Category Archives: Uncategorized
Uranium Mine Gears Up Near Grand Canyon National Park
Senate must pass permanent Grand Canyon mining ban before 117th Congress ends
December 7, 2022
CONTACTS:
- Abbie S. Fink, on behalf of Havasupai Tribal Council, afink@hmapr.com, 602-903-8502
- Amber Reimondo, Grand Canyon Trust, areimondo@grandcanyontrust.org, 928-286-3361
- Matthew Nelson, Arizona Trail Association, matthew@aztrail.org, 520-404-7992
- Sandy Bahr, Sierra Club – Grand Canyon Chapter, sandy.bahr@sierraclub.org, 602-999-5790
- Taylor McKinnon, Center for Biological Diversity, tmckinnon@iologicaldiversity.org, 801-300-2414
- Kelly Burke, Wild Arizona, kelly@wildarizona.org, 928-606-7870
- Kati Schmidt, National Parks Conservation Association, kschmidt@npca.org, 415-847-1768
- Geoffrey Nolan, Earthjustice, gnolan09@gmail.com, 202-740-7030
GRAND CANYON NATIONAL PARK, AZ – The Pinyon Plain Mine (formerly Canyon Mine) appears to be gearing up for uranium mining operations fewer than 10 miles from the south rim of the Grand Canyon. Hundreds more uranium mines could eventually be developed on federal public lands near Grand Canyon National Park if the Senate fails to pass Senate Bill 387, the Grand Canyon Protection Act.
Operators of the controversial uranium mine recently posted a job ad on Craigslist to recruit new miners, after its owner announced a deal that could ramp up operations at the mine as soon as 2023. Increased activity has been observed inside the mine fence.
The Senate has only a few weeks left to pass the Grand Canyon Protection Act, which would permanently ban new uranium mines on just over 1 million acres of federal public lands near the Grand Canyon. The bill has already passed the house twice.
As longtime residents of the Grand Canyon, the Havasupai Tribe, its leaders, and elders have fought against uranium mining for decades.
“It is time to permanently ban uranium mining — not only to preserve the Havasupai Tribe’s cultural identity and our existence as the Havasupai People, but to protect the Grand Canyon for generations to come,” said Chairman Thomas Siyuja, Sr. “With recent activity observed inside the mine fence, it is clear that the mining company is making plans to begin its operations.”
According to Chairman Siyuja, Sr., “The Havasupai Tribe knows the irreparable damage that uranium mining can do. For generations, we have been at the forefront, working to permanently protect our ancient homelands from the negative impacts of uranium mining, which has disproportionately harmed and sickened indigenous people across Northern Arizona. The Senate must pass the Grand Canyon Protection Act and once and for all permanently ban any new uranium mines on our ancestral lands.”
There are nearly 600 active mining claims staked near Grand Canyon National Park. If the Senate fails to act, those claims could be developed into mines if the existing temporary mining ban is lifted or expires.
Uranium mining has a long history of contaminating land and water and sickening people in the region, including on the nearby Navajo Nation, where hundreds of abandoned uranium mines still await cleanup. At Pinyon Plain Mine alone, more than 49 millions gallons of groundwater contaminated with high levels of uranium and arsenic have been pumped out of the mine shaft.
“Pinyon Plain Mine remains a shameful example of why the Grand Canyon region must be permanently protected from further mining,” said Amber Reimondo, energy director for the Grand Canyon Trust. “For over 30 years, the Havasupai Tribe has been clear about the harm this mine causes. Yet regulators still focus only on when and how to allow it, rather than whether this uranium mine should be allowed at all.”
“The fact that Pinyon Plain Mine is just a few miles away from the Arizona National Scenic Trail is alarming,” said Matthew Nelson, executive director of the Arizona Trail Association. “In the interest of public safety, and for the love of clean air and water and soil for people and wildlife, we urge decision makers to reconsider the permitting for this mine and ban new mines here in the future. The risks far outweigh the rewards.”
“Canyon Mine, now renamed as Pinyon Plain, should have never been allowed to go forward by the Forest Service, by the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality, and other agencies that have permitted it,” said Sandy Bahr, chapter director for Sierra Club’s Grand Canyon Chapter. “It is a serious threat to the waters and people of Grand Canyon and demonstrates that we need stronger protections for these public lands surrounding Grand Canyon. We stand in solidarity with the Havasupai against this mine and in support of the Grand Canyon Protection Act.”
“Federal and state officials have exposed Grand Canyon’s aquifers and springs to threats of permanent, irretrievable damage by approving the Pinyon Plain uranium mine,” said Taylor McKinnon of the Center for Biological Diversity. “Those risks are unacceptable and those approvals should be withdrawn. Congress must act now to permanently protect the Grand Canyon region from the devastation of more uranium mining.”
“History and science are clear. Uranium mining will devastate the Grand Canyon and recklessly poison the water and land of the Havasupai people,” said Earthjustice Senior Legislative Representative Blaine Miller-McFeeley. “Instead of safeguarding the profits of a mining company, we must urgently pass the Grand Canyon Protection Act to permanently protect this iconic site, its natural resources, and the people who call it home for generations to come. The House has already acted, and it’s time for the Senate to put the interests of the people over polluting industries and pass this legislation.”
