Grand Canyon uranium mining set to go ahead despite ban from Obama

[bananas]

Source: Guardian

Uranium mining on the doorstep of the Grand Canyon national park is set to go ahead in 2015 despite a ban imposed last year by Barack Obama.

Energy Fuels Resources has been given federal approval to reopen its old Canyon Mine, located six miles south of the canyon's popular South Rim entrance, that attracts nearly 5 million visitors a year.

The Canadian company says that the Obama administration's ban on new hard-rock mining over 1m acres doesn't apply because its rights date from when it closed over 20 years ago.

<snip>

After the end of the cold war around 1990, demand for uranium dropped and so did its price. Now, with the global uranium market booming, companies are moving to reopen old claims. Observers say the outcome of the lawsuit is important, because it could serve as a bellwether for how future attempts to re-open old uranium mining claims in the area will go. There are over 3,000 mines in the Grand Canyon area that hold such claims.

"A lot of people out there want their piece of the park," said Dave Uberuaga, superintendent of Grand Canyon national park, citing "incredible pressure" from mining and other industries to develop land in the area. "My number one challenge is protecting this place," he said. "We can't take it for granted."

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2013/apr/30/grand-canyon-uranium-mining

[PDJane]

1. Yeah, that sounds like Harper.

[newfie11]

2. Disgusting

More paid for politicians

[marble falls]

3. The heck with those Canadians. Canadian mining ventures around the world have crappy records.

[Javaman]

4. oh goodie...

does this mean they will use the tailing for concrete?

A peril that dwelt among the Navajos

http://www.latimes.com/news/la-na-navajo19nov19,0,5351917.story

For the most part, they were happy with the purchase. Their Navajo hogan was situated well, between a desert mesa and the trading-post road. The eight-sided dwelling proved stout and snug, with walls of stone and wood, and a green-shingle roof.

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The single drawback was the bare dirt underfoot. So three years after moving in, the Holidays jumped at the chance to get a real floor. A federally funded program would pay for installation if they bought the materials. The Holidays couldn't afford to, but the contractor, a friend of theirs, had an idea.

He would use sand and crushed rock that had washed down from an old uranium mine in the mesa, one of hundreds throughout the Navajo reservation that once supplied the nation's nuclear weapons program. The waste material wouldn't cost a cent. "He said it made good concrete," Mary Holiday recalled.

much more at link...(it's from 2006, but well worth the read)

[byeya]

5. I used to live at the Grand Canyon. Some of these mines had such a high % of uranium in its ore

that it had to be diluted with dirt for shipment. It was risky for miners to mine this ore and the tailings were much more radioactive than the background radiation of the area.
Uranium mines are not compatible with national park values and the presence of large ore carrying trucks on narrow park roads will be somewhat of a hazard and their weight will break down the park roads which were not built to withstand heavy loads.

Obama can put a halt to this by having park service personnel weigh each truck; checking each truck for safety violations; checking the drivers for proper licensing, etc...work to the rule in other words.

[L0oniX]

6. Obama = paper tiger when it comes to our interests and concerns n/t

[byeya]

8. I think we should be phasing out nuclear and protecting national park areas. Uranium mining

at Grand Canyon has not had a good safety record and there's no reason to believe that it will improve.
Please Mr Obama, stop it - You have the power to.

[AnotherMcIntosh]

7. Can't stop upcoming uranium mining in the Grand Canyon?

Can't close Gitmo?

Can't ask Holder to prosecute opendly admitted war criminals?

Can't reverse NAFTA and reverse the shipping of jobs to foreign countries?

What can he do?

Oh, yes. Appoint Cat-Food Commission members and ultimately cut Social Security.

[byeya]

9. And he continues with Cat Food Commission policies even though the commission was a failure

in that it both missed its deadline and was voted down by the members of the commission.
The CF Commission gave its verdict: No. And Bowles and Simpson showed their incompetence by missing the deadline.