What's New
House grants Grand Canyon protection from mining pollution: Senate to decide
In
November, the U.S. House of Representatives moved to stop toxic mining
from contaminating the Grand Canyon and other treasured lands by
passing the Hardrock Mining and Reclamation Act of 2007 (H.R. 2262).
The Senate will take up the bill in the coming months.
Brief Summary
Mining companies know that it’s against the law to set up operations in
the Grand Canyon, or any national park for that matter. Yet,
incredibly, the law does allow them to mine the land right next door to
our national parks. Now, with the price of gold rising and demand for
uranium growing, the mining industry is hoping to take advantage of the
last year of the industry-friendly Bush administration, filing claims
close enough to the Grand Canyon to threaten one of the worlds’
greatest natural treasures.
In the last five years, mining
companies have expressed the desire to mine on 800 claims within five
miles of the Grand Canyon—close enough that the cyanide and other toxic
chemicals they use to separate ore from rock could run off into the
streams that feed the Colorado River and the trails and wild lands that
surround it. According to the EPA, mining waste has polluted 40 percent
of the watersheds that provide Western communities with drinking water.
Environment
America is working to make sure that visionary protections for national
parks become a reality by asking the Senate to follow the lead of the
House and include strong protections for our national parks in their
version of the Hardrock Mining and Reclamation Act.
