Big Mountain Spring Training Camp

From Black Mesa Indigenous Support:

BIG MOUNTAIN SPRING TRAINING CAMP
MAY 16th-23rd, 2014
BIG MOUNTAIN, DINEH NATION

#Honor40Years
#Not1MoreRELOCATION
#KeepitintheGround

“What we are trying to save—the Female Mountain—is alive. She is alive, she has blood flowing through her veins, which is the Navajo Aquifer, and the coal they are digging is Her liver. They are destroying Her.” –Marie Gladue, Big Mountain Relocation Resister

“We need to exercise our right to be human. To gather on the land and have our words be heard by the ground, the trees, and each other.” –Louise Benally, Big Mountain Relocation Resister

During this moment of peak visibility around climate change, we extend this invitation for a training camp on Big Mountain. We’ll gather to honor 40 years of Indigenous resistance to cultural genocide, forced relocation, and large-scale coal mining.

*Application link at bottom of email*

The Elders Circle of the 40-Year Sovereign Dineh Nation Resistance, with Black Mesa Indigenous Support (BMIS)–a collective working in solidarity with the Big Mountain and surrounding resistance communities–as well as Radical Action for Mountain Peoples Survival (RAMPS),  Missourians Organizing for Reform/Revolution & Empowerment (MORE), and Save the Confluence are collaboratively organizing this camp.

Background on the Training Camp

Building on alliances made during last June’s gathering on decolonization, the collaborative planning process for this gathering has been a combination of conference calls and in-person meetings. Since September, there have been five community meetings on Black Mesa with elders, second generation resisters, and collective members from BMIS. Additionally, monthly meetings are held in Flagstaff with youth and local organizations. Through these meetings, community members have guided the tone, outreach, messaging, goals, and ceremonies necessary for the preparation of this camp. When asked what kind of action elders wanted to see, they shared examples of the different forms of action they have taken while defending their right to remain on their ancestral homeland. They expressed looking forward to sharing their stories as to inspire next generations.

Camp organizers are connecting with trainers and workshop presenters from organizations such as Multicultral Alliance for a Safe Environment (MASE), Save the Confluence, Palestinian Youth Movement, RAMPS, MORE, No One is Illegal (Canada), Puente Human Rights Movement, Sixth World Solutions, Black Mesa Water Coalition, Anti-Uranium Groups, and the Navajo Nation Human Rights Commission. The camp offers a variety of  non-violent direct action (NVDA) skills and workshops grounded in legacies of land-based resistance. Spiritual, cultural, artistic practices and healing will be foregrounded.

The workshops and trainings will include:

• Introduction and History of NVDA

• The History of the Struggle and Land Dispute on Black Mesa

• Cultural Work as Resistance to Colonialism

• Frontline Movement Updates

• Cultural Sharing and Storytelling

• NVDA techniques

• Decolonial visioning

• Art and prop making

• People’s Media and Communication (including messaging, social media, and live-streaming)

• Know Your Rights and legal training

• …and many more

“During this gathering, we want to re-create harmony between Indigenous peoples who have been harmed by relocation policies. We want to re-spark the cross-movement connections made at last June’s Gathering by taking action at the site of disruption–the coal mine itself.” – Danny Blackgoat, community organizer and son of Resister Matriarch, Roberta Blackgoat.

Goals:

*To honor 40 years of resistance on Big Mountain and confront resource colonialism

*To build on strategic alliances between anti-extraction struggles in Appalachia and Black Mesa

*To strengthen connections between Indigenous communities on the front lines of land defense

*To build on cross-movement connections made at last June’s gathering for decolonization (on Black Mesa)

*To expand the solidarity network

*To center cultural and spiritual elements of resistance

Logistics:

The training camp is free, including all food, lodging and training. However, we are encouraging participants to fundraise and donate as they are able to help offset costs. BMIS has limited funds for travel stipends and we are prioritizing funding for Indigenous and frontline communities. There will be limited indoor space for sleeping; most participants will be camping.  The camp will be in a remote area with no running water, paved roads, or electricity.  More details are provided in the application (below).

