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The Arizona Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) has issued an aquifer protection plan permit to the Pinyon Plain Mine, putting it one step closer to starting uranium mining just 10 miles from the Grand Canyon's South Rim in the Kaibab National Forest.
The mining proposal is opposed by environmentalists and tribal nations, particularly the Havasupai Tribe, some of whose members live in a side canyon of the Grand Canyon and have long feared that mining would contaminate their sole source of water.
The planning for the Pinyon Plain Mine has been underway since 1984, but so far it has not produced any uranium ore. The mine is owned by Energy Fuels Resources, a Canadian mining company with corporate offices in Colorado. It is located within a 1 million-acre area that is now off-limits to mineral extraction, but the Pinyon Plain Mine was permitted before the Obama administration imposed the ban and thus is still considered active. An aquifer protection plan permit is required for any facility that discharges any pollutants into groundwater.
The Grand Canyon Trust, one of the mine's principal opponents, said in a statement, "The Pinyon Plain Mine sits within a Havasupai Traditional Cultural Property and atop a very complex groundwater system connected to the Grand Canyon, one where any contamination would be impossible to clean up. The decision to grant the permit despite all of this, shows how important it is to prevent more mines from ever getting a foot in the door."
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Just think of the recreation and revenue possibilities that could be generated in Montana if the 200,000 acres of land that were leased noncompetitively were managed instead for hiking, biking, hunting, fishing, and wildlife watching. Westerners lose out when large swaths of land are set aside for speculation instead of conservation or recreation.
