Mining Ban: Good for the Grand Canyon, but Not for El Salvador?
Mining Ban: Good for the Grand Canyon, but Not for El Salvador?
Wednesday 11 January 2011
by: Sarah Anderson, Institute for Policy Studies | News Analysis
With patriotic fanfare, the Obama administration announced this week that it would ban new uranium mining projects around the Grand Canyon. At a ceremony at the National Geographic Society in Washington, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said the ban was "the right approach for this priceless American landscape."
He pointed out that millions of people depend on the Colorado River, which runs through the Grand Canyon, for drinking water. "We have been entrusted to care for and protect our precious environmental and cultural resources, and we have chosen a responsible path that makes sense for this and future generations," Salazar said.
Makes sense to me too. But too bad U.S. trade partners have to worry that if they pursue similarly responsible stewardship, they could get rewarded with a big fat corporate lawsuit.
That's what has happened in El Salvador, where the international corporation Pacific Rim is suing the government for the right to mine the country's gold resources. Like many in the Colorado River Basin, people in El Salvador are concerned that mining could contaminate their drinking water. More than half the population relies on one river, the Lempa. Pacific Rim is demanding compensation of more than $77 million under the investor protections of the U.S.-Central America Free Trade Agreement.
More:
http://www.truth-out.org/mining-ban-good-grand-canyon-not-el-salvador/1326564692
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