Tag Archives: Economic
“Do you think the Grand Canyon is a good place to mine?”
The following is from a March 1, commentary ran in the Statesman.com
“Nineteenth-century explorer John Wesley Powell wrote that “the wonders of the Grand Canyon cannot be adequately represented in symbols of speech, nor by speech itself. The resources of the graphic art are taxed beyond their powers in attempting to portray its features. Language and illustration combined must fail.”
You would think that the federal government would have the power to protect a place so extraordinary that it leaves visitors at a loss for words. But under the 1872 Mining Law, the Forest Service said its hands were tied when it approved uranium mining operations a stone’s throw from a national treasure.”
Click here for the whole story
Click here for additional information on our threatened national tresures!
Powell Township Officials host “Economic Business Meeting” with Kennecott and LSCP
“Vince Bevins, Powell Township supervisor, and Jim Gauthier, from the Powell Township Planning Commission, sponsored an “Economic Business Meeting”, March 3, at the Powell Township Hall, in Big Bay. Their guest presenters were Jon Cherry, Kennecott Eagle Project manager; Bill Henry, a project planner for Kennecott; and Gregg Nominelli, from the Lake Superior Community Partnership. The meeting, intended to outline economic opportunities related to Kennecott’s potential mining activity, was attended by 64 citizens. Bevins said that he, and Gauthier, initiated the meeting because the Big Bay “economy is going down the toilet.””
Local governments outspend feds to protect Great Lakes
TRAVERSE CITY, MI — A recent report released by a coalition of Great Lakes area local governments argues that the federal governments of the United States and Canada are not shouldering their fair shares of costs to care for the lakes, said a recent Associated Press story.
The report claimed local governments spend about $15 billion annually on Great Lakes environmental programs while the
2005 NY Times article may give glimpse into UP future
Click here to read the whole article
“It was quiet and peaceful when we moved in, but by the time we decided to move last March, there were 24 gas wells within a mile radius of our house,” Ms. Utesch said.
The couple was helpless to stop the encroachment because they did not own the mineral rights to their land. So-called split estates, where ownership of the land does not include whatever bounty (gas, oil, gold, uranium, etc.) lies beneath it, are common in the United States.
“Often the landowner doesn’t know that they don’t own the mineral rights until the oil company shows up to start drilling,” said John S. Lowe, professor of energy law at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. Real estate agents rarely address the matter, he said, “and most people anxious to close on a home don’t read the fine print of the deed.”
They should, because the law in most states allows whoever owns or leases mineral rights to do whatever is “reasonably necessary” to extract subterranean riches. As Ms. Utesch can attest, this includes not only digging wells but also running roads and pipelines across a yard as well as setting up housing for employees at the well site. Ms. Utesch said that she barely broke even on her house when she sold it and would probably have made money if the drillers hadn’t shown up, because nearby real estate prices were rising rapidly. The man who bought her house, she said, builds custom-made jeeps and trucks with large wheels, and saw the gas well workers as potential customers.
The Seattle Times excellent article on Uranium mining
The following is an excerpt from the Seattle Times article, click here for the whole story.
Sherman Alexie was a teenager when he first felt threatened by the uranium mines near his home on the Spokane Indian Reservation.
His grandmother had died from esophageal cancer in 1980. A few years later, his mother and some other tribal members took out a road map and began marking red dots on every home where someone had cancer.
The roads where the ore trucks rumbled by were pocked with red.
“I remember at that point knowing at some point in my life I’m certainly going to get sick,” recalls Alexie, the acclaimed author who now lives in Seattle and recently won the National Book Award. “I have very little doubt that I’m going to get cancer.”
Such is the legacy of the Northwest’s only uranium mines. At least for those who even know they exist.
Washington’s Hanford nuclear reservation, toxic birthplace of the bomb that set off the atomic age, routinely makes headlines. The Midnite Mine, just 100 miles to the north, is all but forgotten, a combination of denial, neglect and willful amnesia.
One of the world’s largest mining companies is trying to wash its hands of responsibility for a costly cleanup. The federal government is supposed to help sick uranium miners, but people on the reservation don’t even know the program exists.