“The clock is ticking for Congress to come together to protect the irreplaceable Grand Canyon watershed landscape and the entire water supply of the Havasupai people from industrial mining threats,” said Michè Lozano, Arizona program manager for the National Parks Conservation Association. “Passing this commonsense legislation is essential to prevent the incredible threats that uranium mining poses to the canyon’s limited water sources that feed its creeks and waterways.”
“It doesn’t matter what you call a uranium mine that transgresses the seeps, springs, and aquifers that supply water to the people, plants, and animals of the Grand Canyon; to protect them, the tragic legacy of uranium mining must not be repeated,” said David Spence, MD, board president of the Arizona Chapter of Physicians for Social Responsibility. “Only Congress can protect against the future development of uranium mining in this sensitive region.”
“Pinyon Plain (Canyon) Mine operations already clearly demonstrate that major harmful impacts to both groundwater supply and water quality cannot be avoided when mining uranium near Grand Canyon,” said Kelly Burke, executive director of Wild Arizona. “This is why state and federal officials, as well as Congress, must listen to the Havasupai and take immediate, life-affirming action leading to mine closure and passage of the Grand Canyon Protection Act.”
BACKGROUND
Pinyon Plain Mine, also known as Canyon Mine, is located in a meadow on the Kaibab National Forest, near Red Butte, a federally recognized traditional cultural property, south of Grand Canyon National Park. The area is the aboriginal homeland of the Havasupai Tribe and the mine threatens the Tribe’s only source of drinking water. The Havasupai Tribe has led opposition to the mine since it was first approved in the 1980s. While passage of the Grand Canyon Protection Act would stop new mines from being developed, it would not shut down existing mines like Pinyon Plain Mine. The Havasupai Tribe and its many supporters remain committed to seeing the mine closed and cleaned up.
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Arizona to Permit Grand Canyon Uranium Mine Despite Ongoing Flooding, Water Contamination
Mine Threatens to Deplete, Pollute National Park’s Aquifers, Springs
For Immediate Release
June 24, 2021
Contacts:
Allison Melton | Center for Biological Diversity | (970) 309-2008 | amelton@biologicaldiversity.org
Sandy Bahr | Sierra Club-Grand Canyon Chapter | (602) 999-5790 | sandy.bahr@sierraclub.org
Kelly Burke | Wild Arizona | (928) 606-7870 | kelly@wildarizona.org
Amber Reimondo | Grand Canyon Trust | (928) 286-3361 | areimondo@grandcanyontrust.org
Kevin Dahl | National Parks Conservation Association | (520) 603-6430 | kdahl@npca.org
GRAND CANYON NATIONAL PARK, Ariz.— The Arizona Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) proposed an aquifer protection permit Wednesday for a uranium mine near Grand Canyon National Park, with a history of flooding. The mine flooding threatens to deplete shallow aquifers and contaminated water is putting regional aquifers and the springs they feed at risk.
Conservation groups are calling on Arizona officials to close the Pinyon Plain mine, formerly known as Canyon Mine.
“It’s inexcusable for Arizona regulators to gamble with the waters feeding the Grand Canyon’s precious springs,” said Allison Melton, an attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity. “The dangerous problems of perpetual flooding and pollution will only worsen if uranium is mined. The department should stop catering to a deadly industry and close the mine before a bad situation gets worse.”
In 2019 the groups sent a letter to the department urging it to limit Energy Fuels’ aquifer protection permit to mine closure, post-closure maintenance and full bonding, and to immediately plug groundwater flowing into the mine, which the state has refused to do.
“Groundwater contamination is a problem that will continue long after the mine’s operator closes up shop, ceases its current pumping operations, and the mine has been technically closed and cleaned up,” said Amber Reimondo, energy director for the Grand Canyon Trust. “The best course of action at this point is not to make the problem any worse by mining and exposing more mineralized deposits to oxygen and water. Immediate closure, cleanup, and installation of a long-term groundwater monitoring system is necessary to protect the Grand Canyon region’s limited water from this ill-placed mine.”
“The Arizona Department of Environmental Quality’s responsibility is to protect our precious groundwater from toxic pollution such as uranium — that is the whole reason this Aquifer Protection Permit program exists,” said Sandy Bahr, chapter director for Sierra Club’s Grand Canyon (Arizona) Chapter. “To correct its previous errors to allow the mine to go forward with a less stringent general permit, the agency must both require a stronger individual permit and one that addresses closure of the mine. To do otherwise is to further risk this important aquifer, as well as the waters of Grand Canyon and Havasupai.”
In 2017 miners began spraying uranium-contaminated water into the Kaibab National Forest because the water exceeded the facility’s wastewater-storage capacity. They have also sprayed the water on the ground for dust control and allowed birds and other wildlife to drink from, bathe, and forage in the polluted onsite storage pond.