Call for Sheepherders/ Human Rights Observers:

Resistance community members are requesting returning sheepherders/ human rights observers this spring. Because this camp is held on actively disputed land (see background), it will not be possible without human rights observation during and following the camp. Your involvement will make it possible for the resistance community to participate in the camp and will help mitigate further harassment.

Contact us if you are able to come a week early and help set up base camp!

Click Here to Apply

Contact: BigMountainCamp2014@gmail.com with application questions

In Honor of 40 Years,

The Elders Circle of the Sovereign Dineh Nation, The BMIS Collective, RAMPS, MORE, & Save the Confluence

Beehive Design Collective Presents: Mesoamerica Resiste!

The Beehive Design Collective is coming to Fort Lewis College (Chem 130 auditorium) in Durango to present their latest giant narrative graphic poster “Mesoamérica Resiste” on April 8th at 7 PM.

SLC appearance! 7pm, May 12th @ The Mestizo Coffee House

The Beehive Design Collective is a wildly motivated, all volunteer, activist artist collective that has gained international attention for their collaboratively produced graphics campaigns focusing on globalization, resource extraction, and stories of resistance. “Mesoamérica Resiste” is their most recent project, a culmination of 9 years of story gathering in Mesoamérica, research, and illustration. The intricate, double-sided image documents resistance to the top-down development plans and mega-infrastructure projects that literally pave the way for resource extraction and free trade. It highlights stories of cross-border grassroots social movements and collective action, especially organizing led by Indigenous peoples.

For more detailed information and images on this project we recommend checking out their website and youtube video.

Black Mesa – Film Trailer

 

Read more about this film work in progress, and the work of Bahe Katenay of Big Mountain and the filmmakers at blackmesafilm.com

By Brenda Norrell, Censored News

This is what education should become in the future, sharing the voices of Dine’ grassroots people who know the real story of Black Mesa, and the real history of Peabody Coal, corrupt politicians, the dirty coal industry, and how it resulted in Navajo relocation.

This is also what the media should become, uncensored and reporting the voices of truth.

Bahe Katenay was one of those censored by Indian Country Today, before I was terminated as a staff reporter. In that interview, Bahe spoke about the oil and gas drilling in Dinetah, the sacred place of origin, and the role of the “puppet” Navajo Nation Council, which signs energy leases, is coopted by the US government and threatens future generations of Navajos with water rights loss, pollution from dirty coal power plants, and destruction of the earth.

In the interview censored by Indian Country Today concerning those oil and gas leases, Bahe Katenay said, “I am also saddened when I think that, because these lands were given away for profit, the rest of our sacred lands everywhere are being desecrated, today: Mount Taylor, San Francisco Mountains, and Big Mountain.”

Click here to read more…

Copper mine bill sparks debate over Native American sacred lands

The House of Representatives is set to vote on a bill that some say will destroy sacred ground.

A bipartisan bill introduced by Arizona Rep. Republican Paul Gosar and Democratic Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick would swap more than 2,000 acres of federal forestland in exchange for more than 5,000 acres owned by Resolution Copper Mining — a joint venture by mining companies Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton.

Congress may vote as early as Thursday to approve the controversial land swap, a move that is hotly contested by some Native Americans and local environmentalists.

“If you can imagine five Super Bowls in Superior every year for 60 years, that’s the level of economic boost and economic activity this mine is going to generate,” said Andrew Taplin, Resolution Copper Mining’s project director.

However, critics argue that the mine will not only alter the landscape permanently, but also be built on a Native American holy site.

“The sticking point boils down to whether international mining companies Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton should dig for copper destroying areas sacred to the Apache Tribe and enjoyed by campers, climbers, and other recreationalists,” writes Aaron Mintzes with the environmental group Earthworks, which opposes the mine.

