The Obama administration’s commitment to the preservation of the environment may be causing a lot of raised eyebrows in the mining industry but they are going ahead with it anyhow. U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said that banning uranium mining near the Grand Canyon for twenty years is part of a proposal in a draft study.
This is one of four options in the draft that seeks to protect an area of 1 million acres from new claims. These mining claims will threaten the Grand Canyon’s watersheds, fragile seeps and springs, and wildlife habitats. They will also cause potential damage to American Indian scared sites in the region and affect the tourism based economy.
Grand Canyon National Park. Image Credit: NPS.gov
An official with the Grand Canyon Trust Roger Clark said that tourism and not mining was the mainstay of the region’s economy. He added that BLM was grossly inflating the revenue projections of the uranium mine and also most of the revenue would go to Utah and not to Arizona. He also said that the uranium mining would impose long term health risks on local communities and will cost the federal taxpayer many billions of dollars to clean up.
John Koleszar, the president of the Arizona Deer Association said that hunters had invested heavily to improve the wildlife habitat in the region and converted into a prime hunting area. He said that the millions of dollars spent to do so will be destroyed if uranium profits were to make the decision.
While local communities support the ban on uranium mining in the Grand Canyon National Park area there is increasing pressure from the mining industry on the government. The end result is yet to be seen.