“Pristine springs and seeps of Grand Canyon are the life support systems in this ecologically/culturally diverse and extraordinary landscape,” said Kelly Burke, executive director of Wild Arizona. “With ongoing extreme drought conditions stressing wildlife, habitats, and the Havasupai people to the limits of climate resilience, it is unconscionable and reckless to literally permit the contamination and depletion of these life-giving waters to persist.”
The department will evaluate the draft permit following a 45-day public comment period. It could then deny, modify or grant the permit.
“The state’s Department of Environmental Quality should act to protect this iconic park and the water supply of the Havasupai people by denying this permit and immediately closing down the mine,” said Kevin Dahl, Arizona senior program manager for National Parks Conservation Association. “Speculative uranium mining at this location is a horrible use of public land.”
The flooding disproves a central premise of the U.S. Forest Service’s 1986 environmental impact statement approving the mine, which said that the “low potential for encountering groundwater in the mine effectively eliminates the possibility of contaminating the Redwall-Muav aquifer.”
In 2012 the Forest Service refused to update that analysis, which the state has since relied on, stating that “very little has changed since the 1986 (analysis).” As early as 1986, some state officials warned that mining could pierce and drain shallow aquifers into the mine and contaminate the regional groundwater that feeds seeps and springs in Grand Canyon. Other hydrologists have since echoed that warning, pointing to more recent science suggesting that uranium mines could contaminate and deplete aquifers connected to Grand Canyon springs.
Research from U.S. Geological Survey scientists, published in 2020, “suggests a hydrologic connection in the area of Canyon Mine” between the Coconino aquifer, which is flooding into the mine, and the deeper Redwall-Muav aquifer, which is the source of the largest springs in Grand Canyon and Havasu Springs on the Havasupai Tribe’s land, and that, “contaminants, either from land-surface or subsurface sources, are likely to be transported into the deep aquifer”. Water in a Coconino aquifer observation well at Canyon Mine is chemically similar to several Grand Canyon springs, as is water from a well drilled into the deeper Redwall-Muav aquifer.
Mining operations have sucked tens of millions of gallons from shallow aquifers, but neither the state nor the Forest Service know whether these aquifers connect to Grand Canyon springs.
In 2020 the mine’s owners changed the name of the mine from Canyon to Pinyon Plain, obscuring its association with Grand Canyon. The mine is just seven miles from the boundary of Grand Canyon National Park.
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The Center for Biological Diversity is a national, nonprofit conservation organization with more than 1.7 million members and online activists dedicated to the protection of endangered species and wild places.
Founded in 1892, the Sierra Club is a national nonprofit environmental organization with approximately 3.5 million members and supporters, including more than 60,000 in Arizona. Sierra Club’s mission is to explore, enjoy, and protect the wild places of the earth; to practice and promote the responsible use of the earth’s ecosystems and resources; and to educate and enlist humanity to protect and restore the quality of the natural and human environment.
The mission of the Grand Canyon Trust is to safeguard the wonders of the Grand Canyon and the Colorado Plateau, while supporting the rights of its Native peoples. The Trust was established in 1985 and has over 4,000 members. It is a regional conservation organization headquartered in Flagstaff, AZ with satellite offices in Durango and Denver, CO, and Salt Lake City and Moab, UT.
Wild Arizona’s mission is to protect, link together, and restore wild lands and waters across Arizona and beyond, for the enrichment and health of all generations, and to ensure Arizona’s native plants and animals a lasting home in wild nature. Since its origins in 1979, Wild Arizona has worked to defend and protect Arizona’s outstanding landscapes, including Grand Canyon and its rimlands, through citizen outreach and advocacy, wilderness stewardship volunteerism, and field-based science and inventory, engaging nearly 3,000 members and supporters.
Since 1919, the nonpartisan National Parks Conservation Association has been the leading voice in safeguarding our national parks.
Permitting a mine that doesn’t exist?!
Issuing an environmental compliance permit for a mine can be a tricky process, involving a range of regulations, consultations and documentation, and even then, the health and wellness of people in the area around the mine is far from secure. It’s difficult enough to ensure that existing mines meet regulations and acceptable standards, particularly when it comes to handling dangerous materials like uranium, but how do you create standards and ensure compliance when the mine doesn’t even exist?!
Energy Fuels, the operators of the (in)famous Canyon (Pinyon Plain) Mine are back at it again, this time seeking an Air Quality Control Permit for EZ mine, which is currently open to public comment until June 17, 2021.
Permit application documents request that the mine be reactivated, indicating that this is not a new mine, but an existing one. However, for an existing mine, it certainly lacks the trappings traditionally associated with one!
Where did you say this mine was?
For permitting agency Arizona Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ), the first challenge may be locating the mine. In its current state it is nothing more than an empty field. There is no machinery, buildings or other infrastructure typically found at a mine. In fact, it isn’t even obvious where the mine is supposed to be. A report from a consulting organization associated with “mine” owner Energy Fuels includes an image of an open field and explains that it is “located by the small green shrub at left-centre of the image.” The picture also includes vehicles and other mining equipment off to one side, but the report carefully notes that “the drill rig is not on EZ2 property.”