A Washington, D.C.-based lobbying firm called Mapetsi has also joined in on the fight. The group has been retained by the San Carlos Apache Tribe who live near the proposed mining site.

The San Carlos Apaches have been highly critical of the mining site, issuing a study that found that Resolution Copper Mining greatly exaggerated the economic benefits to mining near the Tonto National Forest.

Mapesti has played up the issue of sacred lands being violated by the mining operation, which would violate an alleged holy place called Oak Flat.

“This public land at Oak Flat is a place of worship for the Apache, Yavapai, and other tribes in the region,” Mapetsi’s Jesse Renteria wrote in a September 19 email to a congressional staffer. “Native Americans have prayed, gathered medical herbs and plants, healed in holy perennial springs, and performed religious ceremonies at Oak Flat for hundreds of years. The United States should ensure that they can continue to do so in perpetuity.”

Click here to read more…

Paradox Valley uranium mill on hold

The proposed Piñon Ridge uranium mill would sit on the flat land in the foreground in this view of the Paradox Valley, in between Naturita and the hamlet of Paradox, in Montrose County.

Some analysts doubt it will ever be built

By Joe Hanel, The Durango Herald

A proposed uranium mill in Southwest Colorado will not be built unless there is an unexpected turnaround in the price of uranium, the president of the company that is developing the mill said Friday in a conference call with investors.

Energy Fuels Resources Inc. will keep holding its license to build the Piñon Ridge uranium mill in the Paradox Valley of Montrose County, but it has no plans to act on the license, said President and CEO Stephen Antony.

“We intend to keep that license in a current, valid form, but not move on construction of the mill until market conditions support it,” Antony said.

The statement is old news to uranium experts, but it comes as a surprise to some Coloradans.

The company’s Piñon Ridge website says, “Energy Fuels anticipates starting construction in late 2012 or 2013.” And its plan on file with the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment calls for the mill west of Naturita to be operational by early 2017, with construction beginning in 2015.

Warren Smith, a community involvement manager for the state health department, said Energy Fuels has not contacted his department with any plans to deviate from the schedule it has submitted. The license is valid for five years.

But uranium market analysts have known since Energy Fuels bought the White Mesa uranium mill in Utah that the company has put Piñon Ridge on the back burner. In fact, the company said so itself in a little-noticed statement in December 2012. It came in an annual report filed with financial regulators in Canada, where Energy Fuels is incorporated.

6/27 Suncor expanding its pipeline in Adams County/#fearlesssummer Week of Action

From Colorado Extraction Resistance:

On Thursday 6/27 at 6pm Adams County Planning Commission is holding a hearing at (4430 South Adams County Parkway Ste W2000A Brighton CO) allowing Suncor to rebuild its existing pipeline from the northern border of Adams County to the Suncor refinery in Commerce City. Suncor wants to replace their current 10-inch crude oil pipeline with 16-inch to increase capacity.

As part of the #fearlesssummer Week of Action we are ready to show up and pose some questions to the planning commission:

Isn’t a bigger pipeline a bigger risk if it leaks?

Do they really know the impact increasing capacity will have on the environment, and the health of the community?

Do they really trust Suncor when they have proven to be grossly negligent in cleaning up their existing leaks in commerce city?

Does the planning commission have any good recipes for summer iced drinks with “cancer-causing benzene?”

From May 15th 2013 “After 18 months of cleanup around Suncor’s oil refinery, contamination of the South Platte River is diminishing, but concentrations of cancer-causing benzene in the water remain six times higher than the national safety standard.” More info here.

Maybe Suncor could use the money they have set aside to expand this pipeline to clean up their existing toxic mess that keeps going on and on while they profit off of our damaged environment and polluted drinking water? And their solution of aerating the benzene out of the water just pollutes the air. They need to shut down their plant until they can guarantee not to poison us.

Just some thoughts that can be shared with the planning commission board this Thursday. See you there!

