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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE |
CONTACT: Environmental Working Group (EWG) |
Bush Violates Law Protecting Grand Canyon From Uranium Mining
Mining Claims Put a Stranglehold on Iconic Canyon
WASHINGTON - October 27 - The Bush administration allowed Phoenix-based Neutron Energy to stake 20 new mining claims south of the Grand Canyon on August 7, in violation of an emergency Congressional resolution passed seven weeks earlier that declared off limits to mining activity approximately 1 million acres adjacent to Grand Canyon National Park.
A new Environmental Working Group (EWG) analysis of records generated by the Interior department's Bureau of Land Management unearthed evidence of Neutron Energy's claims, filed in defiance of a Congressional resolution aimed at protecting the Canyon and the Colorado River that flows through it from a surge of uranium mining activity sparked by uranium prices escalating in anticipation of new nuclear power plant construction.
"The Bush administration's Grand Canyon giveaway is a direct violation of the law," said EWG Senior Analyst for Public Lands Dusty Horwitt. "This is the environmental equivalent of a subprime mortgage on the nation's most iconic natural treasure. Mining companies get in cheap today, and the public pays tomorrow for what is certain to be a major environmental disaster."
EWG alerted the public and Congress to the rush for mining rights around the Grand Canyon in an August 2007 report called Mining Law Threatens Grand Canyon, other Natural Treasures. This week's updated analysis by EWG shows that as of October 1, 2008, speculators and mining interests have filed 8,568 mining claims in the area protected by the emergency resolution, compared to 110 claims in January 2003.
A satellite map showing the claims is available here.
Federal documents also show that the administration has illegally processed or approved requests to explore and drill for uranium on at least seven claims in the protected area after the House Natural Resources Committee resolution, passed June 25. The resolution invoked a rarely-used emergency provision to protect a million-acre expanse around the canyon.
Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-AZ), chairman of the House Natural Resources Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests and Public Lands, is spearheading legislation that would protect this land permanently. EWG urges Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) to include Grijalva's bill in the sweeping public lands package to be considered next month.
The Bush administration has said that it will defy the Congressional resolution. Three conservation organizations -- the Grand Canyon Trust, Center for Biological Diversity and Sierra Club -- have filed suit to force its compliance.
Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano, Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-NM), chair of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, and a number of conservation organizations have protested the administration's stance.
Napolitano, the Southern Nevada Water Authority and the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California have written Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne expressing concern about the impact the surge in claims would have on the Grand Canyon National Park and the Colorado River, the source of drinking water for 25 million Americans, including residents of Las Vegas, Los Angeles and Phoenix.
The antiquated 1872 Mining Law leaves the federal government virtually powerless to prevent mining activity on public land, even if mining threatens national parks or precious water resources. Last year, the House passed a comprehensive mining reform bill but the measure stalled in the Senate.
Mining has been the nation's leading source of toxic pollution for nine consecutive years according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
3 Comments so far
Show AllIt's close enough to a law for the administration, apparently. I think they're going for the record: most laws broken by a government ever. They feel the end coming and are even going for things that aren't quite laws, just to get it under the wire. Expect government parking violations soon. And what's that other one? Oh, yeah, military takeover and declaration of a dictatorship.
RONFORUSA
I was watching Keith O. last evening and the story came up about Bush and Uranium mining in or near the Grand Canyon!!! Anyone want to fill me in and let me know if the story below which is true may have any thing to do with Mr. Bush's interst in seeing that mining begin again! I guess when there isn't much money left in oil, you make it in the new frontier, nuclear power. And with only a few weeks left in the White House, I guess we set up the dominos to fall in your own favor! Especially when you can still call the shots!! Am I on track?????
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Yellow Cake to Canada Brought to you by
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Posted by patricia43 z8 AL (My Page) on Sun, Sep 14, 08 at 7:02
7/8/08
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The United States secretly shipped out of Iraq more than 500 tons of low-grade uranium dating back to the Saddam Hussein era, the Pentagon said Monday.
In this 2003 photo, UN inspectors work at the nuclear facility in Iraq.
In this 2003 photo, UN inspectors work at the nuclear facility in Iraq.
The U.S. military spent $70 million ensuring the safe transportation of 550 metric tons of the uranium from Iraq to Canada, said Pentagon spokesman Brian Whitman.
The shipment, which until recently was kept secret, involved a U.S. truck convoy, 37 cargo flights out of Baghdad to a transitional location, and then a transoceanic voyage on board a U.S.-government-owned ship designed to carry troops to a war zone, he said.
The "yellowcake" uranium transfer was requested by the Iraqi government at the encouragement of the U.S. government, Whitman said.
The United States approached Canadian company Cameco to bid for the material, according Cameco spokesman Lyle Krahn. He would not disclose the winning bid amount.
Krahn admitted that this was not a "routine transaction," but he said the agreement was approved by the Canadian government and was carefully monitored.
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The undertaking, named "Operation McCall" by Pentagon officials, was in the planning stages for months and was completed Saturday after the material had been in transit for weeks, according to Whitman.
He said yellowcake uranium is a commonly traded commodity used for nuclear power generation. It is not enriched and cannot be used without first going through a complicated enrichment process, he said, but because of the unstable nature of Iraq, the United States and the Iraqi government decided it should be moved out of that country. Iraq has no nuclear power generating plants.
The uranium was packed into 110 shipping containers moved by convoy from a facility in Tuwaitha, Iraq, about 12 miles south of Baghdad. The containers were first moved to the secure International Zone in central Baghdad and then to Baghdad International Airport, where thery were loaded onto C-17 cargo planes.
It took 37 flights to move the shipping containers out of Iraq to a "third country," Whitman said.
A Pentagon official who asked not to be named said that third country was Diego Garcia, a British territory in the Indian Ocean where the United Kingdom and the United States operate a joint military base.
From that third country, Whitman said, the containers were loaded onto the SS Gopher State, a U.S.-owned crane ship normally used to haul equipment in and out of war zones. The ship carried the uranium to Canada, where it was bought by Cameco, a private firm.
The uranium will be sent by truck to two processing plants in Ontario, Krahn said. Once it has been enriched for energy use it will be sold to power plant operators, he said.
The United States is Cameco's largest customer, Krahn said, but he did not specify if the Iraq yellowcake would ultimately end up in the United States.
Whitman said the Department of Defense's cost of securing and transporting the uranium from Tuwaitha to Canada was $70 million, and the government of Iraq had agreed in principal to reimburse the United States for part of that cost.
He said he could not say how much Iraq intends to repay the United States.
E
"The Bush administration's Grand Canyon giveaway is a direct violation of the law," said EWG Senior Analyst for Public Lands Dusty Horwitt.
If all they have to go on is a Congressional resolution, how are they violating a law? Now if the democrats actually had some spine, they would have made such resolution law. Just as the republicans threaten to stall legislation by filibustering the dems can say that nothing will pass until these most important issues are decided, such as ending the wars and bringing home the troops, but if all they can do is pass resolutions, which are not laws and thus do not have to be enforced then they are completely ineffective and need to be replaced, completely. Vote for a third party!