Virginia Deserves the Same Protections as the Grand Canyon

Environment Virginia

We are overjoyed at the Secretary’s decision to protect our national treasure from toxic mining and hope his decision will serve as an example for Virginia legislators,” remarked Caroline Kory state associate with Environment Virginia. “We thank the administration for standing with the American people and defending the canyon from toxic mining pollution. Now, we’re calling on Virginia’s General Assembly to recognize the dangers of uranium mining and defend Virginians from toxic pollution.”

Secretary Salazar’s decision to protect the canyon came after more than 2 years of environmental analysis and receiving nearly 300,000 public comments from the American people, environmental and conservation groups, the outdoor recreation industry, mayors and tribal leaders, Secretary Salazar withdrew more than 1 million acres of land around the canyon from new mining claims for the next twenty years. 

Uranium mining in the United States has an abysmal track-record. In Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona and Utah, uranium mining has had undeniable health impacts on miners and nearby residents, including cancer, anemia and birth defects. Even the Grand Canyon itself bears the scars of uranium mining. Radioactive waste has poisoned streams and soil in and around the canyon, while abandoned and active mines are scars on the Arizona landscape. (For more information on the track record of Uranium mining across the West see Environment Virginia’s report Grand Canyon at Risk: Uranium Mining Doesn’t Belong Near Our National Treasures.)

Uranium mining has a toxic legacy, said Kory.  “We applaud the administration for protecting a national landmark and the source of drinking water for millions from this threat.  The General Assembly must ensure the same protections remain in place for Virginia.”  

While uranium mining has scarred vast swaths of the American West, lands east of the Mississippi have thus far been protected from toxic drilling’s destructive legacy. Recent studies by the National Academies of Sciences, among others, have raised serious questions about mining uranium in Virginia– particularly because of the huge risks of mining uranium in a wet climate.

Kory added, “Uranium mining has already left a toxic legacy across the West—every uranium mine ever opened has required some degree of toxic waste clean up.  It doesn’t belong near the Grand Canyon and it certainly doesn’t belong here in Virginia.”

 

###

Environment Virginia is a statewide, citizen-based, environmental advocacy organization working for clean air, clean water and open space.