Arizona Uranium Mine Decision Appealed by Plaintiffs Phoenix New Times, By Miriam Wasser May 1 2015 A coalition of environmental groups is joining the in appealing a U.S. District Court decision last month that Energy Fuels Inc. can resume uranium mining atCanyon Mine in Northern Arizona.The groups had filed a preliminary injunction in March 2013 to stop the company from completing construction of the mine and extracting uranium, and argued in favor of a new environmental impact statement.
Katie Davis, with the Center for Biological Diversity, one of the groups appealing the decision, expects the coalition will have more detailed briefings that lay out specifics of their legal argument sometime in the next few months.
Meantime, she says, the basis of the appeal is that in the 30 years since the Forest Service conducted its original environmental assessment of the proposed mine, “There is a lot of new information about the cultural importance of the area and the impacts uranium mining [has on] human health and the environment.”
Canyon Mine is six miles from the South Rim of the Grand Canyon and four miles from Red Butte, a designated Traditional Cultural Property. The ore body sits underneath land deemed sacred by multiple tribes in the region, and the mine is expected to yield 200 tons of uranium every day for the three to five years it’s operational…….
According to Davis from the Center for Biological Diversity, “allowing uranium mines to operate without a full understanding of the scientific, environmental, and cultural risks hurts our public lands and endangers our drinking water.”……
The next stage in the battle over Canyon Mine will be heard in front of a three-judge panel in the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals as early as this summer. http://blogs.phoenixnewtimes.com/valleyfever/2015/05/uranium_mine_decision_appealed_by_plaintiffs.php