And if you can’t make it, email your comments to CLaRue@adcogov.org

Planning Commissioners

Vince Buzek January 31, 2016

Rosie Garner January 31, 2016

Paul Tochtrop January 31, 2015

Sharon Richardson January 31, 2015

Nick DiTirro January 31, 2014

Michael DeMattee January 31, 2014

Steward Mosko January 31, 2014

Harry Gibney, Alternate January 31, 2014

Gary Pratt, Alternate January 31, 2014

Diné plan to block access for uranium transport

From the Albuquerque Journal:

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP) — A uranium mining company seeking a mineral lease on state land in northwestern Arizona could have a hard time transporting the ore off-site because of the Navajo Nation’s objections to an industry that left a legacy of death and disease among tribal members.

The section of land in Coconino County is surrounded by the Navajo Nation’s Big Boquillas Ranch. The tribe has said it will not grant Wate Mining Company LLC permission to drive commercial trucks filled with chunks of uranium ore across its land to be processed at a milling site in Blanding, Utah.

The Navajo Nation was the site of extensive uranium mining for weapons during the Cold War. Although most of the physical hazards, including open mine shafts, have been fixed at hundreds of sites, concerns of radiation hazards remain.

The tribe banned uranium mining on its lands in 2005, and last year passed a law governing the transport of radioactive substances over its land. The ranch itself is not part of the reservation, although the Navajo Nation owns it.

“Given the (Navajo) Nation’s history with uranium mining, it is the nation’s intent to deny access to the land for the purpose of prospecting for or mining of uranium,” officials from the Navajo Department of Justice wrote in response to the mineral lease application.

The parcel of state land is in a checkerboard area of Arizona, east of the Hualapai reservation and south of the Havasupai reservation and Grand Canyon National Park. Tribal officials and the park superintendent have said any mining would threaten nearby water sources, though Wate Mining disputes that.

VANE Minerals spokesman Kris Hefton said mining would provide dozens of jobs in the remote area. VANE Minerals formed Wate Mining with Uranium One Exploration U.S.A. Inc.

The state parcel is reached by traveling on Interstate 40 to Seligman, then northwest on US 66 before hitting Indian Route 18. The company said it would need to construct a mile of road and improve some existing ranch roads to haul uranium ore.

Documents filed with the Arizona State Land Department indicate Wate Mining had requested approval from the Navajo Nation for the proposed access route, but the tribe said it has nothing on record showing that, nor does the state have access to the property.

“We have no intention of allowing them to cross Navajo lands unless they have appropriate access rights,” Navajo Deputy Attorney General Dana Bobroff said in an email.

Hefton declined to comment on road access and whether the Navajo Nation’s stance would impede the project.

Land Department spokesman Bill Boyd said it’s up to the applicant to secure whatever rights it needs to access neighboring, non-state trust lands. The parcel that Wate Mining is seeking to mine traditionally had been leased for grazing, Boyd said.

Wate Mining’s proposal would have seven trucks per day hauling uranium ore from the mine site over 1.5 years. The mine would operate five days per week, extracting 70,000 tons of ore that would produce 1.1 million pounds of processed uranium, or yellow cake.

Aside from a mineral lease, the company also needs permits from the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality.

“We’d like to get this started as soon as we can,” Hefton said.

La Plata County agrees to shale-oil drilling

Firm will now go to state for approval of two wells

By Emery Cowan, The Durango Herald

The national debate about shale drilling and hydraulic facturing played out Tuesday in La Plata County Courthouse as county commissioners considered signing a memorandum of understanding with a Texas energy company that has plans to drill two exploratory shale-oil wells in the southwest part of the county.

The wells will be the county’s first shale drilling.

After more than three hours of presentations and public comment, La Plata County Commissioners unanimously approved the memorandum of understanding with Swift Energy Operating LLC.

“This MOU does the best this county can do right now to protect the interests of the people who live in the area, to try to minimize the impacts on you and also allow energy development to go forward,” Commissioner Julie Westendorff said.

