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Concern rises about possible uranium mining near Grand Canyon

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Photo:  Grand Canyon Trust

Source:  CNN

Concern rises about possible uranium mining near Grand Canyon

By Gregory Wallace, CNN

(CNN)  Federal officials are expected to rule in the next month on a petition that could eventually lead to uranium mining around the Grand Canyon, which conservation advocates warn could irreparably pollute the region’s limited groundwater supply.

While the petition is under consideration, the Commerce and Interior departments have made a series of decisions including reclassifying uranium as a critical mineral and developing a plan calling for increased domestic mining.
The departments’ decisions have raised the concern of those who oppose mining in the region, who worry the administration may use the moves to justify modifying or rescinding the Department of Interior’s 2012 decision that largely blocked mining on more than 1 million acres near the national park for 20 years. That 2012 decision, which was made to give the US Geological Survey time to study the unique impacts of uranium mining there, was upheld by the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals in 2017.

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  2. Pingback: Concern rises about possible uranium mining near Grand Canyon — Straight from the Horse’s Heart | huggers.ca

  3. Ask the Navajo People about uranium mining

    For The Navajo Nation, Uranium Mining’s Deadly Legacy Lingers
    April 10, 2016
    Heard on Weekend Edition Sunday

    All four of Welch’s grandparents have died, and she worries about her parents’ health and now her daughter’s. Cancer rates doubled in the Navajo Nation from the 1970s to the 1990s.

    “Why isn’t there more of an outrage? Why isn’t there more of a community sense of what the heck is going on? How did this happen? Why is this still occurring? Why hasn’t anything been done?” she asks.

    One company, Anadarko Petroleum, and its subsidiary Kerr-McGee recently paid $1 billion to the Navajo Nation for cleanup and as compensation to people living with the effects of uranium contamination.

    But one-third of the mining companies have shut down or have run out of money. The federal government knew about some of the dangers decades ago, but only started the cleanup in recent years.

    And the uranium issue on the Navajo Nation is part of a much bigger problem. Across the western United States there are more than 160,000 abandoned hardrock mines — thousands of which continue to pollute.

    https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2016/04/10/473547227/for-the-navajo-nation-uranium-minings-deadly-legacy-lingers

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    • “COMPENSATION to people living with the effects of uranium contamination.” This sounds similar to many other pay-offs that have been done by our government and/or billion dollar corporations for chemical/medical experiments on humans and massive air/water/soil pollution that have caused not only death but torturous suffering.

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  4. FOREIGN OWNED Uranium company
    WHERE does the Buck Stop?

    Wheeler’s EPA: Is a Foreign Uranium Company On Verge of Getting More Wishes Granted?

    The lowdown on Acting Administrator Wheeler and his former foreign uranium mining client, Energy Fuels Inc. (EFI):

    EFI wants to mine for uranium next to the Grand Canyon.

    EFI appears to be trying to reverse a 20-year ban on uranium mining near the Grand Canyon announced in January 2012. According to the Grand Canyon Trust, a conservation group, EFI owns about 12% of active mining claims in the area of this ban. Further, enCore Energy Corp., of which Energy Fuels is the largest shareholder, recently bought 73% of the active claims in the area of the ban.

    https://westernvaluesproject.org/wheelers-epa-is-a-foreign-uranium-company-on-verge-of-getting-more-wishes-granted/

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  7. I remember a movie called “Thunderheart” which actually did publicize the horrible pollution done by uranium mining – also made clear yet another way native Americans got criminalized for fighting back. Compensation? doubtful it will bring back the lives of the people who suffered & died from this pollution, nor will it repair whats being done to their water, air & environment.

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