Starting next Tuesday, mining industry groups, the federal government, and conservationists will present arguments before the U.S. District Court for Arizona in a dispute over mining lands surrounding the Grand Canyon. As reported by the , mining groups are challenging a high-profile by the Obama administration to ban new mining operations on some one million acres of uranium-rich land for a period of 20 years.
As much as 40 percent of the U.S.’s uranium reserves could lie in the area around the Grand Canyon. Under the ban, some mining is still allowed but only by those who claimed a sufficient reserve before the ban. The mining industry and some Republican lawmakers argue that the restriction is a job killer that denies access to what could be tens of billions of dollars of uranium. Supporters of the ban say that mining could contaminate the Grand Canyon’s water as well as negatively affect air quality, wildlife, and lands sacred to Native Americans.
The mining industry will argue that there is little evidence of those threats and that the Grand Canyon’s park boundaries keep it protected. According to the AP, the Interior Department stated in court documents, “The record does not support the plaintiffs’ zero-impact myth.”