The Biden administration is considering designating a million acres of land surrounding the Grand Canyon as a new national monument, which would bar uranium mining in the area.
The move comes after years of lobbying by local Native American tribes and environment advocates for beefed-up protections against uranium mining in areas surrounding the second-most popular national park in the country.
White House spokesperson Abdullah Hasan told the Washington Post, which first reported the news about the designation, that no decisions have been made on the monument.
Native American tribes, who have long pushed for a monument honoring their connections to the Grand Canyon, have asked the White House to safeguard 1.1 million acres of public land surrounding the national park by declaring them the Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni Grand Canyon National Monument.
Interior Secretary Deb Haaland visited with tribal leaders in May to discuss conservation efforts.
In 2012, the Obama administration banned any new uranium mining in the area, but that order will expire in 2032, prompting fears among advocates of resumed mining activity that would threaten water supplies.
The new national monument designation, which Biden is expected to announce during a visit to Arizona next week, would make the mining prohibition permanent.
“There are some places in the world, and the Grand Canyon’s one of them, that deserve to be protected,” Arizona Rep. Raúl Grijalva, the Democratic ranking member on the House Committee on Natural Resources, told CNN. “I hope that’s where the president is leaning.”
The move has drawn the ire of the uranium mining industry, along with cattle ranchers whose stock graze on the public lands that would be part of the new monument area.
Yet in a June survey, three-fourths of Arizona voters said they supported designating public lands surrounding the Grand Canyon as part of a national monument.
This included 89 percent of Democrats, 73 percent of independents, and 65 percent of Republicans.
Grijalva, along with Arizona’s two senators, Mark Kelly, a Democrat, and Kyrsten Sinema, an independent, introduced legislation last month to designate the public lands surrounding the Grand Canyon a national landmark.