nuclear-news

More than a dozen people – including scientists, federal agency heads, Arizona congressmen, businessmen and northern Arizona locals – gave differing opinions at a House subcommittee hearing on the Northern Arizona Mining Continuity Act.

The bill would block the Department of the Interior from imposing a 20-year ban on new mines in the so-called Arizona Strip – a ban the department formally recommended last week……

Rep. Raul Grijalva, D-Tucson, said the area must be approached with exceptional caution because, “It’s the Grand Canyon, stupid.” He introduced a bill earlier this year that would do the opposite of Franks’, by permanently blocking new uranium mines in the area.

“The uncertainty is to a degree that caution is the operative word,” Grijalva said after the hearing.

The Interior Department closed the land to new mining claims in 2009 to study a long-term ban. On Oct. 26 it recommended blocking new mining on all 1 million acres of the Arizona Strip for 20 years, a ban that Interior Secretary Ken Salazar has already publicly supported.

The final decision is Salazar’s, who has to wait for a 30-day public comment period on the recommendation to end.

Eleven mines that have already been approved can still operate under a ban, which department officials said would help them assess the long-term impacts of modern uranium mining in the area.

The Grand Canyon “took many millennia to create, and the process of making important decisions about its future should not be cut short,” said Bureau of Land Management Director Robert Abbey in testimony prepared for the subcommittee……

contamination from mining is not the only concern for Stephen Verkamp, a member of the Nature Conservancy and other environmental groups who grew up near the Grand Canyon. Dust from scores of new trucks hauling ore would become a massive problem if more mines break ground, he said.

“Anyone who tells me that a dust situation is not going to be critical, I don’t think they understand the place,” Verkamp said.