Saturday, April 16, 2011
Form letters dominate comments on uranium EIS
The BLM has received 161,647 total letters as of April 7 on the uranium EIS for Northern Arizona, according to Chris Horyza, the project coordinator. However, of those, 152,723 are form letters, and 1717 are letters that either aren't about this project or are not comments.
BLM has received 483 unique letters, which is where the bulk of substantive comments will probably be found. The public comment period was extended to May 4 to accommodate requests from groups reviewing the vast amount of materials used to prepare the draft EIS.
AZGS is a formal cooperating agency with BLM on the EIS process. The debate over mineral exploration in northern Arizona is highly emotional with public perceptions that mines will be placed on the rim of the Grand Canyon, or even within the canyon. [right, former uranium mine in northern Arizona. Credit, VANE Minerals]