Patrick Reis, E&E reporter
Three environmental groups sued the Obama administration in U.S. District Court in Arizona today in an effort to halt a proposed uranium mine near Grand Canyon National Park.
The groups say Denison Mines Corp.'s "Arizona 1" mine, proposed for Bureau of Land Management property 8 miles north of the park boundary, would leach toxic waste into the park's watershed and that BLM's analysis of the plan fails to comply with the National Environmental Policy Act and the Endangered Species Act.
"The Bureau of Land Management's refusal to redo outdated environmental reviews is as illegal as it is unethical," said Taylor McKinnon, public lands campaign director at the Center for Biological Diversity, which filed the suit with the Grand Canyon Trust and Sierra Club. "It should be eager to protect the Grand Canyon and its endangered species; instead, it has chosen to shirk environmental review on behalf of the uranium industry."
Denison has federal and state approval to mine nearly 1 million pounds of uranium from the Arizona 1 site, reopening a mine that was opened in the 1980s but closed in 1992 for economic reasons before uranium could be produced.
Deborah Stevens, spokeswoman for BLM's Arizona office, said the agency approved uranium mining at the site in 1988 and does not require further reviews for its reopening. The 21-year-old mine is also grandfathered from Interior Secretary Ken Salazar's order temporarily halting new mining in the park's 1-million-acre buffer.
But environmental groups say the 1988 analysis ignores new data on hydrology and fails to note potential effects on endangered species such as the Mexican spotted owl and the southwestern willow flycatcher.
The mining company could not be reached for comment.
