill will produce jobs? GMA showed that if only 5% of the contractors in America used American made goods, 220,000 jobs would be produced. And that doesn’t take any act of congress. Just think if they went to 95% American made goods. The private sector produces jobs, the government has never effienctly produced anything. Just look what happened with the last “jobs bill”. The public was royally ripped off.
  
  Reply
  - Nat, on October 16, 2011 at 6:54 am said:
    
    that’s because the bill wasn’t designed to create jobs, it gave money to the private sector which then was supposed to create jobs–and it worked about as well as trickle-down economics always has. When the govt actually creates jobs, it works reasonably well: the WPA, and the rest of the alphabet soup of the ’30s and ’40s created lots of jobs.
    
    Reply
Patricia Keene, on October 15, 2011 at 3:20 pm said:

No, no, no!!!

Reply
Robin from Orlando, on October 15, 2011 at 3:52 pm said:

Republicans rally cry is often about what kind of legacy we leave our children.

I’ll take taxes over toxins any day.

Reply
Anne Erde, on October 15, 2011 at 5:00 pm said:

NO, NO, NO, NO. We are the guardians of the earth, and this is a terrible idea.

Reply
e, on October 15, 2011 at 6:01 pm said:

NNNOOOOOOOOOO!!!! Why do they think they have the right to ruin our enviornment… it belongs to ALL of us not just to them….If they put as much energy into better alternatives and spent a LITTLE more time solving problems… they could come up with viable solutions. But NOOOooo, they just take the quickest most desctructive solution available… but that okay, just so it makes money… nothing else matters…. as long as they are comfortable, they dont care about anyone else…. they are pure greed

Reply
danny, on October 15, 2011 at 9:52 pm said:

WTF!?!?

Reply
AJ, on October 16, 2011 at 6:25 am said:

This land was suppose to be protected????? When will greed stop being the driving force of this country.

Reply
Jolaine Gorrilla, on October 16, 2011 at 3:34 pm said:

In answer to the GOP’s considerations of uranium mining around the Grand Canyon:
Hey GOPers, STOP messing around with one of the World’s Natural Wonders! Buy yourselves a great big boulder filled sand box. Then bury urbiggoldwatches in a jar, filled with leaking uranium, at the bottom. Sell tickets to those who get a big $$$ prize if they find the jar. This would be a profitable spine tingling adventure to raise money for the Republicans. Who could all become very ‘flush’ with big bucks and a red hot glowing tan. \;o(

Reply

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