Bush Administration Proposes Withdrawal of Rule Protecting Grand Canyon From Uranium Mining

[WhiteTara]

Source: Center for Biological Diversity

TUCSON, Ariz.– In response to a lawsuit filed by the Center for Biological Diversity, Grand Canyon Trust and Sierra Club, the Bureau of Land Management today proposed to eliminate a regulation that compels the Secretary of the Interior to withdraw a million acres of federal land near Grand Canyon National Park from uranium mining.

“The administration has chosen to change the law under a highly constrained public process rather than follow it and protect Grand Canyon,” said Taylor McKinnon, public lands program director for the Center for Biological Diversity, “This regulation has been on the books for decades — and changes to it can’t be applied retroactively.”

“Nothing — not laws, not Congress and not the Grand Canyon itself — will impede this administration’s accommodation of industry on our public lands,” McKinnon said.

Due to a recent and alarming increase in uranium claims near Grand Canyon National Park, the U.S. House of Representatives’ Subcommittee of Natural Resources issued an emergency resolution on June 25th directing Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne to immediately withdraw more than 1 million acres from mining and development. The Subcommittee is granted this authority by Congress through the Federal Land Management and Policy Act and also through an Interior Department regulation (43 CFR 2310.5).

Kempthorne has illegally ignored the congressional emergency resolution, compelling the Center for Biological Diversity, Grand Canyon Trust, and Sierra Club to file suit on September 29th in order to force the required withdrawal of these lands. Meanwhile, the Bureau of Land Management, an Interior Department agency, continues to authorize uranium exploratory drilling to continue on the federal lands that were required to be withdrawn.

In response to the Center’s lawsuit, instead of withdrawing these lands as required by the emergency regulation, the Bush administration has simply proposed to eliminate the regulation. The Administration’s proposal allows the public just 15 days to respond to the proposed rule, and it provides no environmental analysis of the potential effects of the proposed elimination of the regulation.

“Once again, the Bush administration is trying to internally eliminate important protections for our public lands with minimal public notice and no environmental analysis,” said Marc Fink, an attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity.

“If uranium development near the Grand Canyon is allowed to continue unabated, in violation of the emergency resolution, a likely result could be irretrievable contamination to seeps, springs ground water feeding Grand Canyon and the Colorado River,” McKinnon said. “Our national treasures deserve better.”

Background materials for download:

Conservationist’s lawsuit against Kempthorne
Map of Uranium Exploration Authorized in Violation of Emergency Withdrawal
Map of Uranium Claims, Seeps and Springs in Withdrawal Area
Letter by Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano
Letter by Los Angeles Water District
Coconino County Grand Canyon Uranium Resolution
Testimony of Dr. Larry Stevens
Testimony of Dr. Abe Springer
Testimony of Robert Arnberger, former Grand Canyon National Park superintendent
Testimony of Roger Clark
Testimony of Chris Shuey
Supplement to Chris Shuey Testimony
Letter dated July 15th from Department of Interior
Letter dated July 16th by Congressman Rahall






Read more: http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/news/press_releases/2008/uranium-exploration-10-09-2008.html

---

Mods, move this if you don't think this is latest news. But the implications are so dire, I thought it was worth the effort.

We have until October 25th for comments!

[Turbineguy]

1. I knew they'd

get around to selling the Grand Canyon sooner or later.

[codjh9]

2. These motherfuckers are the WORST EVER on the environment, in MANY different ways,

yet a lot of the public is completely asleep on this issue. But it MATTERS, whether you like to hike, fish, hunt, swim, camp, photograph, *anything* in the outdoors of our formerly wonderfully beautiful outdoors (OK, so it still is in many places, but the list of their atrocities is very long). Not to mention their laxing of air/water pollution standards in or near our cities, their ignoring of global warming, on and on and on. As Jim Hightower said a few years ago, and I think he was speaking on the env., 'IF we're still here in 200-300 years, they'll say we were the stupidest people who ever lived'.

[MnFats]

7. WORST EVER in EVERY aspect. think of it....what did they ever do right?

everything they touch turns to s***

[codjh9]

9. Exactly. A friend of mine has a t-shirt that says WORST. PRESIDENT. EVER.

[aquart]

3. And this will help who how?

Good god, is there nothing they won't try to destroy?

[WhiteTara]

11. Time to make our calls and send our letters

Vigilance is the watch word of the day! Stop the madness

[dmosh42]

4. Why not drill under the Lincoln monument in DC?

Could be there's oil a few thousand feet. We could do it as a package deal with Grand Canyon!