If EZ mine receives an Air Quality Control Permit from ADEQ, what will they do?
For one thing, they can’t mine. Mining would require a Plan of Operations, an Environmental Impact Statement, a determination of Valid Existing Rights, Endangered Species Act consultations, consultations with the Bureau of Land Management and Tribes, and other federal approvals, none of which have been initiated.
Are they really planning to extract uranium at EZ?
Low uranium prices have already compelled the company to halt operations at other sites. At Pinyon Plain Mine (formerly called Canyon Mine), another of Energy Fuels’ holdings, the price of uranium has never been high enough for the company to extract a single ounce of ore. Miners drilled the shaft, pierced a perched aquifer, and have had to manage tens of millions of gallons of contaminated water without raking in a single cent of mining revenue.
So why would Energy Fuels even want a permit for a mine that doesn’t exist?!
The simple answer may be that securing the site looks good to investors. Even if Energy Fuels never breaks ground at EZ mine, the publicly-traded company might be able to raise money off the fact that it secured the permit.
Read our comment to ADEQ on the proposed permit renewal for this non-existant mine here.
Comments on the Air Quality Control Permit are due to ADEQ by June 17, 2021. Visit the proposal page to voice concerns about permitting this non-existent mine.
Lithium Mine Threatens Hualapai Land, Water
The Sandy Valley Lithium Project is a proposed mining operation near Wikieup, Arizona where early resource exploration is already underway. The mine is pushing ahead and attempting to expand its scope despite environmental concerns and opposition from the Hualapai Tribe and the Inter Tribal Association of Arizona, which represents 21 Tribes.
The project would create a 300 foot deep mining pit, surrounding a piece of Hualapai-owned land and would have direct implications for a nearby religious site. The tribe was denied a request to be a Cooperating Agency with the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), who is the deciding agency on the project. The Tribe maintains that the exploration and mining will cause irreparable harm to the land and its status as a culturally and spiritually significant area.
Please submit comments to the BLM by June 10 at http://bit.ly/lithiummine to voice concerns about the project and tell the bureau to require the consent of the Hualapai Tribe in order to continue.
Talking points:
- The Sandy Valley Lithium Project is operated by Hawkstone Mining, an Australian-based company that operates other mines in Nevada and Mexico.The site would be an open pit mine 300 ft deep.
- The company is trying to expand the size of its existing claims within Bureau of Land Management-owned lands.
- The site is immediately adjacent to a spring (Ha’Kamwe’) that is a vital religious site and surrounds land owned by the Hualapai Tribe, and could severely impact lands outside the immediate project area.
- Additional disturbances would surround the mine including 12.5 miles of roads, water wells and other infrastructure.
- The total project area encompasses nearly a square mile, with the most significant disruptions occurring across 26 acres.
- The environmental assessment identified potential impacts to “nearby” springs, and said “Native Americans have additional health and safety implications (“pollution, dust, noise, and overall safety concerns”).
- The Bureau of Land Management should analyze the impacts of the proposed mine, including the water consumption of a pipeline that would move ore in a slurry to Kingman, AZ. Right now they are only assessing the test drilling.
- The project is opposed by the Hualapai Tribal Council and the entirety of the 21-member Inter Tribal Association of Arizona.
- The Hualapai Tribe should be made a Cooperating Agency for the purpose of making this decision.
- This project should not proceed without Hualapai Tribal Consent.
Submit comments before Tuesday, June 10, 2021 at bit.ly/lithiummine.
Sierra Club Invites Snowbowl Management to Consider the Meaning of Humility
As Arizona Snowbowl rolls out its massive new Master Development Plan, they are making the rounds to sell the idea of turning the mountain into a year-round amusement park with rides, events, snowplay, and more, including a lot more tree clearing, soil damage, and artificial snowmaking with reclaimed water. If you would like to learn more about the ongoing injustices at Snowbowl, you can view this webinar on Snowbowl as part of our Irreplaceable: Grand Canyon series.
Snowbowl’s General Manager viewed the webinar and invited us to a meeting. We heard that Snowbowl was being told to speak to stakeholders about the proposed Plan. We had taken time to meet with the former manager about a former version of the Plan and did not feel like the management was willing to make any changes. (As an example of Snowbowl’s disingenuous attitude, night skiing, which was dropped from Snowbowl’s planning more than 15 years ago in response to Tribal opposition, was part of the former version of this Plan and then removed in a “compromise” with Tribes, again. Is it a compromise when you waste everyone’s energy twice? NO.)
To give context to the letter below, Mr. Linde has several times tossed around language in a gratuitous manner without meaning, in a manner that emphasizes his lack of respect for the 13 Tribes for whom the San Francisco Peaks Traditional Cultural Property (TCP) is part of their cosmology. Arizona Snowbowl is within the TCP and ski area operations, particularly artificial snowmaking with reclaimed water, is extremely offensive and destructive.
An example of Mr. Linde’s careless use of language is presented in this article in the Navajo Times, where he claims to, “recognize the cultural heritage and spiritual significance of the San Francisco Peaks. We… understand the great responsibility of operating this recreational facility… We’re humbled…” (Please read the rest of the article to hear from those with genuinely deep connections to the Peaks.) Nearly identical language is also in a video on Snowbowl’s Master Development Plan website.
