Tribes gather to ban mining
Katie Clark - April 10th, 2008On Friday, March 28 a hearing was held at Flagstaff City Hall, drawing about 200 people from environmental groups, local and tribal governments, local residents and U.S. Forest Service employees to discuss the future of uranium mining on the Colorado Plateau.
Three members of the U.S. House subcommittee on National Parks, Forests and Public Lands including Chairman Raul Grijalva, representing Arizona’s district 7, Ed Pastor, representing Arizona’s district 4, and Grace Napolitano, D-CA, met to discuss Grijalva’s proposed legislation.
The bill would ban around a million acres near the Grand Canyon from mineral exploration under the 1872 Mining Act.
Grijalva introduced the bill in response to a permit Vane Minerals — a United Kingdom-based mining company — received to explore uranium on the Tusayan Ranger District. On the Tusayan Ranger District there are 2,100 uranium claims, five uranium exploration projects scheduled and a pending opening of one uranium mine.
“While the reform effort dallies, claims in our national forests and on public lands are skyrocketing,” Grijalva said.
In July 2003, there were 1,130 uranium claims around the Grand Canyon and in January 2007 there were 2,840 uranium claims.
Scientists, Indian leaders and local business owners raised concerns of the severely harmful impacts uranium mining would have if companies were allowed to mine near the Grand Canyon National Park, while mining advocates curtailed any environmental or health effects.
Leaders of the Hualapai, Havasupai, Kaibab Paiute, Hopi and Navajo tribes testified against uranium mining. The leaders spoke about the history of uranium mining and the ill effects it has had on their people, as well as the mining industry’s failure to clean up pollution from its old uranium mining.
“It’s really hard to get money from the federal government if you’re going to clean it up,” said Joe Shirley Jr., Navajo president. “There’s no guarantees that running water and the earth will not be harmed.”
Currently on the Navajo nation, there are more than 1,000 unfilled uranium mines that, in some cases, are used by cattle for swimming holes.
“They promise the money. It looks good, then they go bankrupt or they leave and we’re left with the clean-up,” said Ona Segundo, Kaibab Paiute chairwoman.
A Hopi representative who wished to stay anonymous said currently villages that are traditional and self-governing have still not fully incorporated water systems and have to use contaminated water.
“Today these villages are bringing home water from the springs and having to face the contamination of food and water,” said Hopi Representative.
Grijalva posed the question to the leaders of what inherent cultural importance does the Grand Canyon have in concern to land and water.
“To Natives, all land is sacred. Water is sacred,” Shirley said. “If we harm the water we harm ourselves. We do not want uranium mining.”
Segundo said the Grand Canyon is of huge cultural significance.
“That is where our people come from,” Segundo said. “Today, we use that area to gather cultural resources; we gather plants for medicinal purposes and we gather it for spiritual and ceremonial purposes.”
Steve Martin, superintendent of the Grand Canyon National Park, was questioned whether uranium mining poses a serious threat to the Grand Canyon, to which he replied, “Yes.” Then Martin was asked to measure the risk on a scale of 1 to 10 and Martin said, “10.”
Kris Hefton, geologist and chief operating officer of Vane Minerals, testified saying his company proves that mining uranium will have no harmful impact on the environment.
“The modern exploration and mining operations of the era from 1980 to present have had no significant negative impacts to the community nor to the environment in or near Grand Canyon National Park,” Hefton said.
The National Park Service has conducted radiological assessments since the early-‘80s of the Orphan Mine in the Grand Canyon. They found the gamma radiation levels of the fenced-off mine were more than 450 times background levels.
The subcommittee raised questions about the USFS approval of uranium without a thorough environmental review. Corbin Newman, regional forester for the U.S. Forest Service, defended the agency’s actions to the subcommittee, saying the Forest Service acted in accordance with the law.
Grijalva’s bill calls for the revision of the 1872 mining law that gives the Forest Service little authority to deny mining and exploration. The bill would also require the mining industry to pay royalties on profits.
The Center for Biological Diversity, the Grand Canyon Trust and the Sierra Club have filed a lawsuit against the District Ranger for the Tusayan Ranger District on the Kaibab National Forest and USFS, disputing their decision to allow the exploratory drilling program of Vane Minerals.