3 Year Hold on Mining in the Grand Canyon

Today the House Natural Resources Committee voted 20-2 to withdraw the public land around the Grand Canyon from mining for uranium to fuel power plants for three years.

“This vote is a battle won in the longer fight for comprehensive reform,” said LCV Legislative Associate Hasan Nazar.

The implications, had the mining been allowed to proceed, would have included unforeseen damage to the one million acres of natural landscape that has become a national landmark, the contamination of the Colorado River, and the risk of increased instances of cancer and birth defects for the surrounding residents and miners.

The question of drilling in the area surrounding the Grand Canyon has been debated since the Gold Rush. The Mining Act of 1872 set the first precedent by authorizing and governing mining for economic minerals on federal public lands. Recently, however, people like Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley have testified before the Committee on Energy & Natural Resources to ban mining, revealing that, “decades after mining has ceased on the Navajo Nation, my people continue to get sick and die from the contamination left behind. The legacy of uranium mining has devastated both the people and the land.”

Following this vote, the next step lays in the hands of the Secretary of the Interior who has the authority to determine that the emergency exists.