From: Gordon Edwards [mailto:ccnr@web.ca]
Sent: Saturday, February 20, 2010 12:58 PM
To: Gordon Edwards
Subject: Government Study: Elevated Uranium Levels in Grand Canyon's Watershed

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Note: Mineral withdrawal = moratorium on mining. GE.

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http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2010/02/19-1

Government Study: Elevated Uranium

Levels in Grand Canyon's Watershed

Exploration and Mining Sites

Consistently Exceed Background Levels

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, February 19, 2010, 1:35 PM

CONTACT: Conservation Groups

Taylor McKinnon, Center for Biological Diversity, (928) 310-6713

Sandy Bahr, Sierra Club, (602) 999-5790

Roger Clark, Grand Canyon Trust, (928) 774-7466

GRAND CANYON NATIONAL PARK - February 19 - A series of

studies [1] released today

by the United States Geological Survey show elevated uranium

levels in wells, springs, and soil in and around uranium exploration

and mining sites within the watershed feeding Grand Canyon

National Park and the Colorado River.

The agency conducted the monitoring to provide information for an

environmental impact statement that is analyzing a proposed 20-year

mineral withdrawal that would protect nearly 1 million acres of public

land surrounding Grand CanyonNational Park from future mining

activities.

"These reports demonstrate unequivocally that uranium mining should

not proceed in these environmentally sensitive lands," said Stacey

Hamburg of the Sierra Club's Grand Canyon Chapter. "Contaminated

lands and waters around the Grand Canyon are not what we want for

the future of northern Arizona. Cleaning up contaminated sites should

be the government's first priority."

Elevated uranium levels consistently exceed natural background levels

in and around exploration and old mining sites - sometimes, as in the

case of the Kanab North mine, by as much as 10 times.

Elevated uranium levels were also detected near the old "Hack"

uranium-mine complex, which the Bureau of Land Management

actively promotes on its Web site [2]

as a model of good mine reclamation -- see on-line video here [3]:

.

Reclaimed in the 1980s, the mines are located in Hack Canyon, a

tributary to Kanab Creek and the Grand Canyon and Colorado River.

"Uranium mining has already contaminated lands and waters in and

around Grand Canyon, and today's research confirms that new

uranium mining would threaten aquifers that feed Grand Canyon's

springs, the Colorado River, and nearly 100 species of concern," said

Taylor McKinnon of the Center for Biological Diversity. "These risks

aren't worth taking -- and they're risks neither the government nor

industry can guarantee against."

Elevated uranium levels were also detected at another nearby old

mine that the Bureau has said it will allow to reopen without updating

1980s-era federal environmental reviews. The first such opening, of

Denison Mines' Arizona 1 mine, provoked a lawsuit [4] in November

from conservation groups seeking updated reviews. See:

Fifteen springs and five wells exhibited dissolved uranium concentrations

greater than the Environmental Protection Agency maximum for drinking

water; hydrogeologists have warned that new mining could deplete and

pollute water in aquifers and connected springs. Today's report

concludes that: "Uranium mining within the watershed may increase the

amount of radioactive materials and heavy metals in the surface water

and groundwater flowing into Grand Canyon National Park and the

Colorado River, and deep mining activities may increase mobilization

of uranium through the rock strata into the aquifers. In addition, waste

rock and ore from mined areas may be transported away from the mines

by wind and runoff."

"The USGS research confirms that mining uranium within Grand Canyon

watersheds risks permanently polluting waning water supplies for 25

million people and arid ecosystems. There are some places where mining

should not occur, and the Grand Canyon is one of them," said Roger

Clark of the Grand Canyon Trust.

Last week the Center for Biological Diversity sued the U.S. Bureau of

Land Management [5] for illegally withholding public records relating to

uranium mines immediately north of Grand Canyon National Park. The

Bureau is withholding the vast majority of eight linear feet of responsive

records despite directives from the Obama administration requiring the

agency to respond to information requests "promptly and in a spirit of

cooperation" and to adopt a "presumption of disclosure" (see Obama's

Freedom of Information Act memo to federal agencies here [6]).