With the agreement, Swift will go forward to the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission with applications for two exploratory drilling and spacing units. The target is the Mancos Shale, a shale play that stretches across northwestern New Mexico and into Southwest Colorado and is thought to be rich in oil and natural gas.

The memorandum puts several requirements on Swift’s drilling operations, including emissions controls, water-sampling standards and well-pad sharing mandates, that go beyond what would be required by the state.

The county has made such agreements standard practice, and already has 22 memorandums of understanding with other operators in the county. The contract commissioners considered Tuesday is unique because horizontal hydraulic fracturing techniques used to unlock oil resources from the shale will have different and more intense effects on the county roads, water resources and surface landscape.

Multistage hydraulic fracturing requires at least three times the water required to drill coal-bed methane wells, for example, and shale-oil well-pad sites are about three times larger than those of coal-bed methane wells.

In response, the county added several components to the Swift memorandum that go above and beyond the standard contract for coal-bed methane operators. Those include groundwater sampling requirements that the COGCC adopted in January and will go into effect in May as well as a requirement that Swift do an assessment of all existing wells in the drilling units to make sure their operations won’t compromise the casing or cementing of those older wells.

At least 50 county residents packed the commissioners meeting room Tuesday to hear commissioners’ deliberations and share opinions about Swift’s project.

Many Fort Lewis Mesa residents cited concerns about the potential for fracking operations to contaminate groundwater in the area. Several people wanted more extensive water-well sampling requirements than those required by the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, which require sampling of up to four wells within one half mile from the wellhead.

“I’m concerned the MOU is not enough,” resident Jessica Copp said. “We all deserve testing before, during and after (drilling) and probably at a larger distance from the well bore and the lateral.”

Swift will drill down 2,500 feet then extend its wells laterally for up to 3,000 feet said Bob Redweik, Swift’s corporate manager of health, safety and environment.

Copp and others also brought up the issue of truck traffic along the county roads and the potential for trucks to interfere with school buses, for example.

Swift likely will haul water, crude oil, fracking chemicals and produced water to and from the well sites, Redweik said. The company estimates the wells’ daily oil production will fill two 130-barrel capacity trucks, he said.

Other residents cited concerns about the risks fracking chemicals may pose to human health and the ecological effects of air pollution from drilling.

Swift also had its supporters who encouraged the county to approve the memorandum of understanding. Holding up drilling impedes on private property rights and hinders legal private contracts, said Mae Morley, a landowner who owns both land and mineral rights within the proposed drilling unit.

If Swift’s unit applications are approved at the state level, the company said it hopes to apply for a drilling permit in April and move a rig into the area this summer.

The Mancos Shale has edged more and more into the spotlight over the last three years, and the play was at the center of a two-day conference this week that drew about 500 people from around the nation to Farmington. However, most drilling into the shale has been done in the southern part of the San Juan Basin.

The prospects for oil in the northern part of the basin are still unknown, Redweik said.

“We’re trying to prove up something that hasn’t been done before,” he said.

(Earth First! Durango note: Also see the op-ed, “Oil shale a false hope”)

3/22 Colorado Extraction Resistance Governor’s Mansion Rally and DA Training

Colorado Extraction Resistance
Rally and Direct Action Teach-in
Friday, March 22nd 5:30pm
Governor’s Mansion (400 E 8th Ave @Logan St. Denver, CO)

In solidarity with the Great Plains Tar Sands Resistance week of action we are calling for a public denunciation of Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper for his ever increasingly obvious role as a spokesperson for the corrupt oil & gas industry. For far too long, Hickenlooper has misused his authority to force Colorado to allow the destructive practice of hydraulic fracturing which poisons our air, our water, our land, and our bodies.  We will be converging on the Governor’s mansion  to make it clear that he does not represent us, and that Colorado is ready to stand up to the toxic extraction industry.  Bring signs, banners, puppets, chains, and u-locks for educational lockdown demonstrations) and of course fracking fluid!

