President Obama is being forced to take notice of the mining issues near the Grand Canyon by celebrities. An open letter with signatures of a number of prominent Americans has been printed in the New York Times urging the President to consider the 20 year extension of the mining buffer zone around the Grand Canyon National Park.
Fifty statesmen, scholars and conservation leaders including Theodore Roosevelt IV, former New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson; actor, director and founder of the Sundance Film Festival Robert Redford; actor and UN Goodwill Ambassador Edward Norton; film director Ken Burns; World Bank science adviser Thomas Lovejoy; Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon and Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa have put in their plea in writing.
The one million acre mining buffer zone is what is under consideration as the administration is speculated to make a decision this week. The Grand Canyon National Park generates $687 million in revenue annually from visitors to the park. It additionally creates more than 12,000 full time jobs and all this can be threatened by a new uranium mine coming up in the buffer zone.
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar had issues a temporary halt in claims on national forests and public lands around the Grand Canyon in 2009 as a slew of uranium claims were being sought. Environmentalists have been worried about the final decision of the government when that ban is lifted in July this year. The suspense may finally be over as the government takes its decision on the issue this week.