ANNOUNCED TODAY: a new name for an old problem!
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10 million gallons of uranium and arsenic laden water are being extracted from this mine every year. That's water being taken out of the ground and wasted, drying up aquifers. Water that is poisoning wildlife and potentially poisoning Grand Canyon's springs.
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What did mine owner Energy Fuels do? They did not clean the mine up or close it. They did not invest in keeping wildlife out of the on-site pond or stopping the water breach. They renamed the mine because environmentalists were associating it with #GrandCanyon. It's now "Pinyon Plain Mine" instead of "Canyon Mine".
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The mine is 9 miles from Grand Canyon's South Rim, regardless of its name. An experiment on Grand Canyon's North Rim showed that water with an experimental tracer dye moved 22 miles in less than a month and emerged at a spring. We don't know if it's possible for water on the South Rim to do something similar because nobody's done the experiment.
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Springs are essential to life, often supporting 100s of times the number of species of the surrounding landscape. They are culturally vital to the Havasupai, Hopi, and a dozen other Tribes. And they are what hikers rely on to hike in Grand Canyon. Ironically, pinyon pines, the new namesake, host 100's of dependent species and are culturally important too. But I'm sure Energy Fuels doesn't know that. Because they don't care about protecting life.
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#protectgrandcanyon #stopcanyonmine #grandcanyonnationalpark #kaibabnationalforest #respectsacredsites #nouraniummining #respect #marketing #sham #pollution #environment