Governor Hickenlooper’s track record makes it clear that he purposely denies climate science in order to act on behalf of the predatory industry interests instead of the citizens who elected him.  He has threatened to sue any city or county in Colorado that bans fracking. He is also planning an upcoming visit to the Tar Sands in Canada on March 26th for “relationship building”. Our Governor has continuously shown us that he will allow Oil & Gas to plunder and pollute our state’s basic survival resources of water and air. What will it take to stop him and his corporate masters from turning Colorado into an industrial sacrifice zone?

We demand that Governor Hickenlooper enact an immediate ban on all
hydraulic fracturing operations in Colorado, and that all responsible
companies be forced to pay financial restitution to residents who have suffered damage to their health and property.  Any jobs associated with fracking do not justify the staggering ecological destruction it brings; fracking has been proven to devastate the health of humans and animals near extraction sites while poisoning workers at the fracking pad itself. As citizens of Colorado it is not only our right but our duty to address this urgent threat to our environment and public health.

Colorado Extraction Resistance will defend the fracking bans recently passed in Longmont and Fort Collins and the moratorium planned in Lafayette.

Building statewide solidarity amongst fracking resisters, we will counter any attempt to intimidate residents into accepting the poison and lies of the oil & gas industry.

Facts about fracking that Hickenlooper refuses to acknowledge:

– Fracking spews endocrine disruptors into the air and water.

– Many chemicals used in fracking are classified as carcinogenic and hazardous air pollutants. Many of these chemicals, such as benzene, are routinely found in the air, water, and ground during and after fracking operations.  Health effects associated with benzene include acute and chronic nonlymphocytic leukemia, acute myeloid leukemia, chronic lymphocytic leukemia, anemia, and other blood disorders and immunological effects.

– Fracking permanently depletes fresh groundwater vital to ecosystems & agriculture.

– The EPA is allowing fracking companies to inject toxic waste water directly into drinking water aquifers under Northern Colorado.

– Even at distances of 2,700 feet from a fracking well site, toxic chemicals were still detectable at levels that would increase the chance of developing cancer by 66 percent.

– Pets and livestock exposed to fracking byproducts in the air and water suffered neurological, reproductive and gastrointestinal disabilities.

– At a conservative estimate, the oil & gas industry owns at least 20% of land in Colorado through private and public leases for fracking operations.  The industry has bought much of this land for as little as $2 an acre.

Sources: fractivist.blogspot.ru | ecowatch.org

NO JOBS ON A DEAD PLANET!
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Havasupai Tribe, Conservation Groups Challenge Uranium Mine Threatening Grand Canyon

The “Canyon” uranium mine, seen here in the foreground, with Grand Canyon National Park six miles to its north. Photo by Bruce Gordon, Ecoflight.

Forest Service OKs Uranium Mining Without Tribal Consultation or Update to 27-year-old Environmental Review

From The Center for Biological Diversity:

(March 7, 2013) GRAND CANYON NATIONAL PARK— The Havasupai tribe and three conservation groups today sued the U.S. Forest Service over its decision to allow Energy Fuels Resources, Inc. to begin operating a uranium mine near Grand Canyon National Park without initiating or completing formal tribal consultations and without updating an outdated 1986 federal environmental review. The Canyon Mine threatens cultural values, wildlife and endangered species and increases the risk of soil pollution and pollution and depletion of groundwater feeding springs and wells in and near Grand Canyon. The lawsuit alleges violations of environmental, mining, public land and historic preservation laws.

“We regret that the Forest Service is not protecting our sacred site in the Red Butte Traditional Cultural Property from destruction by uranium mining,” said Don Watahomigie, chairman of the Havasupai tribe. “The Havasupai are returning to the federal courts to protect our people, our religion and our water.”

