Outrage over plans to drill uranium ore from the Grand Canyon
- added May 9, 2008
- 8 responses
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- JanforGore
- added this
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A Mayfair mining company has caused uproar with plans to extract uranium from the Grand Canyon – prompting one official to ask how Britons would react “if an American company went to drill at Stonehenge”.
The Grand Canyon is not only one of the world’s most famous natural landmarks, attracting five million visitors a year and offering a home to bald eagles, condors, bighorn sheep and exotic fish. It also happens to contain vast reserves of uranium ore – suddenly in huge demand, thanks to renewed interest in nuclear power as part of the search for “green” fuel.
But while demand for uranium has risen, supply has fallen as mines have closed in Canada and West Africa. As a result, the price has soared – and that has sparked a rush to find new deposits.
The Mayfair company VANE Minerals is at the forefront of this scramble, planning to drill at up to 39 spots on seven sites within the Kaibab National Forest, which borders both the north and south rims of the Grand Canyon, in north-central Arizona. A further thousand claims are thought to be pending from other companies – up from just ten in 2003.
National Park officials, Indian tribal leaders and even some scientists are doing everything they can to stop the exploration, going so far as to call a congressional “field hearing” in Flagstaff, Arizona. “The Grand Canyon is something we depend on for visitors, for tourism, it’s one of the wonders of the world, and here we are as the federal Government allowing the distinct possibility of uranium mining,” Raul Grijalva, a congressman for the state, said.
Environmentalists point out that uranium is both a toxic heavy metal and a source of radiation. As a result it could kill local wildlife and poison the water in the Colorado River Aqueduct, which provides drinking water to Los Angeles and much of southern California, Tribal leaders also complain that they have previously been forced to clean up after bankrupt mining concerns, while radiological assessments at one past exporation site – the Orphan Mine – have shown gamma-radiation at more than 450 times the background level after uranium was brought closer to the surface.
Yet with fears rising over global warming, many argue that the dangers of continuing to burn coal for electricity far outweigh the potential dangers of uranium mining. And while solar, tidal and wind technologies show promise, they are nowhere near as reliable.
more at the link
The Grand Canyon is not only one of the world’s most famous natural landmarks, attracting five million visitors a year and offering a home to bald eagles, condors, bighorn sheep and exotic fish. It also happens to contain vast reserves of uranium ore – suddenly in huge demand, thanks to renewed interest in nuclear power as part of the search for “green” fuel.
But while demand for uranium has risen, supply has fallen as mines have closed in Canada and West Africa. As a result, the price has soared – and that has sparked a rush to find new deposits.
The Mayfair company VANE Minerals is at the forefront of this scramble, planning to drill at up to 39 spots on seven sites within the Kaibab National Forest, which borders both the north and south rims of the Grand Canyon, in north-central Arizona. A further thousand claims are thought to be pending from other companies – up from just ten in 2003.
National Park officials, Indian tribal leaders and even some scientists are doing everything they can to stop the exploration, going so far as to call a congressional “field hearing” in Flagstaff, Arizona. “The Grand Canyon is something we depend on for visitors, for tourism, it’s one of the wonders of the world, and here we are as the federal Government allowing the distinct possibility of uranium mining,” Raul Grijalva, a congressman for the state, said.
Environmentalists point out that uranium is both a toxic heavy metal and a source of radiation. As a result it could kill local wildlife and poison the water in the Colorado River Aqueduct, which provides drinking water to Los Angeles and much of southern California, Tribal leaders also complain that they have previously been forced to clean up after bankrupt mining concerns, while radiological assessments at one past exporation site – the Orphan Mine – have shown gamma-radiation at more than 450 times the background level after uranium was brought closer to the surface.
Yet with fears rising over global warming, many argue that the dangers of continuing to burn coal for electricity far outweigh the potential dangers of uranium mining. And while solar, tidal and wind technologies show promise, they are nowhere near as reliable.
more at the link
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- JanforGore
- 5 months ago
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The nuclear industry should not be allowed to use climate change as an excuse to deface and despoil the national landmarks of this country to satisfy their addiction. There are viable alternate energies that ARE NOT years away. To say that solar and wind are not now viable is in simple language, bullshit. I am sick of the nuclear, coal, and oil lobbies' propaganda. Nuclear is not 'green,' it is toxic. To think we would see drill holes in the Grand Canyon in this day and age with all of the advances we now have is an absolute DISGRACE. Just how far will greed go to destroy the beauty of this country that we have left?
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- JanforGore
- 5 months ago
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A he he. Thank you, JanforGore for posting this informative article on the dangers of uranium mining, the powerful forces of greed determined to make $trillions by renewing in situ leach uranium mining in the Grand Canyon and the states of the Four Corners.
This picture is of Castle Rock in North of Tuba City where we lived with our three oldest children in the mid and late-eighties. To the far right outside of the picture, yet just a few miles away, is Rare Metals, the site of devastating damage to the land and people of the Western Chapters of Navajo Nation.
I was tested for heavy metals in the early '90s and my hair had poisonous levels of several toxic heavy metals including mercury and very high levels of silver, aluminum and uranium.
The cancer rate in the Tuba City area, which is also very close to the Grand Canyon, is very high.
The winds in the spring blow up fine dust from the uranium mining tailings that gets into your eyes, ears, noses and mouths and pellets your skin.
Click this link for photos of Navajo, Then and Now by Charleen Touchette and S. Barry Paisner, Authors of REAL & FAKE INDIANS (PD-2009) -
Leslie Marmon Silko got the MacArthur Genius Award in 1981. Her brilliant novel CEREMONY (1977) weaves stories of Pueblo life, uranium mining,her own Laguna Pueblo, American Indian Viet Nam War veterans and Pueblo and Navajo ceremony, into a novel that is easily one of the 5 best of all time.
More at - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leslie_Marmon_Silko
Simon Ortiz, Acoma poet, has also addressed uranium mining and American Indians in the Southwest with power and humanity. -
Thank you for this story. I truly hope that one of our planet's true gems will not become cracked and despoiled by our own poor decisions.
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- LindaBusiness
- 4 months ago
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TouchArt:
Thank you again for your invaluable contributions and information on this important topic.
LindaBusiness:
You're welcome and I hope people shout these attempts to despoil our landmarks down. We cannot continue the old antiquated toxic ways of getting energy. They are killing our planet.-
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- JanforGore
- 4 months ago
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Solar energy is 'not viable'????? Puh-leeeze. All right -- who do we want for our Sec'y of the Interior, in the Obama administration... Rachel Carson??? Helen Caldicott??? Al Gore???? Can't wait for Jan. 09!!!!
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Well, since Obama is for nuclear, I wonder if he would speak out against this drilling. Haven't heard anything yet from any of them.
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- JanforGore
- 4 months ago
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Maybe someone connected with the Obama campaign could ask him.
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