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All of today's reports can be downloaded here:

http://pubs.usgs.gov/sir/2010/5025/ [1]

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Summary of Research Findings (From USGS)

• The area proposed for withdrawal is estimated to contain about

163,000 tons (about 326 million pounds) of uranium oxide (U3O8),

which is about 12 percent of the estimated total undiscovered uranium

in northern Arizona (1.3 million tons or 2.6 billion pounds).

• For comparison, the United States consumes about 27,550 tons

(55 million pounds) of uranium oxide each year in its reactors; most

of it comes from Canada, Australia, and Russia.

• Soil and sediment samples were analyzed for six sites that

experienced various levels of uranium mining in Kanab Creek area

north of Grand Canyon National Park, including mined and reclaimed

sites, mined sites currently on standby, and sites that were exploratory

drilled but not mined.

• Uranium and arsenic were two elements consistently detected in the

areas disturbed by mining in values above natural background levels.

• Analysis of historical water-quality data for more than 1,000 water

samples from 428 sites in northern Arizona shows that sixty-six percent

of the sampled sites showed low dissolved uranium concentrations (less

than 5 parts per billion).

• Ninety-five percent of the sampled sites had dissolved uranium levels

of less than 30 parts per billion, the Environmental Protection Agency

maximum for drinking water.

• Samples from 15 springs and 5 wells exhibited dissolved uranium

concentrations greater than the Environmental Protection Agency

maximum for drinking water. These springs and wells are close to or

in direct contact with mineralized ore bodies, and concentration levels

are related to natural processes, mining, or a combination of both factors.

• Almost 100 plants and animals identified by the State of Arizona or

other land managers as species of concern inhabit the area proposed

for withdrawal. Because uranium and its byproducts such as radon

can affect survival, growth, and reproduction of plants and animals,

USGS scientists identified exposure pathways (for example, ingestion

or inhalation) for these species of concern.

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Background

Spikes in uranium prices have caused thousands of new uranium

claims, dozens of proposed exploration drilling projects, and

proposals to reopen old uranium mines adjacent to the Grand

Canyon.

Renewed uranium development threatens to degrade wildlife habitat

and industrialize now-wild and iconic landscapes bordering the park;

it also threatens to deplete and contaminate aquifers that discharge

into Grand Canyon National Park and the Colorado River.

The Park Service warns against drinking from several creeks in the

canyon which exhibit elevated uranium levels in the wake of past

uranium mining.

These threats have provoked litigation [7] ;

legislation; and public protests [8]

and statements of concern and opposition from

scientists,

city officials,

county officials -- including from Coconino County --

former Governor Janet Napolitano,

state representatives,

the Navajo Nation, and

the Kaibab Paiute, Hopi, Hualapai and Havasupai tribes,

the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, and

the Southern Nevada Water Authority,

among others.

Polling conducted by Public Opinion Strategies shows overwhelming

public support for withdrawing from mineral entry the lands near Grand

Canyon; Arizonans support protecting the Grand Canyon area from

uranium mining by a two-to-one margin.

The Interior Department in July 2009

enacted a land segregation order [9],

now in force, and proposed a

20-year mineral withdrawal [10],

which is now being analyzed, for one million acres of public land

surrounding Grand Canyon National Park.

Both measures prohibit new mining claims and the exploration and

mining of existing claims for which valid existing rights have not been

established.

The Bureau of Land Management has failed to produce any

documents demonstrating the establishment of valid existing rights

for the Arizona 1 mine or other mines around Grand Canyon.

The United States Geological Survey's monitoring results that were

released today are to inform the aforementioned analysis of the

proposed mineral withdrawal.

Article printed from www.CommonDreams.org

URL to article: http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2010/02/19-1