The mine is located within the boundaries of the Red Butte Traditional Cultural Property, which the Forest Service designated in 2010 for its critical religious and cultural importance to several tribes, especially Havasupai. As a “traditional cultural property,” Red Butte is eligible for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places. The lawsuit alleges that the Forest Service violated the National Historic Preservation Act by failing to undertake any process, as required by the Act, to consult with interested tribes to determine how the adverse impacts of the mine on Red Butte could be avoided or mitigated prior to approving mining.

“The Forest Service should be protecting the Grand Canyon instead of shielding the uranium industry’s dangerous plans from public, tribal, environmental and scientific scrutiny,” said Taylor McKinnon with the Center for Biological Diversity. “Sacrificing water, culture and wildlife for the uranium industry was a bad idea in 1986, doing so now while ignoring 27 years of new information is absurd.”

The mine falls within the 1-million-acre “mineral withdrawal” approved by the Obama administration in January 2012 to protect Grand Canyon’s watershed from new uranium mining impacts. The withdrawal prohibits new mining claims and mine development on old claims lacking “valid existing rights” to mine. In April 2012, the Forest Service made a determination that there were “valid existing rights” for the Canyon mine, and in June it issued a report trying to explain its decision to allow the mine to open without updating the 27-year-old environmental review.

“After 27 years, the Forest Service is still ignoring the significant and harmful impacts of this proposed uranium mine, so near Grand Canyon and Red Butte, and in the heart of an area that provides important wildlife habitat,” said Sandy Bahr, chapter director for Sierra Club’s Grand Canyon Chapter. “The agency should be a steward of these lands and their resources, not a broker for the uranium mining industry.”

The lawsuit also alleges that the Forest Service violated the National Environmental Policy Act for failing to conduct a “supplemental environmental impact statement” to analyze changes in the planned mining and new science and circumstances that have arisen since the mine’s 1986 environmental impact statement. Those include the 2010 designation of the Red Butte Traditional Cultural Property, reintroduction of the endangered California condor, and formal and informal authorizations. Scientific studies published since 1986 demonstrate the potential for rapid aquifer recharge and connectivity between perched and deep aquifers and regional springs and creeks.

“Failure to consider new, comprehensive groundwater studies done during the 1990s for the region south of Grand Canyon is unconscionable,” said Roger Clark of the Grand Canyon Trust. “Why would the Forest Service intentionally ignore information that could prevent permanent harm to springs, which are the sole source of water for Havasupai people and lifeblood for Grand Canyon plants, animals and hikers?”

Plaintiffs in today’s suit include the Havasupai Tribe, Grand Canyon Trust, Center for Biological Diversity and Sierra Club. The suit seeks injunctive relief ceasing all mine operations and enjoining the Forest Service from authorizing or allowing any further mining related activities at the Canyon Mine site pending compliance with the law.

To view a copy of today’s complaint, click here.

Background

The Canyon Mine is located on the Kaibab National Forest six miles south of Grand Canyon National Park. The mine’s original approval in 1986 was the subject of protests and lawsuits by the Havasupai tribe and others objecting to potential uranium mining impacts on regional groundwater, springs, creeks, ecosystems and cultural values associated with Red Butte. Above-ground infrastructure was built in the early 1990s but a crash in uranium prices caused the mine’s closure in 1992 before the shaft or ore bodies could be excavated. Pre-mining exploratory drilling drained groundwater beneath the mine site, eliminating an estimated 1.3 million gallons per year from the region’s springs that are fed by groundwater. A 2010 U.S. Geological Survey report noted that past samples of groundwater beneath the mine exhibited dissolved uranium concentrations in excess of EPA drinking water standards. Groundwater threatened by the mine feeds municipal wells and seeps and springs in Grand Canyon, including Havasu Springs and Havasu Creek. Aquifer Protection Permits issued for the mine by Arizona Department of Environmental Quality do not require monitoring of deep aquifers and do not include remediation plans or bonding to correct deep aquifer contamination. Originally owned by Energy Fuels Nuclear, the mine was purchased by Denison Mines in 1997 and by Energy Fuels Resources Inc., which currently operates the mine, in 2012.