In response to Mr. Linde’s meeting request, we replied in the following manner. Several people asked if the text of the letter could be shared. Here it is:
Rob,
Thank you for the invitation. My time is extremely limited and I do not think that there is a reason to meet at this time. I haven’t seen any indication that a meeting will accomplish anything.
I have heard you use words such as “humble” to describe your feelings of operating a ski resort on the Peaks. Please understand, I have never seen Arizona Snowbowl management or ownership demonstrate any example of humility. Humility starts with listening to and trying to understand the people whom you are hurting. I will believe there is humility when I see an honest analysis of your impacts and an effort to scale back your burden on the Mountain, on the Tribes, and on my community. Humility is not “compromising” by removing small parts from your plan to massively expand operations. Humility is realizing you have already caused significant damage. Humility is acknowledging that you have been treated to an extraordinary amount of privilege, and then using that privilege to do the right thing.
During the past year, while my friends, neighbors, and colleagues mourned the loss of family members – in some cases entire families were lost – and elders passed on, taking their enormous wisdom along with them, Snowbowl operated with no humility at all.
Multiple visitors and employees have described the feeling to me in a similar manner. I keep hearing versions of, “It’s like Covid doesn’t exist up there.” I heard from employees and patrons who felt disrespected and afraid to speak out. Dozens of visitors report that they bought day passes online, as they were asked, and then weren’t allowed up because the slopes were full with season pass holders, and – unabashedly – Snowbowl made it a policy this winter not to answer their phones and not to issue refunds to visitors who couldn’t get in. Instead, customers were encouraged to come back and try again another day, when they again didn’t know if they’d make the cut, clogging our roads and cramming into businesses that were trying to deal with their own Covid protocols. As our neighbors were dying, you were acting as if you had no responsibility to the community at all. As Covid raged on, you decided it was too much trouble to answer the phone.
A Tribal member even had to go up there, in the middle of the pandemic, to check whether the Forest Service was meeting its Endangered Species Act and National Environmental Policy Act obligations (they weren’t). He shouldn’t have had to do that. He did, because it was so important to him that he was willing to take the risk.
And now, you want to develop a relationship with me. What are you offering in exchange for my time? Are you offering the concession that you are hurting people and you are ready to stop? Are you offering to cease operations and enter in earnest negotiations with Tribal governance and Tribal members? Are you offering not to clear cut any more forests or waste any more precious water? Are you offering the ability of researchers to access your property to determine the impact of reclaimed water? Are you offering to limit your visitor capacity in a manner that is consistent with prior environmental studies and with the traffic capacity of my town? I will be happy to develop a relationship once I truly believe that you understand the harm you are doing and that you are trying to authentically undo that harm. Until then, there is no purpose in meeting.
You are asking Native peoples to surrender their religious freedom, asking all of us to give up Hart Prairie beneath acres and acres of fill and erosive gullies, asking the world to possibly lose a threatened endemic plant; you’ve asked your employees to risk serious illness and your clients to lose time and money.
You have not only disrespected the Tribes and my community, you have disrespected your own staff and customers. Please study up on the meaning of humility.
Then maybe we can talk.
With utmost sincerity,
Alicyn Gitlin
Irreplaceable: Grand Canyon
A Webinar and Podcast Series focusing on ongoing threats to the Grand Canyon region, emphasizing connections between people and place.
View all webinar recordings at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHj6-yDznVO79LPhm8O8sfQ
Join the Grand Canyon Chapter of the Sierra Club for a series of webinars and podcasts to spread awareness about threats to the Grand Canyon region, highlighting uranium mining near the Canyon, proposed dams and tourism development on the Little Colorado River, a massive proposed development just south of Grand Canyon National Park at Tusayan, and an expanding ski resort on the San Francisco Peaks, a mountain that is a Traditional Cultural Property for no less than 13 Tribes.
This is a series of conversations with people from affected communities about why these places are important, the values at risk, and the tools we have (and tools we need) to ensure that future generations have access to clean water, traditional use areas, sacred places, and livable spaces. Each of the webinars will focus on the importance of place, people, water, and wildlife.
Shaped by the Colorado River and surrounded by a stunning forested landscape, Grand Canyon is one of the most visited places in the country. When most Americans think of Grand Canyon, they envision a national park and natural wonder with strict rules to preserve the land and water. Yet Grand Canyon is part of a large interconnected landscape, and the people who live in and around it are threatened by historical decisions and planned projects that could irreversibly degrade this special place.
Drinking water, springs and tributary streams are endangered by groundwater pumping and contamination. As uranium mining threatens water quality, it threatens the health of Indigenous people who call the Canyon home. Newly proposed dams and developments would damage the culture and spiritual practices of several Tribes – a corruption of their natural rights and religious freedoms. Unique ecosystems, including endangered wildlife and endemic threatened plants, could be forever lost if some of these projects move forward.
