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Lisbon Valley Mining is seeking permission to expand an open-pit copper mine and other operations on more than 1,000 acres of national public land in southeast Utah, worrying local ranchers and residents. The company has asked the Environmental Protection Agency for an exemption in order to inject chemicals into the the Burro Canyon aquifer, which locals rely on for both drinking water and ranching.
“When an aquifer gets exempted, it’s sacrificed. It can no longer be used for drinking water,” a local business owner told E&E News. “Mining is a very water-intensive endeavor, and there’s just not a lot of water here.”
Lisbon Valley is one of the many mining projects the Trump administration is advancing by fast-tracking permitting and pushing for copper and uranium to be added to the critical minerals list. The Velvet-Wood uranium and vanadium mine, located just a few miles away from the Lisbon Valley copper mine, was fast-tracked by the Trump administration earlier this year. It's environmental review was completed in just 11 days, drawing praise from state leaders and concerns from locals.
Keep Parks Public tour heads to Utah!
Our Keep Parks Public tour stops in Salt Lake City tomorrow for a live podcast recording at Fisher Brewing. We’ll be discussing the impacts of funding cuts, new laws, and layoffs on our beloved public lands—from the forests of the Wasatch to the parks, national monuments, and BLM lands of southern Utah.
We’ve brought together an expert panel to discuss these issues, including Erika Pollard with the National Parks Conservation Association, Davina Smith with the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition, Doug Tolman with Save Our Canyons, and Scott Braden with the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance. RSVP now to secure your spot, or join us for our final stop in Grand Junction on Friday!
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Public lands are a great equalizer—places where all Americans have the same right to hike, hunt, fish or camp... If we lose the people who manage these lands, our access will shrink under wildfire closures, roads will be gated, and campgrounds will close. We’ll lose our freedom to wander.”
