The past five years has seen a dramatic surge in mining claims across the American West. Under the anemic and archaic 1872 Mining Law, a relic of frontier-era America, large international mining companies have been able to stake claims with impunity, leave taxpayers with multi-million dollar disasters that will pollute for thousands of years, and pay no royalties back to taxpayers for the resources they extract from our public lands.

One company, UK-based Vane Minerals, even received the green light to drill for uranium two miles from the Grand Canyon’s popular South Rim. In approving the action, the Forest Service said that it was powerless under the 1872 mining law to do otherwise. When an iconic national treasure is threatened and federal officials are powerless to protect it, it is clear that there is an immediate and pressing need for mining reform. Unfortunately, the mining reform movement in the Senate has been stalled.

Thursday, however, the House Committee on Natural Resources drew a line in the rocky Northern Arizona ground and put lands near the Grand Canyon off limits to new mining claims for the next three years.

The committee exercised a rarely used emergency power to protect the Grand Canyon from a surge in uranium mining claims in a 20 to 2 vote with the minority walking out in protest. The committee passed a binding resolution by Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.) forcing Interior Sec. Dirk Kempthorne to ban new mining claims on approximately 1 million acres adjacent to Grand Canyon National Park. The resolution, which has the force of law, uses the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 and Department regulations to direct Kempthorne to withdraw the land from mining activity.

Between January 2003 and January 2008, the number of claims within five miles of Grand Canyon National Park increased from 10 to more than 1,100, according to Bureau of Land Management data compiled by EWG. Google maps of the claims are available at www.ewg.org/reports/grandcanyon. Most, if not all, of the claims are for uranium, sparked by a surge in uranium prices linked to renewed interest in nuclear power.

Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California and the Southern Nevada Water Authority have all written to Kempthorne with concerns about the surge of claims near the Canyon and the effect uranium mining might have on Colorado River drinking water. The Colorado, which flows through the Canyon, provides water for 25 million people including residents of Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Phoenix and San Diego.

It is important to note that the House resolution will not impact claims that were valid as the date of the withdrawal; companies could still mine these claims even if their activities might threaten the Canyon or the Colorado River. We are far from claiming victory in the fight to protect the drinking water for tens of millions of Americans from a metal mining industry that according to the EPA has been the country’s leading source of toxic pollution for the past nine consecutive years.

The Senate should stop stalling and reform the 1872 Mining Law so that all Western public lands have full protection.

This entry was posted on Monday, June 30th, 2008 at 10:47 am and is filed under Politics .