ICYMI: Trump Administration May Hand Grand Canyon Region to Mining Industry Cronies in Corrupt Deal

The Trump administration is considering recommendations provided by the uranium mining industry that would open public lands surrounding Grand Canyon to uranium mining and directly threaten tribal lands, including the Bears Ears National Monument.

Two companies with direct ties to Interior Secretary David Bernhardt and EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler – Energy Fuels (EFR) and UR-Energy, both of which are in dire financial straits – have lobbied the administration for corporate handouts, including the dismantling of Bears Ears in order to gain access to the uranium beneath it. Both companies would directly benefit if the administration accepts their recommendations.

Sierra Club offers the following insight and response:

“Uranium mining has poisoned Indigenous communities throughout the Southwest for decades and poses a direct threat to sacred lands, including the Grand Canyon and Bears Ears National Monument. The only entities that stand to benefit from these reckless recommendations are corporate special interest groups, at the expense of public health, public lands and future generations," said Ashley Soltysiak, Director of the Utah Sierra Club. “Instead of giving taxpayer-funded handouts to these two failing companies, the Trump administration should reject these recommendations on their face.”

“The Canyon mine – which is operated by EFR, one of Andrew Wheeler’s former clients from his lobbying career – sits near Grand Canyon’s south rim and atop life-supporting aquifers,” said Sandy Bahr, chapter director of the Sierra Club’s Grand Canyon Chapter. “The mine has already pierced shallow aquifers flooding the mine before any uranium mining has even occurred. Once thought to be improbable, this flooding is now the norm and poses a threat to groundwater of the Grand Canyon region. Expanding uranium mining operations on our national forests and other public lands surrounding Grand Canyon, given these ongoing problems with this existing mine, is unfathomable. Hydrologists and state officials have warned for decades of the risks associated with mining for uranium in this sensitive area. The Trump Administration should listen to the experts and the community instead of its pals in the mining industry and reject these recommendations.”