Saturday, August 27, 2016

Arizona Threatened by Additional Uranium Mining


Energy Fuels Resources is attempting to re-open old uranium mines located adjacent to the Grand Canyon. Many Arizona businesses and environmental groups have opposed the move. One need only look to Arizona's historical relationship with the nuclear complex (from mining to weapons testing) to understand grassroots opposition in the state to more nuclear.

AZ has a disgraceful nuclear history. People living in AZ, especially the Navajos, continue to be poisoned by uranium mining in the state:
Leslie MacMillan. March 31, 2012. "Uranium Mines Dot Navajo Land, Neglected and Still Perilous." The New York Times, http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/01/us/uranium-mines-dot-navajo-land-neglected-and-still-perilous.html?_r=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20120401

[excerpt] For years, unsuspecting Navajos inhaled radioactive dust and drank contaminated well water. Many of them became sick with cancer and other diseases.

The radioactivity at the former mine is said to measure one million counts per minute, translating to a human dose that scientists say can lead directly to malignant tumors and other serious health damage, according to Lee Greer, a biologist at La Sierra University in Riverside, Calif. Two days of exposure at the Cameron site would expose a person to more external radiation than the Nuclear Regulatory Commission considers safe for an entire year.

The E.P.A. filed a report on the rancher’s find early last year and pledged to continue its environmental review. But there are still no warning signs or fencing around the secluded and decaying site. Crushed beer cans and spent shell casings dot the ground, revealing that the old mine has become a sort of toxic playground....

“If this level of radioactivity were found in a middle-class suburb, the response would be immediate and aggressive,” said Doug Brugge, a public health professor at Tufts University medical school and an expert on uranium. ...
People living in AZ were poisoned also by fallout during the period of atmospheric testing (see Dowwinders' settlements for Arizonans).

People in AZ are currently being subjected to exposure to radioactive emissions from the Palo Verde Nuclear Power Plant:
See Clyde Stagner's Hidden Tritium
My discussion here: http://majiasblog.blogspot.com/2013/02/downs-syndrome-and-tritium-in-arizona.html

People in AZ should say "NO" to the Entire Uranium Fuel Cycle as additional mining threatens the Grand Canyon and all who drink from the Colorado.

Uranium Wise has a detailed background account that I strongly recommend reading:
http://www.wise-uranium.org/upusaaz.html

A meeting is going to be held in Flagstaff this Monday to discuss efforts by Energy Fuels Resources to re-open uranium mines in lands surrounding Grand Canyon:
Public Meetings on Uranium Mining Near Grand Canyon. AZ Public Media. August 26, 2016. https://news.azpm.org/p/arizona-news/2016/8/26/94554-public-meetings-set-on-grand-canyon-uranium-mining/

The public will get a chance to voice their opinions Monday and Tuesday about allowing a mining company to re-open three uranium mines on land surrounding Grand Canyon National Park.

The company, Energy Fuels Resources, has asked the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality to renew air quality control permits for the mines, two north and one south of the park.

The state said it has proposed significant changes to the permits that call for regular testing and reporting emissions. Environmentalists and nearby tribes would like to see water testing and decontamination of the sites as well.

The mines are located within watersheds that drain into the Grand Canyon.

In 2012, the Obama administration called for a 20-year ban on all new uranium mining claims on about a million acres of public land surrounding Grand Canyon National Park. But these three mines are not new.

Nuclear Energy is NOT safe and is NOT clean. Listen to this interview with the former Nuclear Regulatory Chairman who was pushed out because of his concerns about safety:
http://www.wnyc.org/story/htt-gregory-jaczko/#commentsForm

http://majiasblog.blogspot.com/2016/08/very-interesting-interview.html 

Those resisting additional mining in the Grand Canyon area are calling for expanded protections for the area in the form of a national monument:
Megan Janetsky. August 24, 2016. Coalition pushes for greater environmental protections for the Grand Canyon. The Republic,http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/arizona/2016/08/24/petition-end-uranium-mining-grand-canyon-obama-administration/89260724/

....Members of Environment Arizona and the Grand Canyon Chapter of the Sierra Club, which together form the Greater Grand Canyon Heritage National Monument Coalition, gathered Wednesday in downtown Phoenix to announce their petition to take action on uranium mining and old-growth logging in the Grand Canyon.

With the support of 500 local businesses and a half-million signatures, groups like Environment Arizona and Sierra Club are banding together to send a petition to the Obama administration to create a Grand Canyon Heritage National Monument. Some 6,000 of the signatures were gathered in the past week in Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico and Colorado, according to the groups' spokesmen.

The decision to re-open mines lies with the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality. 

The Phoenix New Times has a good article covering the process involved in re-opening the mines: http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/news/last-week-to-comment-on-air-quality-permits-for-uranium-mines-near-grand-canyon-8576633

Information about how to submit comments can be found here:

https://www.azdeq.gov/PN/EnergyFuelsResources

By Email | Send Email > 
     By Fax: 602-771-2299
     By Mail (Must be postmarked by Aug. 30, 2016):

OPEN MEETINGS

Monday, Aug. 29, 2016
Time: 6 p.m.
Place: Fredonia High School Gymnasium
221 E. Hortt Street
Fredonia, AZ 86022

Tuesday, Aug. 30, 2016
Time1:00 p.m. MST (2:00 p.m. MDT)
Place: Moenkopi Legacy Inn & Suites, Tsotsvalki Conference Center, Tunatya Room #3
Junction of Hwy 160 and Hwy 264, Tuba City, AZ

Tuesday, Aug. 30, 2016
Time: 6 p.m.
Place: Sinagua Middle School
Auditorium — Mini A
3950 E. Butler Ave.
Flagstaff, AZ 86004

6 comments:

  1. It will be a crime if they are allowed to proceed. So many people in sw ruined by nuclear.

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    1. There are 20 people I can name, who I worked with, in the uranium industry in that area who died prematurely. The cancer clusters from the mines, mills, downwind from Nevada. The nuclear waste everywhere. It is a contnueing genocide. Since Fukushima we the living survivors know how phoney this society is. We know how badly we have been lied to. All the money in the world cannot make up for the carnage, the baby's, the cancers, the genetic diseases I have seen. There aren't enough tears to drown the suffering and pain. All for greed and lies. Sometimes the evil ones pay, but more often the little people pay. The bullies the killers the white collar sociopaths live on. http://m.democracynow.org/stories/13168

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  2. Each year Federal, state and even local agencies receive generous budgets--usually, whose specific job it is to play various protective roles. The EPA, the FDA, etc. Their numbers are legion. But there is a serious problem in that they rarely do their job. Their job gets delegated to the alert citizens who have no budget. A current example: a pipe line for conveying shale oil which is slated to go under two major US rivers has been approved. As for leaks that will be monitored in Texas! So leaks are covered sort of. So the native Americans are fighting this with donation money. This pipe line will be only seven miles shorter than the XL pipeline was to be. But this pipe line is not getting mainstream attention. It will provide eventually tons of CO2 but apparently this is okay with Hilary and Al Gore or they would go up there and protest. Conflicts of interest. In this case it is North Dakota where oil is a big deal.

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    1. Interesting. What is the name of the pipeline?
      Thanks!

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  3. Standing Rock Sioux Tribe Awaits Court Ruling On Dakota Access Oil Pipeline

    http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=17114

    They have done a very good job of keeping this out of mainstream news; I became aware through a Native American I know. There is an article at Global Research as well. In some ways worse than the XL pipeline.

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    Replies
    1. Thanks for the link. I just read something about it in the news. Yes it was definitely kept quiet....

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