Participants include:
- Diné (Navajo) Environmental Scientist Dr. Tommy Rock
- Havasupai Council Member Carletta Tilousi
- Havasupai Traditionalist Dianna Sue Uqualla
- Tusayan Mayor Clarinda Vail
- Diné (Navajo) Indigenous Community Organizer and Activist Leona Morgan
- Diné (Navajo) Grand Canyon Program Manager for Grand Canyon Trust, Sarana Riggs
- Tewa and Hopi Artist and Musician Ed Kabotie
- Diné (Navajo) Artist and Community Organizer Klee Benally
- Havasupai Tribal member Coleen Kaska
- Tusayan Sanitary District Chairman and former Tusayan Mayor Pete Shearer
- Former Executive Director of the Association on American Indian Affairs Jack Trope
Podcast Series: Viewers will have the opportunity to learn more about each speaker, their work, and their connection to each issue via the podcast, Grand Canyon TV, which will co-produce an interview series with Sierra Club’s Grand Canyon Chapter. You’ll be able to find the Grand Canyon TV podcast at soundcloud.com/grandcanyontv or wherever you listen to podcasts!
Episodes:
View all webinar recordings at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHj6-yDznVO79LPhm8O8sfQ
Uranium Mining in the Grand Canyon Region. We discuss the ongoing threats from new and abandoned uranium mines, the effort to permanently protect the Grand Canyon region from new mines, problems at Pinyon Plain (formerly Canyon) uranium mine; safeguarding public health and protecting sacred places, and how our region takes the brunt of nuclear fuel chain contamination from mining to disposal.
Threats to the Little Colorado River. We talk about the vital importance of this river and its surroundings to the many cultures that have inhabited the Grand Canyon region since time immemorial; repeated threats from dewatering, development, and dams; and efforts to ensure Tribal sovereignty and improve the abilities of Tribes to protect their cultural landscapes.
Proposed Development at Tusayan, AZ. An Italian developer has been working for decades to build a massive development just outside Grand Canyon National Park’s southern boundary in a small town with a big water problem. We talk with town residents and a Havasupai Tribal member about the importance of protecting springs, cultural sites, and wildlife corridors; and how the Town can address its very real needs for growth without damaging Grand Canyon.
The San Francisco Peaks Traditional Cultural Property and Arizona Snowbowl. Clearly visible from most of the Grand Canyon region, the San Francisco Peaks are part of the cosmology of at least 13 Tribes and are known by many names including Nuva’tukya’ovi (Hopi), Dook’o’oosłííd (Dine/Navajo), Hvehasahpatch or Huassapatch (Havasu ‘Baaja/Havasupai), Sunha K’hbchu Yalanne (A:shiwi/Zuni), and more. Continuous expansions at the Arizona Snowbowl Ski Resort and artificial snowmaking with reclaimed water are extremely offensive, a threatened plant clings to its upper slopes, and oversight of the resort’s operations have been lax, leaving Tribal members harmed and frustrated. In the final webinar of this series, we help viewers to better understand the nature of the cultural violations at Snowbowl, and why Traditional Cultural Property status has failed to provide adequate protection. What can we do to truly protect sacred places?
Conservation Groups Welcome House Passage of Grand Canyon Centennial Protection Act
The U.S. House of Representatives today passed the Grand Canyon Centennial Protect Act as part of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). The Grand Canyon Centennial Protection Act makes permanent a ban on new uranium mining on about 1 million acres of public land adjacent to, and hydrologically and ecologically connected to, the Grand Canyon.
The bill has been championed by Tribal members and leaders — particularly the Havasupai Tribe, with the support of the Hopi Tribe the Navajo Nation, as well as the National Congress of American Indians and the Intertribal Council of Arizona. A broad coalition of business owners, local government leaders, conservation groups, and others who oppose uranium mining in the Grand Canyon region have also voiced support for the measure.
You can encourage our senators to support protecting Grand Canyon from uranium mining here: https://addup.sierraclub.org/campaigns/grandcanyon
There are hundreds of active mining claims in the area and the uranium industry has lobbied for increased access and government bailout funds to prop up its lagging prospects, despite the ongoing public health threats from past uranium mining.
In response conservation groups issued the following statements:
“A hundred years after the formation of Grand Canyon National Park, we’re living under an administration hell-bent on drilling, mining, extracting, and polluting everything it can touch. That’s why we’re grateful for Chairman Grijalva and his colleagues’ efforts to halt dangerous new mining projects near the Grand Canyon and clean up the contamination already poisoning families in the Southwest. This language would ensure that the lands and drinking water near the Grand Canyon stay safe from toxic uranium mining operations, which have already left their scars on the health and wellbeing of the region, especially Native American communities. Earthjustice urges both chambers of Congress to protect the Grand Canyon from mining.” said Martin Hayden, vice president of policy and legislation at Earthjustice.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has made protecting public health and sustainable drivers of local economies more important than ever and uranium mining near the Grand Canyon is at clear odds with both,” said Amber Reimondo, energy program director for the Grand Canyon Trust. “A permanent mining ban is essential and we’re grateful to see this measure moving forward.”
