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Tribal women’s campaign for uranium-mining free water

….only the federal legislature can provide for the land’s permanent protection from mining…….

Grand Canyon uranium threatens tribal water, High Country News, Caitlin Sislin | May 18, 2010 Last week, a delegation of leaders from Arizona’s Havasupai Tribe traveled to Washington D.C., to advocate for the protection of the Grand Canyon region from a potential onslaught of uranium extraction activities. These four women – tribal council members and traditional elders – voiced their concern for the safety of the land, the purity of the water and the health of the community, and called for the passage of the Grand Canyon Watershed Protection Act (H.R. 644). Introduced in 2009 by Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-AZ) this law would ban mineral exploration and the establishment of new mining claims pursuant to the 1872 Mining Law, on about one million acres of public lands surrounding Grand Canyon National Park.

Uranium deposits are found throughout the Grand Canyon region in layered formations called breccia pipes, located near precious local aquifers easily breached by extractive operations. Such operations could also cause uranium, previously undisturbed for millions of years, to move, oxidize and dissolve into nearby seeps and springs which eventually feed into the Colorado River – a significant source of water for 27 million people in seven Southwestern states, and the sole water source for the Havasupai.

A Northern Arizona uranium mining boom in the 1980s saw the contamination of several water sources………..only the federal legislature can provide for the land’s permanent protection from mining…….

The 600 Havasupai tribe members, many of whom live in a small village at the base of the Grand Canyon, know themselves to be the guardians of the Canyon and its waters. The Havasupai, or “People of the Blue-Green Water,” anticipate that uranium mining near the Canyon would contaminate their water sources and would desecrate sacred areas. One such area is Red Butte, where the Havasupai have performed many of their traditional ceremonies for centuries, and which is located just three miles away from Denison’s proposed Canyon Uranium Mine.The four Havasupai leaders who traveled to the Capital last week told stories of Red Butte’s significance, and of uranium’s threat to this holy mountain and to the waters of the Canyon. They implored legislators to protect the Grand Canyon as a pristine national treasure for the sake of future generations. Grand Canyon uranium threatens tribal water — High Country News

May 20, 2010 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | USA, water | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear secrecy, nuclear spin, nuclear wastes, radioactive, uranium, water