Matthew Gerke

October 2, 2008

The next stage in the on-going fight over uranium exploration near Grand Canyon National Park began on September 29th as the Center for Biological Diversity (Center), along with the Grand Canyon Trust and Sierra Club Grand Canyon Chapter, filed an action against Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne in the United States District Court for the District of Arizona. The U.S. Department of the Interior and U.S. Bureau of Land Management were also named as defendants in the complaint, which alleges that Secretary Kempthorne has violated an emergency congressional resolution that withdrew over one million acres from the lands available to be mined under U.S. mining laws. The complaint further alleges that Secretary Kempthorne has approved four more drilling sites on the land considered by the Emergency Resolution.

The environmental groups are concerned about the proximity of the uranium drilling sites to both the Colorado River and Grand Canyon National Park. Several government agencies have voiced concerns about surface- and ground-water contamination due to uranium mining near the Colorado. Further, cancer has been diagnosed in several workers of a former uranium mining operation on a nearby Navajo reservation and groups are concerned that trains and trucks carrying uranium could expose more people to the dangerous effects of the mineral.

The action is the most recent development in the struggle for protection of the Grand Canyon and continues what has been a contentious battle between local groups and the federal government. In December 2007, British mining company VANE Minerals sought approval from the U.S. Forest Service to drill exploratory wells in Kaibib National Forest, including wells located within three miles of the canyon's southern rim. Finding that VANE's exploration of the area would last less than a year and possibly would not lead to any mining activity, the Forest Service determined that VANE's operations did not require a full environmental review under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and subsequently approved VANE's request.

While environmental groups and the Forest Service litigated whether an Environmental Impact Statement was necessary under NEPA, U.S. House of Representatives member Raul Grijalva (D. AZ-7) introduced legislation on March that would permanently prohibit anyone from mining the same one million acres that is under consideration in the action filed on Monday. The House Committee on Natural Resources held a hearing on the proposed legislation in June and voted in favor of passing the legislation by a count of twenty "yeas" and two "nays." Republican members of the committee left the hearings in protest, leaving only twenty two voting members, three shy of the minimum required for a quorum. The Department of Interior has stated that because the committed lacked a quorum, the Emergency Resolution cannot stand and therefore will not be adhered to by the department.

Sources:

Amanda Lee Myers, Groups Sue Over Ariz. Uranium Exploration, Seattle Post Intelligencer, September 29, 2008, available at http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/6600ap_wst_grand_canyon_mining.html

Center for Biological Diversity, Press Release: Conservation Groups Challenge Kempthorne to Protect Grand Canyon and Enforce Uranium Mining Ban (September 29, 2008), available at http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/news/press_releases/2008/uranium-exploration-09-29-2008.html (last accessed Sept. 30, 2008).

Center for Biological Diversity, Press Release: Settlement Repeals Uranium Exploration Near Grand Canyon,

Requires Full Reviews of Subsequent Drilling Proposals (September 26, 2008), available at http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/news/press_releases/2008/uranium-exploration-09-26-2008.html (last accessed Sept. 30, 2008).

Complaint at 1-3, Center for Biological Diversity v. Kempthorne, No. 3:08-cv-08117-NVW (D. Ariz. Sept. 29, 2008).

Felicity Barringer, Uranium Exploration Near Grand Canyon, N.Y. Times, Late Edition, February 7, 2008, at 12.