DoomsdaysCW<p>Advocates demand halt to <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/uranium" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>uranium</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/mine" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>mine</span></a> near the <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/GrandCanyon" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>GrandCanyon</span></a></p><p><a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/EnergyFuels" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>EnergyFuels</span></a> says <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/nuclear" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>nuclear</span></a> power is necessary to fight <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/ClimateChange" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>ClimateChange</span></a>, but <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Indigenous" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Indigenous</span></a> tribes fear losing their homes</p><p>By Matthew Rozsa<br>January 31, 2024</p><p>"The Grand Canyon truly lives up to its name, being the largest canyon on Earth and one of the most popular national parks in America. But due to <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/UraniumMining" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>UraniumMining</span></a> in the area, some advocates are warning it could become the site of a future <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/EnvironmentalDisaster" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>EnvironmentalDisaster</span></a>, which threatens to make one Indigenous village 'extinct.'</p><p>"More than 80 groups signed onto a statement on Monday — representing Indigenous communities, scientists and environmental nonprofits such as the <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/SierraClub" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>SierraClub</span></a> and the <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/CenterForBiologicalDiversity" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>CenterForBiologicalDiversity</span></a> — directed at President <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/JoeBiden" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>JoeBiden</span></a> and <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Arizona" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Arizona</span></a> Gov. <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/KatieHobbs" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>KatieHobbs</span></a>, demanding they close the <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/PinyonPlain" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>PinyonPlain</span></a> uranium mine, which is located near the Grand Canyon.</p><p>"'We have a choice in front of us. Allowing the Pinyon Plain mine to proceed is subjecting this landscape and its interconnected waters to a legacy of devastation and disregarding the rights of the <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/IndigenousPeoples" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>IndigenousPeoples</span></a> on the land,' Sanober Mirza, Arizona program manager for the National Parks Conservation Association, said in the statement. 'Or we can choose a different path — one that holds a promise of protecting the Grand Canyon’s cultural sanctity, its people and natural resources.'</p><p>"To understand why the mine's opponents feel so strongly, one can turn to <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/AmberReimondo" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>AmberReimondo</span></a>, who work as energy director at a conservationist non-profit called the <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/GrandCanyonTrust" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>GrandCanyonTrust</span></a>. Reimondo explained to Salon by email that, on the one hand, <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Biden" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Biden</span></a> permanently banned mining operations on nearly 1 million acres of federal managed lands by creating the <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/BaajNwaavjo" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>BaajNwaavjo</span></a> I'tah Kukveni - Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon National Monument in August 2023. Yet the Pinyon Plain mine was <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/exempt" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>exempt</span></a> from this prohibition, and Reimondo argues that the impact on the region has been 'several fold.'</p><p>"'What they've created here is a long-term, slow motion <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/EnvironmentalDisaster" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>EnvironmentalDisaster</span></a>."</p><p>"'The Grand Canyon region as a whole and especially the location of the mine, is deeply significant to Indigenous cultures and is a place where tribal members have conducted <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/ceremonies" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>ceremonies</span></a>, collected medicine, hunted, and more, for centuries,' Reimondo said. 'The mine also overlies critical and complex [and] not well understood groundwater systems. One <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/aquifer" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>aquifer</span></a> in particular — the <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/RedWallMuavAquifer" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>RedWallMuavAquifer</span></a> — is the sole source of water for the remote <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/HavasupaiVillage" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>HavasupaiVillage</span></a> of <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Supai" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Supai</span></a> inside the Grand Canyon. The mine poses a <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/contamination" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>contamination</span></a> threat to these <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/groundwater" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>groundwater</span></a> resources not just today, but importantly, after the mine's mere 28-month operational lifespan has concluded and the mining operator 'cleans up' and moves on.'</p><p>"Supai is so remote, it's only accessible only by helicopter or an 8-mile mule ride or hike, Reimondo explained, noting that if the newly-oxygenated groundwater comes into contact with nearby rocks, minerals like <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/arsenic" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>arsenic</span></a> and <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/uranium" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>uranium</span></a> will be dissolved by the groundwater and enter aquifers used by the local community and essential to local ecology, including <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/HavasuFalls" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>HavasuFalls</span></a>. Taylor McKinnon, Southwest Director for the Center for Biological Diversity, expressed similar concerns.