Arizona Mining Reform Coalition Action Alerts

The Arizona Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) will be holding a public meeting on Thursday, December 1st to take public comment on the draft amendment to the APP for the Johnson Camp Mine. The meeting will begin at 5:30 and will be held in Benson at the Benson City Council Chamber, 120 W. 6th St., Benson AZ 85602, from 5:30 p.m. to 7:00 PM.  Nord Resources Cooperation, the current owner of the mine, will be giving a presentation before the meeting at the same location (the Benson City Council Chamber) starting at 5:00.

 Please attend the meeting and make oral comments on the permit.

Today the US House of Representatives passed HR 1904, the Oak Flat Land Exchange with a 235 – 186 vote.  The House also voted several amendments to the bill that wOak Flat Campgroundere offered by Representatives, Grijalva, (D-AZ), Markey (D-MA), and Lujan (D-NM).  This is the first time the land exchange bill has made it through the House in the 6 years it has been introduced.  The bill has never made it through the Senate and the House version of the bill is so bad, it will have tough going in the Senate.  The bill continues to face opposition from both the Forest Service and the Department of Interior.

While the vote is disappointing, it was hardly unexpected given the anti-environmental make up of the House.  Still, it was rewarding to see a great deal of pressure put on the House from all walks of life opposing the Oak Flat land exchange.

On Friday afternoon, May 13th (yes on Friday the 13th), Representative Gosar (R-1st District) of Arizona, introduced H.R. 1904, his new version of the Oak Flat land exchange.  Although he and his staff took the time to meet with Native American Tribes and with opposition groups, his new bill is actually worse than the final version of S. 409 in the last Congress.  As a result, we must stop this bill from becoming law.

Secretary of the Interior Salazar is contemplating the withdrawal of over a million acres of public land around the Grand Canyon from uranium mining.  The Bureau of Land Management has just relased a draft Environmental Impact statement shoing the impacts of the withdrawal.

No Uranium Mining Near the Grand Canyon!

The impact statement looks at 4 alternatives.  One of these, Alternative B, calls for the withdrawal of all 1,010,776 acres. We support this alternative.  The Grand Canyon is to important to risk being polluted by uranium mining.

The BLM has extended the deadline for comments until May 4.

To submit comments, go to the Sierra Club's alert or go to www.protectgrandcanyon.org.

See a video to learn why we should protect the Grand Canyon from uranium mining.

We Love Oak FlatThe 111^th Congress is history as of last night, December 22.  As the final gavel banged, the current versions of the Oak Flat land exchange, S 409 and H.R. 4880 died.  Tribal leaders, conservation groups and recreationist fought the bills hard and that had a lot to do with the bills dying for a third straight Congress.

But ironically, the final blow for S 409 came from its own sponsor.  Senator John McCain had put a hold on 65 public lands bills and included S 409.  While we disagree with Senator McCain in stopping the 65 worthwhile bills, we are in complete agreement with his making sure that Oak Flat remains in public ownership.  We can only speculate as to why Senator McCain killed his own bill after all the (false) rhetoric about its being vital for the immediate restoration of Arizona’s (and to here Rio Tinto’s spin – the nation’s and maybe even the world’s) economy.  Whatever Senator McCain’s reason, we’ll take it.  Oak Flat and the surrounding area including Gaan Canyon, Apache Leap and Queen Creek canyon is simply to important for religious, ecological, and recreation values to be given to two foreign mining companies that made more than $6 Billion in profit last year.

Thanks to all who had a hand in defeating the Oak Flat land exchange and we welcome you back for the inevitable next onslaught brought to use by the courtesy of Rio Tinto!