Uranium mining near park assailed - Albuquerque Journal

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Several environmental groups and more than 100 small businesses statewide have signed letters urging President Obama to halt future uranium mining on federal lands abutting Grand Canyon National Park to lessen the potential for contamination of nearby waters and damage to public lands.

And they are calling for Obama – using his powers under the Antiquities Act – to quickly create the Greater Grand Canyon Heritage National Monument.

“This year, as we celebrate the 100th anniversary of the national parks, there is not a better time for President Obama to permanently protect the Grand Canyon,” Hannah Perkins, project organizer for Environment New Mexico, said Tuesday during at a news conference at Outdoor ReGear, a local consignment shop for outdoor gear and clothing.

“The Grand Canyon is one of the most amazing places in the world. But without action to stop it, toxic mining could ruin this area for future generations,” she said.

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Environment New Mexico, New Mexico Wilderness Alliance, other environmental groups, some small businesses and hundreds of thousands of Americans are urging creation of the Greater Grand Canyon Heritage National Monument, Perkins said.

The monument, if created, would involve 1.7 million acres of federal land – one parcel north of the national park and one south. There are four closed uranium mines and three proposed mines in those areas. The Canyon Mine, in the southern part of Kaibab National Forest, is seeking permits to reopen, according to participants in the news conference.

The nonprofit Grand Canyon Trust has said contaminated water from an abandoned uranium mine on the canyon’s South Rim is poisoning a spring-fed creek deep within the canyon. The U.S. Geological Survey has identified 15 springs and five wells with in the Grand Canyon watershed that contain dissolved uranium concentrations in excess of safe drinking water standards.

In 2009, U.S. Rep. Raúl Grijalva, D-Ariz., introduced the Grand Canyon Watersheds Protection Act, primarily to stop new uranium claims nearby. But the act stalled in Congress. In 2012, then-Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar ordered a 20-year ban on all new uranium claims in the same areas. If the areas are designated as a national monument, that ban would become permanent, according to Roger Clark, program director for the Grand Canyon Trust.

John Mauldin, owner of Outdoor ReGear, said good stewardship of public lands makes economic sense.

Citing Obama’s establishment of the Rio Grande del Norte National Monument near Taos and the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument near Las Cruces, Judy Calman, staff attorney for the New Mexico Wilderness Alliance, said it’s an opportune time to request protection for the Grand Canyon.

Perkins said Environment New Mexico has collected letters of support from small businesses in metro Albuquerque and Las Cruces, and plans to canvass businesses in Santa Fe in the coming month.