Impending Environmental Disaster: Uranium Mining Begins Near Grand Canyon

[ensho]

http://www.buzzflash.net/story.php?id=1083795


In defiance of legal challenges and a U.S. Government moratorium, Canadian company Denison Mines has started mining uranium on the north rim of the Grand Canyon. According to the Arizona Daily Sun the mine has been operating since December 2009. Denison plans on extracting 335 tons of uranium ore per day out of the “Arizona 1 Mine”, which is set to operate four days per week. The hazardous ore will be hauled by truck more than 300 miles through towns and communities to the company’s White Mesa mill located near Blanding, Utah. After being pressured by environmental groups, U.S. Secretary of Interior Ken Salazar initially called for a two-year moratorium on new mining claims in a buffer zone of 1 million acres around Grand Canyon National Park, but the moratorium doesn’t include existing claims such as Denison’s. The moratorium also doesn’t address mining claims outside of the buffer zone. Obama Approves New Nuclear Reactors and Increased Need for Uranium Currently there are 104 nuclear reactors in the United States which supply 20% of the U.S.’s electricity. In January the Obama administration approved a $54 billion dollar taxpayer loan in a guarantee program for new nuclear reactor construction, three times what Bush previously promised in 2005. ~~~ The Colorado River, Water & Uranium's Deadly Legacy Uranium is a known cause of cancers, organ damage, miscarriages & birth defects. Drilling for the radioactive material has been found to contaminate underground aquifers that drain into the Colorado River, and sacred springs that have sustained Indigenous Peoples in the region. In addition, surface water can flow into drill holes and mine shafts which can also poison underground water sources. Emerging in the Rocky Mountains in North Central Colorado and winding 1,450 miles to the Gulf of California, the Colorado River is held sacred by more than 34 Indigenous Nations. The Colorado also provides drinking water for up to 27 million people in seven states throughout the Southwest.

-snip-
-------------------------

I'm so glad they won't be trucking it through the Fl. Keys. and I'm so sorry it will be trucked through your neighborhood and your drinking water.

[Bobbieo]

1. I wish Washington was situated on the Colorado River!!!! I bet things would be different

when it comes to mining uranium.