Written by David Gowdey   

One of the long established ways to get unpopular legislation passed in Congress is to sneak it in as a rider to an appropriations bill. What this does, if successful, is effectively hold the budget in question hostage. In such cases the choice becomes to pass the appropriations bill with all of its distasteful baggage, or to kill the bill and potentially cut off funds to an agency or the US Government itself. Because these types of riders are so often used to benefit special interests, and because they seek to circumvent the democratic process, the tactic has an unsavory reputation.

It was a surprise, therefore, that Rep. Jeff Flake of Arizona, who has long professed to be against “earmarks” attached a number of riders to the Department of Interior Appropriations bill on July 12 that specifically benefit polluting industries. Of these riders, perhaps the most egregious is the one to overrule the Secretary of the Interior and permit uranium mining on more than 1 million acres bordering the Grand Canyon National Park.

His justifications for adding the rider, that it would provide jobs, promote energy independence, and that mining could be done sustainably, are little more than fictions. The jobs that would be provided by mining would be far more than offset by the loss of tourism and hunting and fishing related jobs caused by industrial activities. As for energy independence, the mining companies who are seeking to mine in the area are all foreign owned, and any uranium mined would be sold on the international market, not kept in the US. Finally the claim that mining can be done without impacting the Grand Canyon is supported by nothing more than industry assertions they will do it better this time. The historical evidence shows otherwise

Uranium mining is arguably one of the dirtiest industries in the US. In Northern Arizona, uranium mines are notorious for leaving behind large amounts of uranium dust and other toxic metals, and leaving toxic tailings and holding pools that leech into and pollute streams and groundwater. Horn Creek is one such stream that flows into the Grand Canyon near the Bright Angel lodge and remains poisoned three decades after the Orphan uranium mine closed.

On the Navajo reservation, where most uranium mining in Northern Arizona took place in the past, the industry contaminated communities and water supplies, killed miners and sickened nearby residents, and then abandoned the mines and mills without paying for cleanup or mitigation. The EPA has now identified these uranium mines and operations as one of the largest superfund sites in the country – with taxpayers largely bearing the burden for cleanup. Indeed, some of the pollution, such as the contamination of the water table that feeds the village of Moenkopi on the Hopi Reservation, may be impossible to clean. As a result of their past actions, uranium mining has been banned on the Navajo Reservation and the Havasupai Reservation. This is why, even though with the ban in place 40% of the area north of rhe Grand Canyon would still remain open to uranium mining, the industry is so anxious to obtain access to the lands bordering the Grand Canyon.

Added to the industry’s terrible environmental record are the common sense objections to having toxic materials that cause cancer and kidney damage mined by a notoriously dirty industry in the watersheds that feed the Colorado River. The Colorado supplies drinking water downstream for 25 million Americans. Moreover, the dust and exhaust from hundreds of heavy trucks driving over dirt roads would reduce visibility in a National Park famous for its spectacular views. The noise of heavy machinery operating night and day would echo through the Canyon - destroying the natural quiet for which the Canyon is famous and disturbing wildlife.

On June 20, 2011, after two years of study by the Department of the Interior and comments from nearly 300,000 people, Secretary of the Interior Salazar decided to choose a withdrawal plan that would put 1 million acres adjacent to the Grand Canyon National Park off limits to mining for 20 years. In his speech he said “our decisions - our actions - can alter billions of years of history in all its wonder and glory...Let us be cautious. Let us be patient. Let us be humble.” This is an approach that polls show most Americans support.

In 1903, Republican President Theodore Roosevelt, on first visiting the Grand Canyon, famously said “Leave it as it is. Man cannot improve upon it; not a bit. The ages have been at work on it and man can only mar it. What you can do is to keep it for your children and for all who come after you, as one of the great sights which every American, if he can travel at all, should see.”

Teddy's admonition is as valid now as it was when he said it. The rider opening up the land adjacent to the Grand Canyon to Uranium mining needs to be stripped out of the Interior Appropriations bill. This isn't a partisan issue, it's an American issue that says much about us as a people. If we can’t protect the Grand Canyon – what can we protect?