Judge blocks uranium near Grand Canyon

PHOENIX (AP) — A federal judge has blocked a mining company from exploring for uranium near the Grand Canyon, agreeing with environmental groups which sued the U.S. Forest Service for approving the plan without full environmental reviews.

The Sierra Club, Grand Canyon Trust and Center for Biological Diversity sued the Forest Service last month for allowing British mining company VANE Minerals Group to drill at up to 39 locations on seven sites on the Kaibab National Forest.

The company is seeking commercial quantities of uranium, which has soared in price in recent years and resulted in a wave of new development.

U.S. District Judge Mary Murguia in Phoenix issued a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction stopping the drilling late Friday after a hearing, said Sandy Bahr, conservation outreach director for the Sierra Club’s Arizona chapter.

The Forest Service approved the drilling in December, using a so-called categorical exclusion, a decision which required only minimal environmental review.

Murguia rejected that analysis, Bahr said.

“She basically told the Forest Service that uranium mining and exploration near the Grand Canyon, two miles from the park, is not routine, not non-controversial and they misused the categorical exclusion,” Bahr told The Associated Press Saturday.

VANE had begun exploratory drilling at three tests sites since the suit was filed, but the judge’s order immediately halts operations.

A restraining order does not permanently stop the exploration, but Murguia indicated that the groups were likely to prevail after a full hearing. If that happens, the Forest Service could be required to conduct the full assessment the environmental groups are seeking.
When it approved the exploration, the Forest Service said the 1872 Mining Law specifically authorizes mining on public lands and it couldn’t prohibit the activity. It said it restricted the test bores to areas near existing roads and placed other restrictions on the company’s activity.

The environmental groups’ suit says federal officials should have considered the proximity of the Grand Canyon, the controversy surrounding uranium mining and the combined effects of four other uranium exploration projects in the area.

“The judge’s decision reinforces our belief that the current uranium boom poses the most significant threat that Grand Canyon has faced in many years,” the Grand Canyon Trust’s Richard Mayol said in a statement. “Grand Canyon isn’t the place for new uranium development.

U.S. Rep. Raul Grijalva, D-Ariz., is sponsoring a bill to ban mineral exploration under the 1872 Mining Act from a million acres near the Grand Canyon.

He held a field hearing in Flagstaff on March 28 where Indian leaders, scientists, local business interests and the superintendent of the Grand Canyon National Park warned of dire consequences if uranium mining is allowed to proceed.

Mining proponents, including VANE Minerals’ director, sought to assure congressional panelists that uranium mining today is far safer than it was a half-century ago.

The 1.6 million-acre Kaibab National Forest is broken up into three districts and extends both north and south of the Grand Canyon National Park. The test drilling was immediately south of the canyon. There are about 1,600 mining claims on the district where the exploration is planned.

On the Net:
Center for Biological Diversity:
http://www.biologicaldiversity.org
Grand Canyon Trust: http://www.grandcanyontrust.org/
Sierra Club: http://www.sierraclub.org
Vane Minerals LLC: http://www.vaneminerals.com/