In a significant move by environmental activists, more than 17,000 petition signatures were delivered to Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs on Thursday. Their unified demand? The shut down of Pinyon Plain mine—the only uranium mine operating in the vicinity of the Grand Canyon. According to AZPM, the petitions follow an earlier letter to which activists say they've received no response from the governor's camp. Amid these actions, stakes are high concerning the preservation of the region's groundwater.
Speaking to AZPM, Taylor McKinnon from the Center for Biological Diversity issued a sharp call for Governor Hobbs to step up. "It may be politically uncomfortable for the governor to act here, but she needs to do that," McKinnon said. "She was elected to lead, to make hard decisions, and to protect the intergenerational equity of Arizonans, and certainly protecting the groundwater at the Grand Canyon should be foremost in the Grand Canyon state's governor's concerns." Despite the lawful protection over nearly one million acres of federal land from fresh mining claims due to the status of the Grand Canyon National Monument, Pinyon Plain mine was grandfathered in, allowing it to skate past current regulations.
The gravity of the situation is amplified by the Native American tribes close to the land, who have been voicing their concerns for decades. The Havasupai Tribe in particular, with a home base dangerously close to the mining activities, has been particularly vocal about the threat of uranium contamination. "The Redwall-Muav aquifer is one of the largest aquifers in the southwest that many citizens in the state of Arizona rely on," Carletta Tilousi, a former tribal councilwoman for the Havasupai, told AZPM, emphasizing the potential threat not just to tribal waters, but to those of major cities such as Phoenix and Las Vegas.
Activists are pressing that time is of the essence. The Pinyon Plain mine, operational since January this year, poses a continual risk—the permanent pollution of vital aquifers that sit like a ticking clock beneath the fractured stone and serene skies of the Grand Canyon. "This is the Grand Canyon. This is our state's namesake, and our state's governor needs to assert leadership and close this mine down...Permanent pollution of Grand Canyon's aquifers is not a risk that we should be taking," McKinnon conveyed with a note of urgency that dismissed any hesitation.
