Biden expected to create new Grand Canyon national monument to block uranium mining

President Biden is leaning toward designating a vast area near the Grand Canyon as a national monument to safeguard it from uranium mining, according to five people familiar with the plans.

Leaders of local tribes and environmentalists have spent years lobbying to protect areas near the park from potential uranium mining, which they say would threaten aquifers and water supplies. They have asked Washington to double the protected area around the canyon by including 1.1 million acres of public lands in a Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni Grand Canyon National Monument.

Biden is doing a tour through Arizona next week. The White House previously announced that the president would make climate change and his environmental agenda a focus of his stops on the tour.

Federal officials have started telling tribal and environmental groups to be available for a potential Grand Canyon announcement early next week, which would fall during Biden’s travel, said four of the people, all of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss an announcement not yet public.

White House officials had no immediate comment Friday.

Advocates have been lobbying for a monument designation in part to honor long-standing Native American connections to the Grand Canyon. For the Havasupai Tribe, Baaj Nwaavjo means “where tribes roam,” and for the Hopi Tribe, I’tah Kukveni means “our footprints.” Other tribes, including the Hualapai, which means “People of the Tall Pines,” also have advocated for the designation.

“This monument will show that we are beginning to protect the lands of the world,” Dianna Sue WhiteDove Uqualla, a Havasupai Tribal Council member, said in a statement anticipating the decision and provided by a coalition of monument advocates.

Federal officials have not yet made clear the borders they will set for the designation, the people said. But two said Biden officials in recent weeks have signaled support for the proposal. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland visited the land near the Grand Canyon in May, the type of visit that often is a precursor to a presidential proclamation.

Uranium mining interests have voiced opposition to the proposal, as have some ranchers in southern Utah who, in the winter, graze their cattle on public lands that are part of the proposed new monument area.

The decision would be the latest of several conservation moves made by Biden - often in partnership with Native Americans - to advance his pledge to protect 30 percent of U.S. lands and waters by 2030. The president has said he is committed to protecting wildlife and limiting the sources of planet-warming emissions in proclamations this year to protect a former military training and testing site in El Paso called Castner Range, the area around the Avi Kwa Ame (ah-VEE-kwah-may) sacred tribal site in southern Nevada, and U.S. waters in the Arctic Ocean.

The announcement also would help kick off an effort to promote Biden’s climate agenda, including progress from last year’s major climate-spending law, the Inflation Reduction Act. Biden is planning a three-state tour, with other stops in New Mexico and Utah, to talk about billions of dollars of investment that the law has prompted manufacturing companies to commit to making equipment that produces cleaner energy.

Arizona has become a major focus for Biden and other Democrats as they have gained ground politically in the state. The state has been one of the biggest beneficiaries of their big spending bills, with more than $8 billion in planned investment in a giant battery factory and other manufacturing developments, especially near Phoenix, according to the advocacy group Climate Power, which tracks such announcements.

The state also has experienced several emergencies related to climate change this year. It set heat records with temperatures above 110 degrees throughout July and has fought several neighboring states over water rights for supplies available from the shrinking Colorado River during an extreme drought across the region.

Although tribes and conservation advocates have long been concerned about mining near the Grand Canyon, the ongoing water crisis had led them to put more emphasis on several streams in the proposed monument that could be vulnerable.

Environmental groups point to a Colorado College poll from earlier this year that showed vast support among Arizonans for action on conservation and water protections. That includes 62 percent support for legislation to permanently ban new mining on public lands surrounding the canyon.

In 2012, the Obama administration blocked new mining on federal land in the area for 20 years. The Trump administration then unsuccessfully proposed reopening the land to new uranium mining in 2020. The 20-year ban expires in January 2032, leading advocates to call for permanent protections.

A coalition of several tribes, including the local Havasupai and Hopi, have advocated for Biden to make a national monument designation under the 1906 Antiquities Act. Rep. Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) and Arizona’s two senators - Mark Kelly, a Democrat, and Kyrsten Sinema, an independent - have pushed legislation to make the moratorium permanent but have faced opposition in the Republican-controlled House.

Uranium mining companies argue that they could develop the region responsibly and have fought such bans. They have called their work vital to combating climate change with emissions-free nuclear power. They also say domestic uranium mining is essential if the United States is to break Russia’s grip on the world’s supply of the fuel.

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Joshua Partlow contributed to this report.