Lawsuit challenges uranium mine that threatens water and wildlife of the Grand Canyon

From the Center for Biological Diversity, this press release:

“Today the Center for Biological Diversity, Grand Canyon Trust, and Sierra Club filed suit in an Arizona federal court challenging the Bureau of Land Management’s approval of the restart of a defunct uranium mine just north of Grand Canyon National Park.

The conservation groups are suing over the Bureau’s failure to update 1980s-era environmental reviews and mining plans prior to allowing Denison Mines Corporation to begin mining at the “Arizona 1” mine. The mine was partially constructed in the late 1980s and early 1990s but was closed due to market conditions in 1992 without producing any uranium ore. The Bureau of Land Management did not respond to a September legal notice from conservation groups urging the agency to correct course in order to avoid today’s litigation. The mine is within the same area that Interior Secretary Ken Salazar placed off-limits to new mining claims and operations in an order issued in July of this year.

Today’s suit cites violations of National Environmental Policy Act provisions that require the land-management agency to consider new information regarding the hydrology, spring ecology, and biodiversity of the area in order to accurately evaluate the impacts of the mine. An update to an outdated 1988 environmental assessment, as well as a more thorough analysis, is warranted given new information, circumstances, and public controversy about renewed uranium mining near Grand Canyon. The suit also cites violations of the Endangered Species Act in the federal government’s failure to ensure that new mining will not jeopardize threatened and endangered species or their critical habitat — including Colorado pikeminnow, humpback chub, bonytail, razorback sucker, southwestern willow flycatcher, and Mexican spotted owl. …”

Read more from the Center for Biological Diversity by clicking here.

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