[kiranon]

14. How close is it to VP Cheney's residence? Perhaps he has already.

[fNord]

38. maby me could do some explortory mining on Mt. Rushmore, too

"I'm tellin' ya, theres gold right here!"

[Zorra]

5. Majority of American Citizens propose withdrawing Bu*h Administration from

society and throwing all of their nasty little selves in prison for life.

[CountAllVotes]

6. keep digging GOP

the bottom is near!

:kick:

[no_hypocrisy]

8. It's gonna be a long 98 days . . . .

[ladywnch]

10. so much destruction left to inflict, so little time left. n/t

[sinkingfeeling]

12. How much more destruction of America does the idiot-in-chief want to accomplish in the next 99 days?

[HopeHoops]

28. SCORCHED EARTH POLICY!

[LaPera]

13. If it makes money-we should build a golf course in Yosemite Valley-Exclusive Condos overlooking

Old Faithful, and a super-amusement theme park with barrel rides at Niagara falls....

Jesus is coming soon so we might as well profit while we can from gods gifts!

Anyway, it's all for the kids & grand-kids ya know...future generations, they'll love it!

(Oops, sorry, I forgot, no "future generations" Jesus is coming soon). So let's get started now, make a little money and BUILD!!

[Submariner]

16. We need to dynamite Half Dome first at Yosemite so it stops

blocking the rising sun on the condos on the valley floor. Drill, blast, excavate....we only have 98 days left of the Decider.

[codjh9]

18. I hope they rot in Hell. n/t

[LaPera]

22. I think to assure success for these projects. Jesus should do the ribbon cutting, act as

Grand Marshall at all the openings ....he'll make a lot of money so I'm sure we can persuade him....and huge permanente murals at each location of Jesus blessing each endeavour.

We can branch out, bungy jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge, off-road races at four corners, the sky's the limit my friend!

These are can't miss money makers...Investors will be flocking to get in on it....But we should only allow god fearing Christians as investors, you know to control things.

[yellowcanine]

15. WTF? Why don't we just drill on the WH lawn then? Shit I probably should have not said that, might

give Cheney ideas.

[chelsea0011]

17. Mine one of the National Wonders of the World?

He's a piece of work.

[AlphaCentauri]

19. Palin just said it, Mine baby Mine!

isn't it something else

[bain_sidhe]

20. "irretrievable contamination to ... the Colorado River"!!

How many people get their water from the Colorado River?

This is not just destruction of a "national treasure," it's potentially lethal contamination of the only water source for MILLIONS of people!

**edit: tyop**

[Connonym]

21. What's next, using it as a dump and then building condos on top when it gets full?

Conservative my ass

[Baby Snooks]

23. Add it to the list of "things taken off the table...."

No doubt the list will continue to grow along with a pardons list and especially if McCain wins. Thank you Madame Speaker.

[defendandprotect]

24. All of our parks will be gone soon -- Manifest Destiny, dontchaknow . . . ???

Patriarcy and its aggression and violence won't stop until they've turned the whole thing

to ashes --- probably with the "gourd of ashes" --- as the native American calls nukes.

[NM Independent]

25. That sorry...

M@#$erF@%ker

[Ian David]

26. But they'll destroy all the evidence of Noah's Flood! n/t

[HopeHoops]

27. Well it isn't like it is that important - all good GOP sheep know it was created by Noah's flood!

[liberal N proud]

29. Is there anything this fucker has not fucked up?

Anything left? Anything at all?

[nichomachus]

30. This is exactly why Pelosi

needs to start impeachment proceedings on November 5. We need to keep them scrambling for their lives -- otherwise they will steal everything but the grass off the White House lawn on the way out.

[Bushies gotta go]

31. The raping of America is near complete

Can we survive another 90 days with the chimp on a fast track?

As a person right in the midst of the Uranium battle, I can tell you how this works. The mining corporations are working overtime in my town in NM, a town that was left broke after the mining boom of the 1950s through the 80s... and left us with totally contaminated land, water and air. I cannot even drink from my well, it is so contaminated due to the Uranium mining. We are gearing up for a lawsuit against them. But the mining companies are coming back,now wanting to mine again with a "new fangled" method.

This next round of mining is called "In-situ" mining, wherein the inject water into the ground, pushing it through into our aquifer while it extracts the Uranium from the ground. The Uranium then enters the aquifer and a second pipe, an "extraction" pipe, sucks the Uranium laced water out of the aquifer. The EPA and the NRC are in cahoots over the whole thing. In the mine's application for the process, the NRC says it relies on the EPA to authorize the use of the aquifer based on that part of the aquifer being "non-potable" in the first place. Think about how silly that is, that just a little part of an aquifer would be non-potable. It is the big lie coming from both our EPA and the NRC.

