Red Lodge Clearinghouse

Under the settlement announced today, the Forest Service and VANE Minerals will withdrawal all applications and approvals for exploratory drilling for uranium in Kaibab National Forest.

The Center for Biological Diversity, the Sierra Club and the Grand Canyon Trust challenged the project, which involves drilling at 39 sites near the southern boundary of Grand Canyon National Park, amid concerns the Forest Service was improperly fast-tracking the project. The environmental groups contended in a lawsuit that the Forest Service used a categorical exclusion to expedite the project's approval and inappropriately excluded the public from the decisionmaking process.

The National Environmental Policy Act allows the Forest Service to use categorical exclusions to forgo environmental assessments for small-scale projects provided they are "routine actions" and limited in duration, but a federal judge in Arizona issued an injunction halting drilling in April.

While the agency still maintains that it was not in the wrong to issue a categorical exclusion, the settlement requires the Forest Service to conduct an environmental impact statement (EIS) for the exploratory drilling.

Taylor McKinnon, public lands director for the Center for Biological Diversity, said it is unlikely even a valid EIS would allow uranium mining near the Grand Canyon, thanks to a resolution the House Natural Resources Committee passed in June to withdraw the last remaining tracts of public land around Grand Canyon National Park from future uranium development.

"If the Forest Service and VANE Minerals chose to renew their attempt for exploration ... they're going to run aground on that new resolution," McKinnon said.

The resolution compels Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne to withdraw the last pockets of public land around the Grand Canyon from new uranium mining claims. The emergency resolution utilized authority granted to the committee under the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 to compel Interior to act.

But the Interior Department rejected the committee's motion on a technicality, explaining in a letter to Chairman Nick Rahall (D-W.Va.) that because Republicans walked out on the vote for the resolution, there was not a majority of committee members needed to reach a quorum. Rahall argued in his response that because the resolution goes directly from the committee to the department, the committee requires no less than one-third of its members to reach a quorum (E&E Daily, July 18).

A spokesman for the committee said there has been no development on the issue since the exchange of letters in July.

Calls to the Forest Service seeking comment were not returned by deadline.

Click here to view the settlement.

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