</p><p>"'Ultimately, this mine is going to require political leadership,' McKinnon told Salon in an interview, referring to both the Biden and <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Hobbs" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Hobbs</span></a> administrations. 'Those administration's agencies have the authority to fix this problem if they so choose, and that's what they should do.'</p><p>"We have detailed strenuously for years that neither regulators nor industry can ensure against the permanent and irretrievable damage to Grand Canyon's aquifers and springs," McKinnon added. "This mine was approved originally in 1986, under a record of decision from the US Forest Service under a presumption that it was highly unlikely that the mine would encounter groundwater, and further unlikely that if it did, it had the potential to contaminate deeper aquifers in the springs that they feed. Subsequent state permitting from the <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/ArizonaDepartment" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>ArizonaDepartment</span></a> OfEnvironmentalQuality has basically parroted those same assumptions.'</p><p>"Yet McKinnon alleges that in 2016 the mine punctured a perched aquifer, causing roughly 10 million gallons of water per year to drain into the mine workings. From there he asserts that a surface pond formed with water that has concentrations of uranium and arsenic far in excess of the Environmental Protection Agency (<a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/EPA" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>EPA</span></a>)'s water quality standards. Not only does this threaten the local endangered and endemic species, but it also impacts the nearby Havasupai tribe.</p><p>"Havasupai means 'people of the blue-green water,' McKinnon said. "It's their longstanding cultural identity, and it is the water they drink, they farm with and that provides for all of their tourism economy because it is this just a beautiful series of massive verdant waterfalls that flow through the village and down into a series of waterfalls and pools where people camp and they derive tourism dollars.'</p><p>"In a 2022 letter of opposition, the Havasupai Tribal Council, laid out what is at stake in the uranium mining controversy.</p><p>"'Our identity as a people is intrinsically intertwined with the health of <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/HavasuCreek" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>HavasuCreek</span></a> and the environment to which it gives life,' the tribe’s letter explained. 'We use this water for drinking, <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/gardening" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>gardening</span></a> and irrigating, municipal uses, and <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/cultural" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>cultural</span></a> and <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/religious" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>religious</span></a> uses. If the water source becomes contaminated like we have seen in other areas of Arizona due to uranium mining, we will no longer be able to live in our homes and Supai Village will become extinct.'</p><p>"These fears are based on precedent. The nearby <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/NavajoNation" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>NavajoNation</span></a> is scattered with old uranium mines — over 500, in fact — awaiting cleanup, exposing locals to risk of '<a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/LungCancer" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>LungCancer</span></a> from inhalation of <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/radioactive" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>radioactive</span></a> particles, as well as <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/BoneCancer" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>BoneCancer</span></a> and impaired kidney function from exposure to <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/radionuclides" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>radionuclides</span></a> in drinking water,' according to the EPA. Likewise, members of the <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/UteMountain" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>UteMountain</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Ute" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Ute</span></a> tribe in <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/WhiteMesa" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>WhiteMesa</span></a>, Utah have protested against uranium mines they say have contaminated local groundwater, air and even wildlife."</p><p><a href="https://www.salon.com/2024/01/31/advocates-demand-halt-to-uranium-mine-near-the-grand-canyon/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" translate="no" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://www.</span><span class="ellipsis">salon.com/2024/01/31/advocates</span><span class="invisible">-demand-halt-to-uranium-mine-near-the-grand-canyon/</span></a> </p><p><a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/NoNukes" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>NoNukes</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/WaterIsLife" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>WaterIsLife</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/AirIsLife" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>AirIsLife</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/CulturalGenocide" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>CulturalGenocide</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/EnvironmentalRacism" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>EnvironmentalRacism</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/CorporateColonialism" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>CorporateColonialism</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/NoMining" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>NoMining</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/UraniumMining" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>UraniumMining</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/NuclearPowerNoThanks" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>NuclearPowerNoThanks</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/IndigenousActivism" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>IndigenousActivism</span></a></p>