And the problem is, this "new fangled" method isn't new at all. Another lie by the NRC which has managed to convince the sheep of this town that it is safe. In-situ mining has been going on since the 1950s. And there are places in Texas and Wyoming that are suffering from it, having lost their aquifers amongst other things. But you can't explain that to half these morans in this town.

At the last NRC meeting, wherein they discussed a new streamlined "generic environmental impact study" approval process for these mines, the NRC told this town that the In situ mines would generate 70 jobs for the town. The people were a bit surpirised with that until the mining people stood up and got them to believe that "yes, the mine itself" will generate 70 jobs (which will be all out of town hires) but those 70 jobs will result in 8000 (yes, that is eight thousand) jobs on the periphery. Another lie, which the pro-mine locals ate up without even thinking how absurd that is.

So the locals, from the mayor to the local state senator candidate, is eating this up, thinking this town's streets will be paved with gold... when the real street of gold is Rte 66.. if only they would clean up the town and promote the tourist industry of 66 itself....

Meanwhile, my town is divided and it is getting as nasty as a Palin rally.... for more information, visit http://www.bvdownstreamalliance.org about our neighborhood...

[Bushies gotta go]

33. Oh... and I forgot

Just how does the chimp's strategy work in this endeavor? You see, it's the same old thing as haliburton. Uranium on the open market is worth about $65 per usable puond... but it costs in excess of $100 per usable pound to mine. Since the mining companies can't justify that type of cost, the Feds subsidize them, paying for most of the operation. Then, when clean up is supposed to happen, the mining companies are PAID out of our tax dollars instead of any profit they've made to clean it up. So in essence, this is just another corporate cronyism thing for the chimp... make all his buddies rich.

[WhiteTara]

47. it is unimaginable that we would pay for

our own death! The world is so upside down! Keep figthing the good fight, even when you are just tilting at the windmills!
:patriot:

[Reform]

32. The country has been sold

and the owners are coming to reap their rewards from their purchases.
Keep an eye out for ever growing tolls on roads you never thought would have them also.

[pleah]

34. Their mission to distroy and kill anything and everything isn't over yet.

I don't think the people or the environment can wait until this regime is out of the White House.

[apnu]

35. And Bush said to day "There is a lot of work left to do"

I guess he was talking about this and all the other scummy things they haven't pillaged yet. Time's running out for the criminal empire.

[BrklynLiberal]

37. It scares me to thing of all the damage he can do before Jan 20.

[proReality]

36. There is no end to what they'll rape, pillage and plunder. n/t

[glinda]

39. They ought to censure Bush or something

for the rest of his time in office. He will just throw out every rule and law. I am so emotionally sick from his environmental abuses and his breaking laws and trashing the Constitution. I hate him. Yes. I hate him.

[DWilliamsamh]

40. Forgive me and I swear I am not flame baiting...A sincere question

How is mining on the federal lands in question threatening to The Grand Canyon?

From your article:

"...a regulation that compels the Secretary of the Interior to withdraw a million acres of federal land near Grand Canyon National Park from uranium mining." (emphasis added my me)

Doesn't this indicate that the land in question is not Grand Canyon National park? I am not 100% sure we should be mining on federal land but if the land in question isn't a national park or other protected environmental area I'm not sure why it should be off limits?

[McCamy Taylor]

41. New GOP slogan "Glow, Baby, Glow"

[whistle]

42. Grand Canyon to become the Grand Pit if BushCo prevails

[OakCliffDem]

43. Bush will get his lasting legacy. It will be known as Yucca Mountain

[Pooka Fey]

44. WTF?? BushWorld: no natural treasures left behind

[Indenturedebtor]

45. Oh FFS! If somone could make a penny selling baby eyeballs

this administration would be all for it :puke:

[quidam56]

46. THANK GOD ! Now we need to put an end to MOUNTAIN TOP REMOVAL !

Our home, heritage and way of life is being destroyed as the GOP aka 'The party of God' blows up 350 Million year old Appalachian Mountains all for greed and the love of money. I wish Sean Hannity would SHUT THE FUCK UP ! http://www.wisecountyissues.com

[Hekate]

48. The Chimperor did say he has a lot of projects to do before he leaves office.

And here we thought he'd just sit quietly in a corner and get drunk.

Hekate