“The Grand Canyon Centennial Protection Act is key to preventing more toxic pollution from harming communities. The people who have long borne the brunt of uranium contamination, Tribal communities in particular, are now also on the frontlines of the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s more important than ever for Congress to take swift action to protect the water supplies and health of the people who live and work in our region,” said Sandy Bahr, chapter director for Sierra Club’s Grand Canyon Chapter.
“The Grand Canyon is a treasured landscape that Arizonans value and respect. Protecting the integrity of Grand Canyon and the health of neighboring communities from uranium mining has enormous support in Arizona and across the country. We are pleased to see forward progress,” said Mike Quigley, Arizona state director for the Wilderness Society.
“As one of the seven natural wonders of the world, Grand Canyon deserves permanent protection,” said Matthew Nelson, executive director of the Arizona Trail Association. “The potential rewards of uranium extraction do not outweigh the risks to land, water, human health, and the legacy of the Grand Canyon region.”
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Encourage our senators to support protecting Grand Canyon from uranium mining here: https://addup.sierraclub.org/campaigns/grandcanyon
Opening Grand Canyon Premature and Irresponsible
May 14, 2020
For Immediate Release
Media Contacts:
Alicyn Gitlin, Sierra Club Grand Canyon Chapter, 520-491-9528, alicyn.gitlin@sierraclub.org
Sandy Bahr, Sierra Club Grand Canyon Chapter, 602-999-5790, sandy.bahr@sierraclub.org
Grand Canyon, AZ—Yesterday, the National Park Service announced plans to partially open Grand Canyon National Park this weekend. A decision to irresponsibly reopen the park comes in the midst of a pandemic that is devastating the nearby Navajo Nation, which has announced 147 new cases and 16 more deaths, and as deaths due to COVID-19 continue to rise.
“This is a terrible time to encourage widescale travel through the Navajo Nation and northern Arizona,” said Alicyn Gitlin, Grand Canyon Program Manager for the Sierra Club’s Grand Canyon Chapter. “Cases in Coconino County where Grand Canyon’s South Rim is located are still rising. The large population that lives at Grand Canyon and all nearby communities are put at risk by this move. Inviting tourists into a limited area, telling them not to drop below the Canyon’s rim, and making only a few well-obscured toilet facilities available, is asking for a patrolling and enforcement nightmare. While the Navajo Nation has been enforcing travel curfews for its own residents, it is unable to stop people from travelling through the reservation on state highways—and many people visiting from the north are likely to travel through.”
Employees who live in accommodations in Grand Canyon National Park staged a campaign earlier this year to temporarily close the park during the pandemic. Close living quarters would make an outbreak of COVID-19 in the park’s employee housing difficult to contain.
Other local communities are also pleading with people to not take pandemic vacations. To the south, the popular recreation community of Sedona, Arizona took to closing numerous trailheads and erecting highway signs saying “TRAILS CLOSED – GO HOME.”
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Memos Show Feds Killed Four Endangered Mexican Gray Wolves in Late March
Bloodiest Week in Southwestern Wolf Mismanagement Since 2006
For Immediate Release, April 7, 2020
| Contact: | Michael Robinson, Center for Biological Diversity, (575) 313-7017, michaelr@biologicaldiversity.org Maggie Howell, Wolf Conservation Center, (914) 763-2373, maggie@nywolf.org Sandy Bahr, Sierra Club, (602) 999-5790, sandy.bahr@sierraclub.org Chris Smith, WildEarth Guardians, (505) 395-6177, csmith@wildearthguardians.org Kirk Robinson, Western Wildlife Conservancy, (801) 468-1535, lynx@xmission.com Kelly Burke, Wild Arizona, 928-606-7870, kelly@wildarizona.org |
SILVER CITY, N.M.— In three memos written between March 3 and March 24, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service surreptitiously authorized the killing of four endangered Mexican gray wolves in New Mexico on behalf of the livestock industry. In response the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Wildlife Services program killed one wolf on March 23 and three more on March 28.
The quick-succession shootings of two members of the Prieto pack and two from the Mangas pack make this the bloodiest bout of federal wolf-killing in the Southwest since 2006, when an entire nine-member wolf family in Arizona was taken out.
“This killing spree shows us how little has changed in the mindset of wolf managers since the days of federal wolf extermination a century ago,” said Michael Robinson of the Center for Biological Diversity. “The Fish and Wildlife Service would rather shoot wolves than require ranchers to protect their animals on public lands. And sickeningly, some stockowners seem to look at losing cattle, and collecting reimbursements for those deaths, as worthwhile if it results in wolf killings that undermine Mexican gray wolves’ precarious recovery.”
“The Wolf Conservation Center has committed nearly 20 years of resources to Mexican gray wolf recovery in partnership with USFWS,” said Maggie Howell, executive director of the Wolf Conservation Center. “That our partners are open to delivering this unnecessary blow to lobo recovery is beyond disappointing. Given the species’ precarious status, killing should never be a management tool.”
