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In a tremendous victory for the Center for Biological Diversity’s campaign to keep uranium mining out of the Grand Canyon, today the Interior Department barred the filing of new uranium mining claims on 1 million acres of stunning, irreplaceable public lands near the park — lands that will now be off limits to uranium exploitation for two years while the government studies its options for permanent protection.

Thank you for all your help sending letters to Congress and the Interior Department over the last year. This is a major win in protecting the Canyon and we couldn’t have done it without the backing of our supporters.

The Center had filed suit last summer to compel the Interior Department to withdraw these lands from uranium mining, as directed by a June 2008 resolution by the House Committee on Natural Resources. Today‘s announcement marks a major step forward in the fight to stop one of the world’s most iconic natural landscapes from being plundered for uranium.

The administration’s order comes just as Congress considers legislative mining reforms. Tomorrow, a crucial congressional subcommittee — the Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests and Public Lands — will hear testimony on the Grand Canyon Watersheds Protection Act of 2009, introduced by Representative Raúl Grijalva of Arizona. If passed, the Act would permanently ban exploration and new claims on about 1 million acres of public lands bordering Grand Canyon.

And just last week the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources heard testimony on legislation to reform the antiquated 1872 mining law — and in that hearing EPA testified that hard-rock mining has affected 40 percent of all western watersheds and generates 28 percent of the toxic pollution in the United States.

With this win and your support we’ll take full advantage of the momentum to give the Canyon’s lands the permanent protection they deserve. Thank you for all you’ve done to support our work and to help keep Grand Canyon lands out of the hands of mining companies.

Enjoy this victory,

Kierán Suckling Executive Director Center for Biological Diversity

P.S. If you’d like to help us save the Grand Canyon area from uranium mining, please go to https://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/2167/t/5243/shop/custom.jsp?donate_page_KEY=5100 to make a gift.

P.P.S.  For more information on the case, check out today‘s New York Times article:

Interior to Place 2-Year Hold on New Hardrock Mining Near Grand Canyon
The New York Times
By Eric Bontrager of Greenwire

The Interior Department will temporarily block new hardrock mining tomorrow on 1 million acres surrounding the Grand Canyon.

In a notice set for publication in the Federal Register, the department says it will place a two-year hold on leasing on Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management land near Grand Canyon National Park while it studies the environmental effects of hardrock exploration and mining.

The proposed withdrawal area includes public lands in Arizona’s Coconino and Mohave counties, portions of Kaibab National Forest and BLM lands near Vermilion Cliffs National Monument.

Depending on the results of the environmental studies, Interior could extend the withdrawal for up to 20 years, according to the notice…

Last year, the House Natural Resources Committee employed its rarely used emergency authority to order then-Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne to temporarily withdraw the 1 million acres from future hardrock mining.

Kempthorne refused, disputing the panel’s authority to order such withdrawals under the 1976 Federal Land Policy and Management Act, followed by a BLM rule change that prohibited congressional withdrawals.

The Sierra Club, Center for Biological Diversity, and Grand Canyon Trust sued Interior to carry out the order. Taylor McKinnon, the center’s public lands campaigns director, said the groups have begun settlement discussions with the department.

“The fact that today‘s notice, in effect, enacts the same protections as the emergency withdrawal, is in our view very favorable,” McKinnon said.

Grand Canyon photo by Michelle Harrington.

www.BiologicalDiversity.org