Grand Canyon & Uranium Mining

Please take a moment.

Thanks,

Richard

avaaz.org/en/save_the_grand…

+10
Thanks for posting Richard.

Hey Paul. Spoke to Grossman, still workin' on the project, I'll be in touch soon!

Cheers

Currently the BLM is reviewing their mining claims and operations policy. As many of you know this directly affects the Grand Canyon and many of our cherished spaces across the country. Please take the time to read and comment on the BLM's page.

www.blm.gov/az/st/en/info/newsroom/2011/march/0.html

Climb safe out there.

Thanks for the heads up and getting the word out guys!

#1 The existence of mining claims does not threaten the Grand Canyon.

#2 Mining occurred in the Grand Canyon in the 1880's and 1930's. If you take a raft trip down it someday, and look up, there's a slight chance you might catch a glimpse of a dump.

#3 No company in their right mind would actually open a mine close to the Grand Canyon today.

ClimbandMine wrote:#1 The existence of mining claims does not threaten the Grand Canyon. #2 Mining occurred in the Grand Canyon in the 1880's and 1930's. If you take a raft trip down it someday, and look up, there's a slight chance you might catch a glimpse of a dump. #3 No company in their right mind would actually open a mine close to the Grand Canyon today.

Eh. What do I know. Just an engineer with experience in u/g nuclear waste disposal and mine ventilation, including a uranium mine, among things.

Haven't followed Grand Canyon issues that close so I actually wasn't aware of Denison's or Uranium One's activities in the area. That said here is a question given the following statements from the article:

"It just hasn't been what people perceive it to be," she said Friday, adding that the town's only bank closed shortly after previous uranium operations were shuttered." "If the permit is approved, Denison would be the first to restart mining at the Toronto-based company's Arizona 1 site, some 20 years after previous operations ceased."

So, if uranium mining occurred in the Grand Canyon region for decades up into the 1980's, can you point to incidents of pollution that impact, and still impact, the Grand Canyon itself?

I have never heard of any... honest question, because I don't follow the area or issues down there...

So climbandmine somehow you have had this coincidental signon for 10 years, possibly leading up to this moment where you pounce in defend the miners. That is impressive!

Continue the debate..

Steve

mcarizona wrote:So climbandmine somehow you have had this coincidental signon for 10 years, possibly leading up to this moment where you pounce in defend the miners. That is impressive! Continue the debate.. Steve

In a testimony before Congress in 2009, David Kreamer, a professor of geology at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, who has long studied the Grand Canyon's hydrogeology, summarised the threat as follows: "Scientific evidence suggests that the exploitation of uranium resources near the Grand Canyon will be intimately connected with the groundwater aquifers and springs in the region. The hydrologic impacts have a great potential to be negative to people and biotic systems. I believe that an assumption that uranium mining will have minimal impact on springs, people and ecosystems in the Grand Canyon is unreasonable, and is not supported by past investigations, research and data."

History also supports that conclusion. The Orphan uranium mine on Grand Canyon's south rim, abandoned in 1969, still leaches polluted water into Horn Creek. It contains dissolved uranium at levels 10 times as high as those considered acceptable in US drinking water, and nobody knows how to clean it up. The National Park Service warns visitors against drinking or swimming in that water. In 2010, the US Geological Survey found elevated uranium in soil at every old mining site it visited in Grand Canyon's watershed. Everywhere uranium mining has occurred, so too has uranium pollution.

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21028075.500-say-no-to-uranium-mining-in-the-grand-canyon.html

...just attempting to not let things go un-noticed, as they usually do.

I respect all opinions on all topics, especially this one.

Thanks for asking, ClimbandMine.

Dear ClimbandMine,

Horn Creek is the big one. The Orphan Mine (started as a copper mine, then Uranium from the 50s to the 80s) has polluted it and made the water radioactive. I don't want to see more of the same.

The big thing right now is that land managers and the EPA have their hands tied by the current BLM Mining Policy. What I wish for is greater oversight abilities by those entities.

Your comments are welcome both here and on the BLM site. We need opinions by both sides to create a balanced picture. But understand something: The Flagstaff and Northern Arizona locals are going to be sceptical of the old mining saying of, "Trust us. We know what we are doing." At the same time we are very conscious of the economic impact that mining can create. Just remember though, if the mining activities ruin a huge tourist attraction that creates far more jobs and revenue than the mines ever will it will be amongst the dumbest things we have ever done.

Will Cobb

The EPA, through the state environmental departments have plenty of oversight capability and authority. How they chose to exercise it is another matter. That's best left for another day.

I don't fault anyone for being skeptical, particularly of the uranium miners [companies] - they did not leave a positive legacy behind. Their history on the Colorado Plateau is not a nice one. I've studied the health reports on uranium miners from the '50's and '60s. sad.

For the record, i am opposed to uranium mining close to the Canyon - I think there are better locations and deposits with much less chance of impact on a national treasure. Mining can be and for the most part is done responsibly. A few bad actors f' it up for the rest of us. I don't want to see one of them anywhere near the Canyon.

Red wrote: Ban on mining claims near Grand Canyon extended

Bad news.

This was probably to be expected. Hasn't passed yet and looks like previous ones didn't either. Is there something as individuals we can do? Contact reps?

This morning there was a segment on NPR (National Public Radio) here in Tucson about this. I don't know if it was a local segment or a national one because unfortunately I only able to listen to the last minute of it. Hopefully Obama's administration stands up to this and the Republicans/uranium mining lobby. From what I heard the Republicans are trying to frame this as killing jobs despite the fact that companies with valid claims that are currently being mined are exempted from the ban. I really hope the Secretary of the Interior goes with his gut, grows a spine, refuses to cave under pressure, and implements the 20 year ban on new mining that he endorses.

fer' Christ's sake mining geeks, it's the dam Grand Canyon! Can't they leave any piece of nature untouched and undamaged? Go mine some big dirtbike/motocross hill that is already scarred and torn up, not the Grand Canyon.

Woodchuck ATC wrote:fer' Christ's sake mining geeks, it's the dam Grand Canyon! Can't they leave any piece of nature untouched and undamaged? Go mine some big dirtbike/motocross hill that is already scarred and torn up, not the Grand Canyon.