“This is a sad day for Mexican wolves, particularly as these endangered animals are being killed at the behest of the agency charged with recovering them,” said Sandy Bahr, chapter director, Sierra Club – Grand Canyon Chapter. “We must insist that the agency abide by its responsibilities under the Endangered Species Act and focus on the welfare of these animals, not a few narrow special interests.”
The Mangas pack lives near the state line with Arizona, while the Prieto pack lives several dozen miles to the southeast. Both are in so-called “problem allotments” where chronically poor livestock management has resulted in previous removals of wolves.
For example, the Prieto pack occupies a heavily grazed area called Rainy Mesa that has a previous history of wolves scavenging on the carcasses of cattle they did not kill — cattle that died of non-wolf causes — and of the wolves subsequently preying on live cattle. The Prieto pack only began preying on livestock after several members of the pack had been trapped and injured or killed by non-governmental trappers.
“It is absurd that the onus for coexistence is placed on these endangered, native wolves rather than on subsidized public-lands ranchers who have introduced cattle where they don’t belong,” said Chris Smith of WildEarth Guardians. “A subset of ranchers who would rather have native species killed than improve their livestock management is literally calling the shots for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.”
Scientists have long recommended that ranchers be required to clean up or render inedible (i.e. by applying lime) the carcasses of cows that die on their watch in order to prevent wolves from being drawn to the proximity of vulnerable livestock. Yet the Fish and Wildlife Service opposes making such measures mandatory to prevent predation on stock.
“Ranchers are allowed to graze their private livestock on public lands with so little accountability,” said Kirk Robinson of Western Wildlife Conservancy. “The wolves are the scapegoats, and lamentably, it puts their recovery at risk.”
“Killing critically endangered Mexican gray wolves has never been a credible recovery strategy, and today we dishearteningly learn that the USFWS will fall right back into it, despite years of collaborative science, education, and cooperative stewardship efforts to mitigate and prevent livestock losses,” said Kelly Burke, executive director of Wild Arizona. “Let’s get back on track and truly recover the lobo through meaningful science-based actions.”
Background
The Mexican gray wolf is the southernmost subspecies of gray wolf in North America, and the most endangered. Federal employees have shot and killed 20 wolves since reintroduction began in 1998, and an additional 22 wolves have died inadvertently as a result of capture operations.
The 2017 Mexican Wolf Recovery Plan calls for reducing the numbers of wolves removed by the federal government but does not impose any limits to actually restrict killings like the ones that occurred in March.
In 1917 the predecessor agency of today’s Fish and Wildlife Service began trapping and poisoning wolves in the Southwest on behalf of the livestock industry. Almost all resident wolves were eliminated by the late 1920s, and wolves crossing the border from Mexico were quickly killed. In 1950 the Service began sending its experienced wolf poisoners to Mexico, along with government-produced poisons, as agricultural foreign aid.
After the 1973 passage of the Endangered Species Act, five wolves were captured alive in Mexico, and three of them were successfully bred. Descendants of those three were later bred with descendants of four other wolves captured in the 1950s and 1960s, and the descendants of those seven founders were reintroduced into New Mexico and Arizona in 1998. At last count 163 wild wolves live in Arizona and New Mexico, and approximately 30 live wild in Mexico, where reintroduction began in 2011.
The Center for Biological Diversity is a national, nonprofit conservation organization with more than 1.7 million members and online activists dedicated to the protection of endangered species and wild places.
Sierra Club is America’s largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, with more than 3.8 million members and supporters. In addition to protecting every person’s right to get outdoors and access the healing power of nature, the Sierra Club works to promote clean energy, safeguard the health of our communities, protect wildlife, and preserve our remaining wild places through grassroots activism, public education, lobbying, and legal action.
Western Wildlife Conservancy protects and advocates for native carnivores.
Wild Arizona is a statewide conservation organization working to protect, link together, and restore wild lands and waters across Arizona and beyond. We pursue this mission for the enrichment and health of all generations, and to ensure Arizona’s native plants and animals a lasting home in wild nature.
WildEarth Guardians protects and restores the wildlife, wild places, wild rivers, and health of the American West.
The Wolf Conservation Center is an environmental education organization committed to conserving wolf populations in North America through science-based education programming and participation in the federal Species Survival Plans for the critically endangered Mexican gray wolf and red wolf.
Sierra Club and Colleagues to Feds: Protect Grand Canyon from Proposed Environmental Rule Changes!
Read the letter we submitted here.
In one of its most aggressive attacks on bedrock environmental protections to date, the Trump administration wants to change the rules behind the National Environmental Policy Act. This law ensures that the government analyzes the effects of all actions that take place on public lands or use public money. It is responsible for disclosing the impacts on people, water, wildlife, the environment, the economy, and health. This law protects you – the public – and your money from harm and waste. This law is what gives us all the ability to weigh in on proposed actions, to point out missing information, and ensure that science is used to make decisions.
We, along with colleagues ranging from youth to elders submitted a letter pointing out how Grand Canyon will be particularly vulnerable should these terrible rules take effect. Read our letter here to learn how Grand Canyon might be uniquely affected if these rules go into effect. And please continue to be diligent to protect Grand Canyon!
Protect Grand Canyon 